Gushing.] 4d-) [Nov. G, 



ears so that the polished conical plate formed from tlie spire of the shell, 

 showed like a convex disc, in front. 



The central portion of such a head-frontlet as is shown turned side- 

 wise over the forehead of this tigure, was found by me between sections 

 20 and 29, near the fine figurehead of an osprey or fish liawk. It con- 

 sisted, not of four, but of six, slender yellow wooden slats, shaved as 

 thin as cardboard, and lying side by side, — in which position relative 

 to one another, they had been secured by fine threads, alternately 

 woven over and under the slats, precisely as seems to be indicated in 

 this primitive delineation. The slats that I found, however, had been 

 figured over with black paint (and probably other colors), but the de- 

 sign could no longer be made out. 



One other feature in this figure deserves interpretation in the light of 

 our finds — the representations of hair on various parts of it. On such 

 of our specimens as exhibited hair painting, the mode of representation 

 was precisely such as that exhibited around, (1) the pointed flap at the 

 hip of the figure ; (2) on the cross-marked, semicircular band at the back 

 of the head, as well as, (3) in the centre of the object that stands 

 slantingly up therefrom ; and finally, (4) on the tail-like tassel stiffly de- 

 pending from the back of the head, as well as (5) over the crest of the 

 hand-mask held below. All this makes it clear that (1) the flap in ques- 

 tion, was that of a beaded and otherwise decorated girdle-pouch of fur ; 

 that the semicircular band (2) was a hair-crest, while the object (3) 

 slanting up from it, was an elaborate hair-knot, attached to either side of 

 which was a thin semicircular plate, — in this case, probablj*, of mica : for 

 among the keys, silmilar, curious plates, were made either of gleaming 

 pinna shell, or of rubbed down, and highly polished pecten shells ; 

 while in ancient Shawnee mounds, identical forms have been found, 

 made, however, from the palmate portions of elk horns, and furnished 

 with teeth or narrow combs, unmistakably to facilitate insertion into the 

 hair. Finally (4) the dark tassel is simply a plaited scalp-lock or queue, 

 the end cut oft' squarely, and the hair standing out, therefore, like the 

 bristles of a much spread brush. 



Yet other details in this and kindred figures of mound builder art, could 

 be explained equally well by comparisons with our finds as observed in 

 situ, but enough has been said, I trust, to render quite conclusive the 

 close and actual relation, if not the identity, of our key-dweller art, with 

 typical examples like this, of mound builder art — such relation as I have 

 not hesitated to suggest in the text. 



