226 



ANCIENT MONUMENTS. 



attitude of defence and defiance. The action is very fine, but is imperfectly con- 

 veyed by the engraving. The implement weighs little less than four pounds. It 

 ■Nvas found in a mound on the Catawba river, Chester district. South Carohna. 



Fio. 124. 



Fig. 124 is a tube of similar material with that last described.* It is six inches 

 long ; its greatest and least diameters being one inch and a quarter, and one inch and 

 a half respectively, with a proportionate bore. At a point about three inches 

 from the larger end, is an oval hole or stop. It was found while ploughing, near 

 Marietta,' Ohio. 



It has been suggested that the last two articles were designed as wind instru- 

 ments. It is very certain that the skill of the present day succeeds in producing 

 very indifferent music from them. Either the art of playing upon them has sadly 

 deteriorated, or the musical taste of the makers was not regulated by existing 

 standards. It has further l)een suggested that tubes of the character of those 

 first described were designed as auxiliary to the eye in making distant obser- 

 vations.f If it were deemed necessary to attempt an explanation of the probable 

 purposes of every relic discovered, a conjecture, at least, might be based upon the 

 peculiar mouth-pieces which many of these tubes possess, — namely, that they were 

 used as pipes for smoking purposes. The furthest advance towards designating 

 their purposes, which it is here ventured to make, is to class them amongst imple- 

 ments.;}: 



* Tn tlie cabinet of Dr. S. P. Hildretii, Marietta, Ohio. 



I Several tubes, of very much tlie same character with those here referred to, have been found in tlie 

 vicinity of the Grave creek mound. Mr. Schoolcraft dt^scribes them as made out of a compact, blui- 

 and white mottled steatite, measuring from eight to twelve inches in length, by one inch and four tenths 

 in diameter, and having a bore of four fifths of an inch, diminishing at one end to one fifth of an inch. 

 Our author observes : 



" By placing the eye at the diminished point, the extraneous light is shut from the pupil, and distant 

 objects more clearly discerned. The effect is telescopic, and is the same which is known to be produced 

 by directing the sight towards the heavens from the bottom of a well, — an object which we now understand 

 to have been secured by the Aztec and Maya races in tht^ir astronomical observations, by constructing tubular 

 chambers. The ((uality of the stone, like most of the magnesian species, is soft enough to be cut with a 

 knife. It is evident that the cii-cular lines observed in the calibre were produced by boring. Tlie circular 

 striae of this process are jilainly appai-ent. I learned by inquiry, that a quarry or locality of this species 

 of rock exists on the banks of Grave creek, some four or five miles above the mound. This establishes 

 the fact, that they were made here and not brought from a distance. The degree of skill evinced by 

 these curious instruments is superior to that observed in the pipe-carvings and other evidences of North 

 American Indian sculpture." — Obscivaliuns on the Giaec creek Mound, Trunsuclimis of American Elh- 

 noloijical Society, vol. i. p. 406. 



J According to Vanegas, the " meilic-iiic nvn " nC Ihe Californian tiilirs nf Indians, in (heir operations 



