Cushing.] 400 [Nov. 6, 



art was, iii these wiclelj^ separnted regions, so identical in tliis particular, 

 that we cannot but assign to it a single cultural origin. That is, we 

 must look upon it as having originated in one or the other, the northern 

 or the southern portion of the area throughout which it was so generally 

 distributed ; as having spread from that single centre in the one or the 

 other direction. Now the bulk of evidence at hand favors the belief that 

 the place of origin of the peculiarities I have noted, was here in the far 

 south ; probably, among the keys. 



Be this for the moment as it may, the enormous distance to which 

 these characteristic art forms had spread after long-continued and full 

 development, must have required a still more enormous length of 

 time. This is a further and a much more impressive indication of the ver}' 

 great antiquity of the art in question. For the spread of special art 

 forms in definite relation to particular implements or figures is, among 

 primitive peoples, not so frequent or facile as is usually supposed ; and 

 when in rare cases it does occur, it is effected with exceeding slowness. 

 We may account for the spread of arts among primitive peoples in two 

 ways ; first, by barter and intercourse, conquest and adoption ; or, 

 second, by actual derivation or descent , that is, by actual spreading to 

 a greater or lesser extent, of the people among whom the art prevails 

 and originated. While we may hold that, in the wide diffusion of arts 

 common alike to the keys and the mounds, both of these causes acted to 

 some extent, still, if we consider a little further the way in which arts 

 spread among primitive peoples — why slowly — we can, I think, arrive 

 at a more definite understanding of the question as to which of the two 

 causes above stated was the more active, and as to whether the art 

 traveled from the Gulf northward, or from the north southward. First, 

 then, the mere fact that early peoples attribute to distinctive forms par- 

 ticular existences and potencies, indicates that one people Avould be 

 slow to adopt unchanged from another, an unaccustomed form, even of 

 so simple a thing as an implement, and especially as a weapon or a cere- 

 monial object; since the unaccustomed form of the first would be sup- 

 posed by them to render it inefficient ; of the second, unsafe ; and of 

 the third, diabolical ; while all would be held to be unsuited, because unre- 

 lated to themselves. It must be constantly borne in mind that these 

 ancient theorists believed their implements and weapons and amulets to 

 1)e alive, and felt that the powers of these things were not only 

 strengthened, but were also restricted to or rendered safe for, special 

 uses, as well as made to be related to their makers, hy their forms or by 

 the decorations or figures placed upon them, especially when these were 

 highly symbolic. It is for this reason more than any other, tliat primi- 

 tive peoples cling so to forms, and are so chary of borrowing new 

 forms of implements or weapons, etc. When they do borrow the 

 fashions of such things, they proceed at once to cover or invest them 

 with the peculiar decorative or symbolic devices that they are accus- 

 tomed to associate with tlie same kinds of thiniis in time-honored use 



