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A N (' 1 E N 'I' M O N L' M E X T S 



animals. The celebrated " Triune vessel," which has been made the basis of so 

 much unprofitable speculation, was of the latter character, and represented three 

 human heads joined at tiie back. They are variously ornamented, and sometimes 

 painted with red and brown colors. Their form seems generally to have been 

 suggested by that of the gourd. 



Fig. 



Fig. 72, Number 1. This vessel, clearly of modern workmanship, was found a 

 few feet below the surface, near the town of Hamilton, Butler county, Ohio. It 

 was placed beside a human skeleton, and contained a single muscle-shell. The 

 material is a compound of clay and pounded shells ; its height is seven inches, 

 diameter five and a half Number 2 was found in the same vicinity, and under 

 similar circumstances with that last described. It is of like composition, thick, 

 and of a dark black color. 



Number 3 was found in Perry county, Indiana, at a locality known as the " Big 

 Bone Bank." It is composed of finer material than those just described. The 

 aperture at the mouth is two inches in diameter ; the vase itself is five inches in 

 height, and measures thirteen in circumference. The " Big Bone Bank," to 

 which we have alluded, occui-s on the Wabash river, ten miles above its mouth, 

 and is supposed by many to have been a cemetery of the mound-builders. 

 Human remains are very abundant here, and are said to occur as deep as ten feet 

 below the surface. With these are deposited various relics, consisting for the 

 most part of vessels of pottery, which are exposed from time to time by the 

 wasting away of the bank. The following specimens, obtained from this locality, 

 together with those just described, are in the cabinet of James McBride, Esq., 

 Hamilton, Ohio. 



Fig. 73 measures three inches in height, by seventeen in circumference. It is 



