PREHISTORIC ART. 483 



the King", Charles X, purchased for the Louvre in 1825. Its peculiar! 

 ties were first noticed by M. Adrien de Lougperier.^ The same article 

 was reproduced in his work.^ This bronze is classed as No. 826, iu the 

 catalogue of the Museum.^ It is thus described: 



Kust of a slave whose head and face are entirely shaved. The cars are large aud 

 liauging. The top of the skull opens by means of a hinge, which is attached to a 

 cover. Above the ears are plated on either side rings in which are adjusted a swing- 

 ing handle, which represents a branch or twig with buds. 



It is first to be remarked that the object is what was called a Roman 

 sitiila, being a backet, jug, or kettle, which might be used as shown, 

 for carrying liquids. This style of object is essentially Roman, and from 

 it and the general appearance of the object, its patine, etc., it was the 

 opinion of M. de Cueleneer, professor of the university at Ghent, by 

 whom my attention was first called to it, that the object belonged, or 

 could be assigned to, the century before the Christian era. 



The author once lived in Ghent, where he was acquainted with M. 

 de Cueleneer, who has been twice in Washington, and during his visit 

 to the National Museum became much interested in the Catlin Gallery 

 of Indian Portraits, of which the United States National Museum 

 published a catalogue tilling the entire report of the year 1885. The 

 author procured a copy of this report for M. de Cueleneer, who has 

 used it with good effect in his notice of th.e bronze situla now under 

 consideration. 



It was his opinion, although this bronze piece was made probably in 

 Italy during the first century prior to the Christian era, that it repre- 

 sented, or may have represented, a red Indian from America. In sup- 

 port of this contention he presented about a dozen figures of Indian 

 heads, taken principally from the National Museum Catalogue of the 

 Catlin Gallery; and he called special attention to the similarity of 

 the anatomical and somatologic characteristics and peculiarities repre- 

 sented in both. He says of the bronze head that the skull is dolichoce- 

 phalic, the forehead is retreating, the ears are large and low aud the 

 lobes adherent, the eyebrows are strongly arched, the nose is aquiline, 

 the angles of the mouth are turned n]) and the lips large, the under jaw 

 is rounded, the occiput is protuberant. The discovery of this bronze 

 afforded M. de Longperier in a partial, and M. de Cueleneer in a com- 

 plete manner, the opportunity to correlate and explain certain frag- 

 ments of notes by Cornelius Nepos which seemed to have always 

 troubled and discoiujerted commentators. He speaks of the "Indian 

 slaves" as liaving been cast away by the sea on the coast of Germany. 

 These fragmentary notes of Cornelius Nei)os have been preserved by 

 Pomponius Mela and by Pliny, the naturalist. 



' Bull, de la Soc. imp. des Antiq. de France, 1859, jip. 83-85 (t. XXA'I des Memoires). 

 2 Volume II, pp. 152, 453. 



'Notice des bronzes jintiqnes exi)oses dans les galerics de Musee Imperial du 

 hoiivre, 1"- partie, 1868, p. 143. 



