Fig. 372.—Burial casket: Hale's Point, Tennessee.—¼.
I wish to add to the list of eccentric forms a singular example from the collection of J. R. Thibault, of Little Rock, Arkansas. As shown in Fig. 373 it is an oblong, trough-like vessel with flat projecting wings at the ends. It is extremely well-finished, with thin walls, symmetrical form, and high polish. The color is quite dark and the material is as usual. The engraved design consists of incised lines, which form a number of rectangular compartments extending around the exterior surface of the body. The wings are perforated. The form of this vessel suggests the wooden trays of some modern tribes. A similar example, which is illustrated in the Third Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, is of much inferior interest, being plain and rude.
Life forms.—A very large percentage of the bowls of this district are modified in such a way as to resemble, more or less closely, the form of some living creature—bird, beast, or reptile. Especial attention has been given to the heads. These are modeled in the round and attached to the rim or side, while other parts of the animal appear upon different portions of the vessel.
Fig. 373.—Trough-shaped vessel: Arkansas.—⅓.
[National Museum.]
It will be difficult to determine the origin of this curious practice. We shall not be able to say that it came from the elaboration of handles, simply to please fancy, for the reason that vessels of this class are rarely known to have had simple handles; nor from the modification of simple ornaments, as such were but little used. It is still less probable that animal forms were first modeled independently, and afterwards changed in such a way as to serve as vessels. There are no examples of animal forms in clay independent of vessels. It would not be consistent with primitive methods of procedure to copy nature direct, at least until some mystic significance had become attached to the form employed. It is possible, however, that the origin of this practice is not to be found within the plastic art itself, but in the shapes of antecedent and co-existent vessels of other materials in which life forms had been employed; or in the use of natural objects themselves as utensils, the original forms not having been lost sight of and having in time suggested the employment of other natural forms. Examples of the latter class may be cited.
Shells were primitive vessels. The hard cases of seeds and fruits were also much used. These were doubtless antecedent to vessels of clay. They were the natural models for the potter, the carver in wood or stone, and their employment as such served to lead up gradually to a more realistic and general use of natural shapes in works of art to which they were not essential features. The importance of the various animal forms was increased by their association with religious ideas. Nearly all the vessels of this class presented in the following illustrations come from the vicinity of Pecan Point, Arkansas.
Clay vessels imitating both marine and fresh-water shells are occasionally obtained from the mounds and graves of the Mississippi Valley. The conch shell appears to have been a favorite model, especially in its modified form, Fig. 374, a and b. The clam shell is also imitated in c and d. The more conventional forms of these vessels are exceedingly interesting, as they point out the tendencies and possibilities of modification. An instructive example illustrated in e has four groups of nodes, each, consisting of a large central node with four or five smaller ones, surrounding it, set about the rim, the conception being that of four shells joined in one vessel, with the noded apexes turned outward and the bases inward.