134 ANTIQUITIES IN TENNESSEE. 



remains of a large aboriginal town, in the field of Mr. Howard. Several mounds 

 are there, from twelve to fourteen feet high. They were higher, or perhaps twenty 

 feet above the ground, before the land was cultivated. Haywood states that these 

 mounds were hollow within. A horse in ploughing fell into one of them, and 

 some of them have sunk into a basin since the clearing of the ground. In this 

 field was found the portion of an image from the waist upwards. The head was 

 well carved, with the mouth, nose, eyes, and features symmetrical. The image was 

 highly polished ; and the substance of which it was made was described as being 

 white and glittering. In the same locality were found plates and pots, with orna- 

 mented edges, carved out of the same substance. Half a mile from this place, at 

 the foot of the mountain, is a large cave containing human bones, some of which 

 are small and others very large. Mr. Howard, who was six feet high, afiirmed 

 that he could put the jaw of some of them around his face. 



In White County, in West Tennessee, was dug up, many years ago, in an open 

 temple situated on the Caney Fork of Cumberland River, a flagon formed in the 

 shape of three distinct and hollow heads, joined to the central neck of the vessel 

 by short thick tubes, leading from each respective occiput. It was made of a light 

 yellow and compact clay, intimately mixed with small fragments and dust of car, 

 bonate of lime. This vessel held a quart. It was well executed, and the heads 

 were natural, displaying a striking ' resemblance to the Asiatic countenance. A 

 small oval prominence towards the top of each head, probably represented knots of 

 hair. Each face was painted in a difi'erent manner; one is slightly covered over 

 with red ochre, having deep blotches of the same paint on the central part of each 

 cheek; the second face had a broad streak of brown ochre across the forehead and 

 another running parallel with the same, enveloping the eyes, and extending as far as 

 the ears ; the third face had a streak of yellow ochre, which surrounded the eyes 

 and extended across the eyebrows, another running from the centre of this at right 

 angles down the nose to the upper lip, while another broad streak passed from each 

 ear along the lower jaw and chin.^ 



Haywood^ has made some observations on the Lingam, an image spread over 

 the most of India, in his discussion of the aboriginal history of Tennessee. 



There was found on the ferm of Turner Lane, Esq., in W^hite County, West 

 Tennessee, five or six miles from Sparta, a piece of stone eleven inches long and 

 about twelve inches in diameter. At one end it was sloped ofi" to a sharp edge, 

 which terminated at the apex in a sharp point. It was highly polished, and 

 showed great skill in the workmanship. It was variegated with green and yellow 

 spots, the general body of the stone being of a deep gray color. No doubt can be 

 entertained in the mind of a careful observer, that it is not the product of this 

 country. 



^ Another stone of similar shape, of very high polish, and of variegated colors, was 

 since found ten or twelve miles from Sparta, near a mound. It is now before the 

 writer. It is about eighteen inches in length, and one and a half in diameter, 



' Natural and Aboriginal History of Tennessee, p. 115. 

 = Id. pp. 154-155, p. 322. 



