Cushing.J ^^jD ry^ov. 6, 



Plate XXXIV. 



Fig. 1, in Plate XXXIV, represents a tablet of rivean cypress wood, 

 sliaved with shark-tooth blades to a uniform thickness of less than half 

 an inch, — the characteristic marks of this work being visible all over the 

 iinpainted portions of both sides of the board. It was found by myself, 

 standing slantingly upright — in section 21 (Plate XXXI), the painted 

 side fortunately protected by its obliciue position. It was marvelously 

 fresh when first uncovered, — the wood, of a bright yellowish-brown 

 color, and the painting vivid and clear. It is sixteen and a half inches 

 in length by eight and a half inches in width, and was slightly concavo- 

 convex from side to side. Upon the hollow side is painted the figure of 

 a crested bird, with four circlets falling from his mouth. A black bar, 

 and over it the outlines, in white, of an animal, is represented as under 

 the talons ; and a long, double-pointed object, — probably a double- 

 bladed paddle, — as borne aloft under the right wing of the figure. 



The drawing here shown was made from a very obscure photo- 

 graphic print, and does not, therefore, adequately show some of the 

 minutest, yet most significant details visible in either the original or in 

 the fine full sized painting made by Mr. Sawyer when the specimen was 

 freshly taken up from the muck. In the first place, the bands and spacer 

 of white on the figure, enclosed very significant zones of clear light blue, 

 — on the crest, neck, body and wings. They do not show here, but 

 they made it possible to identify this primitive bird painting as 

 that of the jay, or else of the king fisher, or more probably still, 

 of a crested mythic bird or bird-god combining attributes of both.* 



*,In reference to certain scarred or crest-marked skulls found by us in the burial mound 

 at Tarpon Springs, I wrote the Chief Ethnologist of the Bureau of American Ethnology, 

 Prof. W J McGee, as follows : 



" , It is a well-known fact that certain classes of men among the Southern 



tribes, — notably those of the Maskokian confederacy, the Creeks especially,— wore the 

 hair in erect crests, cropped and narrow in front, broadening rearwardly to the back of 

 the head, where it was allowed to grow to the normal length, and whence it depended 

 in each case, either naturally like a tail, or bound about with fur or stuffs, to form the so- 

 called scalp-lock. The researches of Gatschet make it evident that this was the special 

 hair-dress of the Warrior-class (see portrait of Tomochichi, a Yamasee war-chief, in Url- 

 sperger, vol. i). He finds that in the Creek language, Tas-sa (HiehitiTds-si), signifies alike 

 ' jay or king-fisher ' ( ' crested bird ' ) and ' hair-crest ;' while Ttis-si ka-ya signifies 'Warrior ; 

 (lit., 'crest standing up'— that is, 'he of the erectile crest'). From other sources it 

 appears that as the jay was regarded as more powerful in resisting even birds of prey 

 than were any otlier birds of his kind, —as was also the king-fisher, so nearly resembling 

 him, more powerful than other birds of his kind, — because of their shrill and startling 

 cries and their habits of erecting their hair-like crests when alarmed in defending, or 

 ■wrathful in offending their kind. Wherefore, the crest of the jay and of the male king- 



