362 ANCIENT ABOEIGINAL TRADE IN NORTH AMERICA. 



The preceding quotations, to which others of similar purport might 

 be added, will suffice to show how much mica was valued by the 

 former inhabitants of the Mississippi valley ; indeed, the frequent and 

 peculiar occurrence of this mineral in the mounds almost might justify 

 the conjecture that it was believed to be invested with some mysterious 

 significance, and played a part in the superstitious rites of the abori- 

 gines. Mica has been found in a worked and raw state in districts 

 where it is not furnished by nature, and therefore may be safely classed 

 among the aboriginal articles of exchange. In the State of Ohio, to 

 which my observations chiefly refer, mica is not found in situ, and it is 

 presumed that the mineral discovered in that State was derived from 

 the southern spurs of the Alleghany Mountains. Yet, it may have 

 been brought from greater distances, and from various i)oints, to its 

 present places of occurrence. 



SLATE. 



Various kinds of ancient Indian stone manufactures frequently con- 

 sist of a greenish slate, which is often marked with darker i)arallel oi 

 concentric stripes or bauds, giving the objects made of it a very pretty 

 appearance. This slate is not very hard, but of close grain and therefore 

 easily worked and polished. The objects made of this stone, which occur 

 on the surface as well as in mounds, are generally executed with great 

 care and regularity, and it is much to be regretted that the destination of 

 some of them is not quite well known. Among the latter are certain 

 straight tubes of cylindrical and other shapes and various lengths, 

 which sometimes terminate in a kind of " mouth-piece." While the 

 smaller ones, which often measure only a few-inches, have been thought 

 to represent articles of ornament, or amulets, a different purpose has 

 been ascribed to the longer specimens. Schoolcraft appears to consider 

 these latter as telescopic instruments Avhich the ancient inhabitants 

 used for observing the stars. This view, I think, has been generally re- 

 jected. It is far more probable that these tubes, in part at least, were 

 implements of the sorcerers or medicine-men, who employed them in 

 their pretended cures of diseases. They applied one end of the tube to 

 the suffering part of the patient and sucked at the other end, in order 

 to draw out, as it were, the morbid matter, which they afterwards 

 feigned to eject with many gesticulations and contortions of the body. 

 CoKcal calls tlie tubes used by the medicine-men of the Florida Indians 

 a kind of shepherd's flute {une espdce de chalumeau) and the character of 

 some of the stone implements in question that have been found cer- 

 tainly justifies this comparison.* Kohl saw, as late as 1855, one of the 

 above-mentioned cures performed among the Ojibways of Lake Supe- 



* Coreal, Voyages aus Indes Occideutales, Amstertlam, 1722, Vol. I, p. 39. 



