AMERICAN ABORIGINAL PIPES AND SMOIvING CUSTOMS. 523 



Valley, by Mr. Henry W. Hensliaw, from the standpoint of the natural- 

 ist, based chietly on the famous Sqnier and Davis collection, in which 

 he sums up his conclusions under four different heads as follows: 



First. That among the carvings from the mounds which can be iden- 

 tified, there are no representations of birds or animals not indigenous 

 to the ^Mississippi Valley, and conseijuently that the theories of origin 

 for the mound builders suggested by the presence in the mounds of 

 carvings of supposed foreign animals are without basis. 



Second. That a large majority of the carvings, instead of being, as 

 assumed, exact likenesses from nature, possess in reality only the most 

 general resemblance to the 

 birds and animals of the re- 

 gion which they were doubt- 

 less intended to represent. 



Third. That there is no 

 reason for believing that the 

 masks and sculptures of 

 human faces are more correct 

 likenesses than are the ani- 

 mal carvings. 



Fourth. That the state of 

 art culture reached by the 

 mound builders, as illustrated 

 by their carvings, has been 

 greatly overestimated.' 



These views can hardly be 

 successfully combated by any- 

 one at all familiar with the 

 illustrations of the mound 



pipes ujdess it be contended that tlie illustrations themselves are defect- 

 ive. The casts of these famous pipes, a complete set of which is in the 

 U. S. National Museum, suggest that the illustrations have done full 

 justice to the objects represented. Mr. Henshaw in his criticism ques- 

 tioning the genuineness of the elephant i)ii)es appears to have fallen into 

 error in saying that the tails are absent in each of these pipes, and his 

 reference from a naturalist's standpointnaturallyignores the technolog- 

 ical consideration of the subject, as well as the contemporaneity of 

 metal in the mounds, especially copper, and also the many asserted dis- 

 coveries of objects of undeniably European manufacture, such as an 

 implement of copper being found in the same mound with one of these 

 elephant pipes. All of which are of course important bits of evidence 

 in any summary going to make up a verdict as to the artistic ability of 

 those who made the pipes. 



While concurring entirely with Henshaw's summary, under the four 

 heads, and while considering the same conclusively proven in favor of 



'Animal Carvings from the Mounds of the Mississippi Valley, Second Annual 

 Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, p. 166. 



Fiir. i;!6. 



MOUND ELEPHANT PIPE. 



After a photograph. Original in colIeL-tion of the Davenport Academy of 

 Natural Scient-es. 



