Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 4.djvu/131

Rh of the calumets and bird-shaped pipes are given. The manufacture of ancient pottery is fully considered; and, in the accompanying plates, the prevailing forms of terra-cotta vessels, and the different styles of ornamentation, are beautifully portrayed. The use of pearls as ornaments is made the subject of an independent chapter. It is curious to observe what an important part these little glistening beads played among the ornament-loving peoples of this semitropical region. The work concludes with an examination of the primitive employment of shells as ornaments, implements, and as a recognized medium of exchange.

It will be observed that nearly every chapter in this work forms an independent essay, complete in itself, and elaborate of its kind. The originality of the work, both as regards its general plan and the manner of its execution, will be at once remarked. The freshness and vigor of the illustrations are admirable. The typical objects represented have never been figured before, the originals, or nearly all of them, forming part of the author's collection, and most of them having been obtained by him in situ. Accurate pen-drawings were first made under his personal supervision and then these were reproduced by the photo-lithographic process—all errors of transfer by an engraver being thus avoided. As a necessary consequence, these illustrations are unusually correct. They possess an individuality which is very attractive. In grouping the objects selected for illustration, marked taste has been displayed. The plan of the work we regard as natural and judicious. In that portion of North America constituting the field of these archæological researches we have only a stone age. Here and there copper implements and ornaments appear, but that material in its manufacture was regarded and treated by the primitive workmen not as a metal capable of being moulded under the influence of heat, but simply as a malleable stone. Chipped and ground stone implements are found in juxtaposition; and, in their uses, are seemingly of equal antiquity. Any attempt, therefore, in the present state of the inquiry, to pursue the classifications usually adopted by European archæologists appeared both unnecessary and improper. Realizing this fact, the author has grouped and described the antiquities of the Southern Indians principally with respect to their uses. Monuments, implements, manufactures, and ornaments, are invested with such explanations as are suggested by the early narratives, by peculiar characteristics, by intelligent comparison, and by the special circumstances under which they were found. The classification adopted has been, in many instances, general, and the author has sought to avoid an error into which writers on kindred subjects are prone to fall, namely, a too rigid classification, and an attempt to refer each relic to some definite use. So uncertain is the boundary line which separates well-recognized types; so varied are the modifications of established forms; so great was the poverty of the manufacturers; and so various the purposes to which the same rude tool may have been applied in conducting early mechanical operations, that the candid observer may often confess himself at a loss to determine the positive object for which a given specimen may have been intended.

In his concluding observations the author says: "Upon a careful comparison of the antiquities of the Southern nations with those of the Northern tribes, we think a greater variety and excellence of manufacture, a more diversified expression of fancy in ornamentation, a more careful selection of beautiful material, a superior delicacy and finish in the fabrication of implements, both chipped and polished, a more pronounced exhibition of combined labor in the erection of tumuli, a more despotic form of government, a greater permanency of seats, a more liberal expenditure of care and attention in the cultivation of the soil, a more decided system of worship, and a more dignified observance of the significant festivals and funeral-customs, may fairly be claimed for the former. We are acquainted with no region north and east of the Rio Grande in which the earliest exhibitions of skill and taste in the manufacture of implements and ornaments of stone, shell, and bone, are more varied and attractive, where pipe-making claimed such special attention, and where the antique pottery is indicative of such diversity of form and ornamentation, and possessed of such homogeneousness of composition and durability."