1S96.] 44j [Gushing. 



notch of the first l)lade, in such wise that a weapon exactly resembling 

 this one, in general outline, was produced. From such a form of weapon 

 the double, semicircular bladed battle-axe of copper or bronze which pre- 

 vailed at the time of the Conquest in both Peru and Isthmean, or Meridian 

 America, appears also to have been derived ; as well as the form of club 

 I have described and here shown to have been almost as characteristic 

 of the kej^s (and, ceremonially, or still further derivatively, even of the 

 southern mounds) as it was originatively, of the country of its nativity, 

 namely. South America. 



Much of like import may be said of the plaited leg-bands represented 

 on the human figure painted in the shell I have exhibited and described. 

 These bands are drawn as passing around, — not the ankles, as at first 

 sight appears, — but around the legs, just below the knees and above the 

 calves ; and we know^ that both the Arawaks and the Caribs had the 

 curious practice of tightly bandaging the legs in this fashion, in order, 

 it is alleged, to enlarge the calves ; but whether this is so or not, we see 

 that the practice was typically South American ; and I may add that it 

 prevailed noM'here in Northern America except apparently here among 

 the keys and in the mound region, and that in this last, it was evidently 

 a survival ; for it may be seen that the mound plates, such as I have 

 shown you by illustration, represent figures wearing not only wristlets 

 and leg-bands, as in this painting, — and as worn by the South American 

 and Antillean Indians,— but also, armlets or bands above the elbows, 

 and anklets or bands heloio the calves, as worn bj' so many central North 

 American Indians, when first encountered. 



Now I have mentioned these comparatively inconspicuous characteris- 

 tics, not simply because they are the only evidences that might be ad- 

 duced in support of my supposition, but because they are the readiest 

 at hand and the most easily illustrated, of many such evidences. 



I have not been unmindful of the fact that Prof. Holmes pointed out, 

 some years ago, an apparent Caribbean element in the decoration of cer- 

 tain ancient Floridian potteries, and although I surely referred to the 

 subject in the course of my address, I evidently did not make its signifi- 

 cance as clear as I trust my published notes will render it. Meanw^liile 

 we are certainly off of debatable ground when we study or consider the 

 collections of pottery made by vis in the northerly portion of the State, 

 — at Tarpon Springs, — or those made by Mr. Clarence Moore in easterly 

 portions of the State (as compared, in various ways, with the collections 

 of corresponding wooden-ware vessels gathered by us from the southern 

 keys) in reference to their relationship to primitive art-technique and 

 symbolism ; as influenced by, and inherited from, a given environment. 



The forms of these terra-cotta vessels, and particularly the decorations 

 upon many of them, were eloquent of at least one thing. — that their 

 types had originated among a people who had once, — ignorant of pot- 

 tery-making, — made their vessels of shells, of simple gourds, and of 

 wood ; and that those primitive vessels of theirs had been more or less 



PROC. AMER. PHILOS. SOC. XXXV. 153. 3d. PRINTED AUGUST 10, 1897. 



