608 THE PAINTING OF HUMAN BONES AMONG THE INDIANS. 



shall mention both later on. It existed, in more or less separated 

 localities, in South America, as well as in North America and in 

 Mexico. 



The subject has been repeatedly brought to my attention in exam- 

 ining Indian bones in our various museums, and is so closely and in 

 several ways associated with various modes of accidental bone 

 staining that the two must, to a certain extent, be treated together. 



All pigmentation of human bones, including painting, is divisible 

 into five varieties. 



The first variety, which is quite connnon, includes the skeletons 

 that have been more or less stained or infiltrated accidentally by the 

 coloring matter of the earth in whicli they have lain. As pronounced 

 examples of this variety of staining I may mention the bones of a part 

 of Mr. Bandelier's collection from Bolivia (A. M. X. H.), which are 

 thoroughly stained and infiltrated by red clay. The accidental stain- 

 ing is mostly reddish or yellowish, but it may be dark, as Avas observed 

 by Professor Putnam in certain burial places in Tennessee, and as 

 can also be seen in a number of Florida skulls in the American Mu- 

 seum, and in the Costa Eica crania recovered from a deposit of vol- 

 canic ashes, now in the Carnegie Museum. Usiuilly in these cases all 

 the bones of the body are colored, and with little difference in inten- 

 sity. The cavities of the skull show the same or nearly the same 

 coloring as the parts more exposed. 



The second variety of stained bones consists generally of skulls 

 which had been stained green by salts of copper. These salts resulted 

 mostly from the decomposition of copper (or copper alloy) ornaments 

 or implements buried with the bodies. The staining in these cases, 

 as a rule, is but partial; the coloring is greenish and is deepest at the 

 nearest points of contact with the decomposed articles. The copper 

 salts discolor the skull even through the skin. There is in the 

 National Museum a comparatively fresh female skull from Oregon 

 (No. 150011), in which the borders of both orbits and some of the 

 neighboring parts, though still covered by their skin, are green. On 

 the closed eyelids of each eye are seen two circular impressions, appar- 

 ently made by some coins pressed into that position; the copper salts 

 resulting from the decomposition of these coins penetrated through 

 the opening of the eyelids as well as througli the skin and discolored 

 the bone beneath. There is another specimen of allied nature in the 

 collection from Utah. Green-stained skulls have been found in 

 numerous localities on both parts of (he continent, especially along 

 the nortliAvest coast. The Wasco skull Iumv pictured shows a char- 

 acteristic coloration of this nature (fig. 1, pi. ii). 



In the third and very frequent and widely distributed variety of" 

 stained bones, there is more or less staining of the skeleton by pig- 

 ments which Avere buried with the body. In most cases known to me. 



