Gushing.] ^'^^ [Nov. (i, 



strated by the fact that if we study the relation of tlie primitive vessels 

 ou which they occur to other things, with wliich, for example, they are 

 sometimes found, we shall speedily discover that each curious mask 

 upon such vessel is but the exaggerated expression of a character or 

 being it was sought to associate in some waj^ — as by fixing its potency — 

 Avith the "being" and purpose, of the pot itself, and this is especially 

 true of vessels designed for ceremonial use. 



A strikingly perfect example of the kind of animal carving I have 

 earlier characterized, was the figurehead of a deer, which Gause and I 

 found near the edge of the northernmost of the shell benches along the 

 western border of the court (in Sec. 22, PI. XXXI) It was lying, in a 

 V ery natural position, on its side. Thus seen in the midst of the dark 

 muck, its light-hued painted lines vividly revealed by contrast, its large, 

 deep brown eyes wide open and lifelike — for the pupils were formed of 

 polished, cleverly inserted discs of tortoise shell — it was the most win- 

 some and beautiful figure of the head or face of a doe or deer that I have 

 ever seen, albeit so conventionally treated. The illustration of this fig- 

 urehead shown in No. 2 of Plate XXXV, by no means does justice to 

 the graceful lines of the original carving, or to the fineness of the painted 

 decorations thereon, for the view is too directly full-faced. The ear- 

 pieces had been attached to the back of the head by means of cords pass- 

 ing over pegs thrust through them and then through bifurcated holes at 

 the points of attachment to the head-piece, in such manner that they could 

 be used as pulleys for the realistic working of these parts ; and the un 

 painted edge, as well as peg-holes all around the rearward portion of 

 the head, plainly indicated that the skin of a deer or some flexible sub- 

 stitute therefor, had been also .attached to it, the more perfectly to dis- 

 guise the actor who no doubt endeavored in this disguise to personate 

 the character of the deer-god or dawu-god, the primal incarnation of 

 which this figure was evidently designed to represent. 



A mask of purely human form was also found not far away. It had 

 evidently been associated with the figurehead in such ceremonials as I 

 have referred to. At any rate, like the figurehead itself, it had over the 

 eyebrows a crescent-shaped mark — which seems, by the way, to have 

 been the forehead-symbol of all sorts of game-animals amongst these 

 people, as betokened b}- its presence on the forehead of the rabbit carv- 

 ing and of other similar animal carvings. It also had the tapered, sharp- 

 pointed white marks or patches along either side of the nose above the 

 nostrils, observable on the snout of the deer head, and the four sets of 

 three lines radiatingly painted around the eyes to represent winkers. 

 This latter characteristic in the eye-painting of the deer figurehead, is 

 very noteworthy ; for it would seem that it was intended to symbolize, by 

 means of the four sets of three lines, not merely the eyelashes of the 

 deer, but also rays, of the "eye of day" or the sun. This I infer the 

 more unhesitatingly because, according to the accounts given by more 

 than one earlj' writer on Florida, the deer must have been regarded 



