1895.] ^C^O [Gushing. 



fisher, lie called my attention to the fact that among the Maskokian tribes 

 of Georgia, and of contiguous southern regions, the name of a leader 

 among the recognized warriors signified "He of the Rising Crest," and 

 that this name was also that of the jay whose crest is seen to rise when he 

 Is wrathful or fighting. I am therefore convinced that this figure, so often 

 found in the south and in other parts of Florida (and usually identified 

 as that of the ivory-billed woodpecker), really represented the bird-god 

 of war of these ancient people of the keys, his dominion over the water 

 being signified, as 1 have suggested, by his double-bladed paddle ; his 

 dominion over the four quarters of the world, by the four word-signs 

 represented as falling from his open mouth — for these circular signs, as 

 we have seen before, were not only drilled in the margin of gorgets 

 symbolic of the four quarters, but were also inscribed upon some of the 

 tablets I have called " Ancestral." 



Other, smaller, thin painted boards were found, but it was evident 

 that they were lids or other portions of boxes, — some of which, indeed, 

 we found nearly complete. One of these lids was not more than seven 

 inches in length, by four inches in width. Upon one side of it was 

 drawn, in even, fine lines of black (as approximately shown in Fig. 6, PI. 

 XXXIV), the representation of a horned crocodile. Again, in this as in 

 the painted tablet, may be seen a clear indication of a knowledge of per- 

 spective in drawing, on the part of the primitive artists who designed it. 

 This is apparent in the treatment of the legs, of the serrated tail, and of the 

 vanishing scales both at the back and under the belly of the figure. Such 

 knowledge of deUnative art in the rovnd — remarkable with a people so 

 primitive — was, I believe, derived by them from their still more remark- 

 able facility in relief work, in wood carving ; and this, in turn, originated, 

 I think, in their possession of those admirable carving-tools of shark teeth 

 that I have previously described The little lid in question was found 

 still in connection with the ends and with one side of a jewel-box, in 

 which had been placed several precious things, among them, two sets of 

 ear buttons and choice, carved wooden and shell discs. It was enfolded 

 within decayed matting containing a bundle or pack, in which were also 

 nine ceremonial adzes, a pair of painted shells, a knife with animistically 

 carved handle, and other articles — all evidently sacred, or for use in the 

 making of sacred objects. The little figure of the crocodile painted on 

 this lid, was of interest in another waj^ Being horned, it at once 

 called to mind the "horned alligators," described by Bartram and 

 others, as painted upon the great public buildings of the Creeks or Mas- 

 kokian Indians of the States just north of Florida. Upon another box- 

 lid or tablet was painted in outline, a graceful and realistic figure of a 

 doe, and along the middles of the ingeniously rabbetted sides and ends of 

 these boxes — whether large or small — were invariably painted double 

 lines, represented as tied with figure-of-eight knots, midway, or else 

 fastened with clasps of oliva shell — as though to mythically join these 

 parts of the boxes and secure their contents. 



