THE DELAWARE INDIAN AS AN ARTIST. 



589 



and many an interment was without any object of stone, bone, or 

 clay. On the other hand, in some lonely spot, some little knoll in 

 a forest, or prominent ridge of earth extending out upon a level 

 meadow tract, a single grave has been found, where objects of a 

 high grade of workmanship and suggesting a distinct advance 

 over the historic Indian occurred. The whole character of the 

 interment was different from that of the average or ordinary In- 

 dian grave. There is obvious danger, it is true, from drawing too 

 broad a conclusion from a few such graves. Doubtless the Indian 

 " king " would be interred with greater pomp and with finer pos- 

 sessions than the Indian warrior ; but in such instances as I have 

 mentioned, the objects found have been different in character as 

 well as of superior workmanship. In such a matter the best that 

 can be done, with our present stock of knowledge, is to express, 

 tentatively of course, that this or that condition was probably 

 true ; and surveying the whole valley, after twenty years of tramp- 



Fk 



-Handle of Wooden Spoon. Modern Chippewa. 



ing about it from the mountains to the sea, I have been forcibly 

 impressed with the evidence, first, of man's antiquity in this 

 region, of his gradual progress from a very primitive to a more 

 cultured condition, and of retrogression at the dawn of the his- 

 toric period. 



Much might be said of the skill of the Delaware Indian in all 

 of the many phases of his industry, but I propose only to speak of 

 him as an artist. A love of bright colors was always, and is, a 

 prominent characteristic, and probably the first attempt at per- 

 sonal adornment was the attachment to the person of feathers 

 and small stones of bright hues. Mica and quartz crystals are 

 common in graves. The glitter and glistening of these would be 

 sure to attract. But what of the next step, that of shaping from 

 formless masses objects that strike the fancy of the wearer ? To 



