1896.] ^"1 [Gushing. 



as aforesaid ; but no other man, woman or child must touch or taste of 

 this sort of drink ; of wliich they sat sipping, chattering, and smoking 

 tobacco, or some other herb instead thereof, for tlie most part of the 

 day." 



A much fuller account of this solemn ceremonial, of the making and 

 administering of the "Black-Drink," as well as of its meaning at almost 

 every stage, is given in the admirable annals of William Bartram — a 

 former and honored member of this Society — whose works are, indeed, 

 the source of more definite information regarding the Southern Indians 

 than those of any other one of our earlier authorities on the natives of 

 northerly Florida and contiguous States. 



Three other objects in the curious lot of sacerdotal things I have been 

 describing were especially typical ; for closelj^ related, but varied 

 forms of them were found at several other points throughout the area 

 we excavated. One was a small, square, paddle-like tablet, about six 

 inches long, three inches wide, and five-eighths of an inch thick. At one 

 end, presumably the lower, was a sort of tenon ; that is, the board was 

 squai'ely cut in from either side to the middle, where a projection about 

 an inch wide and a little more than an inch long was left, as though 

 either for insertion into a mortice, or to facilitate attachment to some- 

 thing else, otherwise. A much larger tablet or board, an inch thick and 

 six or seven inches wide, by nearly two feet in length, also tenoned in 

 like manner at the lower end, lay on edge near by. Along the middle 

 of one face of this tablet, two elongated figures were cleanly cut in or 

 outlined, end to end, figures that seemed to represent shafts with round 

 terminal knobs — indicated by circles — the sides of the shafts being 

 slightly incurved, so that the figures as a whole greatly resembled the 

 conventional delineations of thigh bones as seen in the art-works of 

 other primitive peoples — in, for example, the codices, and on the monu 

 ments, of Central America. Another tablet of this sort, somewhat 

 wider, longer, and more carefully finished by the shaving down of its 

 surfaces with shark-tooth blades, showed likewise along the middle of 

 one face similar devices, carved, however, in relief, as though to repre- 

 sent a pair of thigh bones laid lengthwise and end to end upon, or 

 rather, set into the centre of one side of the board. 



Near the first described of these curious objects which I regarded as 

 probably mortuary, was another tablet, evidently of related character ; 

 but it was much more elaborate. The lower portion was tenoned 

 and in general outline otherwise resembled the tablets I have de- 

 scribed ; but above this portion, midway from end to end, it was 

 squarely notched in at either side, and above the stem thus formed, 

 extended, in turn, a shovel-shaped head, or nose, so to call it, as may be 

 better perceived by reference to Fig. 2, PI. XXXIV, which represents 

 the most perfect of these objects that we found. The specimen in question 

 was between three and four feet long, although less than a foot in 

 width. The lower portion was not more than an inch in thickness, and 

 was uniformly flat, the upper portion — head or nose, as I have called 



