1896.J ^ ^ * [Cushing. 



plates, for example, there were four or five plates of pinna-shell, while 

 on one of the tortoise-bone plates themselves were circularly incised the 

 dolphin-like figures of two porpoises "wheeling" in the water — one 

 ?bove, the other below the medial suture of the bone, the line of which 

 evidently represented the rippling surface of the water, for the figure 

 above it was spiritedly depicted " blowing " — that is, with mouth open — 

 the one below it, with mouth closed, as though holding the breath. Now 

 from the fact that these differences were very marked in each set, and 

 that many of the tcrtoise-bone plates of each, whether still covered with 

 traces of the original epiderm or not, were so cut from the carapace at 

 the intersections of the sutures, as to include portions of from one to six 

 nearly equal -sized segments, I judged that possibly these sets of the 

 plates, at least, had been used in sacred games, or perhaps in processes 

 of divination — for abundant evidence that the tortoise and turtle were 

 here — as in the Orient, and elsewhere in America, — held sacred, occurred 

 with our finds in other parts of the court. 



It will be observed that suggestions as to quite diverse uses of both 

 the plummet-shaped objects and these plates, have been offered. In 

 some cases these diverse uses of single types were perfectlj^ manifest, 

 but in others merely inferential. Let me repeat that there was fre- 

 quently (and this was especially true of personal paraphernalia) evi- 

 dence as to quite varied use of identical forms. It is always difficult to 

 determine as specific, the purpose of a primitive art-form, for the high 

 degree of diff'erentiation characteristic of modern art was not developed 

 generally in primitive art. It is particularly difficult to distinguish be- 

 tween tlie purely ceremonial and the more or less ornamental in 

 such personal paraphernalia as I have been describing. To a certain 

 extent all personal adornments, so called, of early peoples, are cere- 

 monial or sacred, since the most rare and beautiful objec*s are like to be 

 regarded by them as also the most effective charms or medicine 

 potencies, if only because of their rarity, their substances and tlieir colors. 



As typical of primitive ornament proper I may mention the beads and 

 pendants and certain of the gorgets of shell which we discovered. 

 While it is true that even such objects were probably, as with other 

 primitive peoples, supposed to be sacred, — for instance, on account of 

 their substance and white color, because related by appearance to the 

 shell-like white foam of the blue sea, and to the light or white splendor 

 of day in the blue sky — the fact that they w^ere found indiscriminatelj' 

 associated with other remains indicated equally indiscriminate use — use, 

 that is, as ornaments more or less in our acceptation of the term. The 

 commonness of the material of which they were made caused them to be 

 prized less on account of their nature and beauty, than on account of the 

 labor they represented. This is also indicated by the fact that their forms 

 (wrought in species of shell here more commsn tlian elsewhere on the 

 gulf coast), are nevertheless very widely distributed throughout other 

 portions of Florida and all the Southern and Central Mississippi States; 



