Fig. 453.—Positions of feet.
One of these vases has a cross painted upon the breast of the personage represented. The kneeling position, taken in connection with the cross, leads to the thought that perhaps the potter lived in the period of the French missionary, and attempted to model him in clay. There is, however, no indication of costume, and the painting, with the exception of the cross, is in a purely aboriginal style of design. The ground color of the vase is, as usual, a moderately dark gray brown, and the painted figures are laid on in thick, blackish paint. Lines partially encircle the eyes, and extend down over the cheek to the neck, and a line passes around the mouth and extends down over the chin, neck, and chest to the base of the body. The horizontal bar of the cross connects the nipples. The shoulder blades and the hands are also painted black. The back is very curiously modeled and painted.
Fig. 454.—Effigy bottle: Arkansas.—⅓. Fig. 455.—Effigy bottle: Arkansas.—⅓.
There are in the collection a number of specimens that do not come under either of the preceding heads. Of these I may mention three small figures from Paducah, Kentucky, which represent a snake, a man, and a deer. They are very rudely done, and are possibly modern work.
Attention should be called to some small specimens resembling toadstools or mushrooms in shape, some of which may have been stoppers for bottles, while others could have served as implements in some of the arts. One of these pieces has a distinctly vitrified surface. Its age, however, cannot be determined.
There are a few rude pipes of usual forms and of no special interest.
The comparative scarcity of these articles, so plentiful in some of the mound districts, is certainly worthy of the attention of archæologists.