HOLMES. I 



SPOONS KNIVES. 201 



class, labeled as coniiug from Georgia. It has a rounded handle, without 

 either jjcrforatiou or notches. 



The I'eabody Museum contains a very superior collection, consisting 

 of specimens from several localities. Six of these, made from Unionidce, 

 inostly from the Unio oratits, were obtained from one of the Bowling 

 mounds near Nashville, Tenn.; others crumbled on being handled and 

 were lost. Several others were obtained in the same region.' Two 

 more were found in an earthen vessel between two skeletons, in one of 

 the Lindsley mounds at Lebanon, sixty miles east of Nashville.^ 



In a stoae-cist mound on the Big Harpeth River, Prof. Joseph Jones 

 found "a few large fresh-water mussel-shells, which were much altered 

 by time. These mussel-shells appeared from their shape to have been 

 artificially carved, and to have been used as ornaments and also as 

 spoons or cups for dipping up food and drink.'" 



Three fine specimens have recently been obtained from graves at 

 Harrisburg, Ark. They are but slightly worked as compared with the 

 more elaborate s])ecimens. The hinge, teeth, and ligaments have been 

 ground down and a portion of the posterodorsal margin removed, leav- 

 ing the posterior point and basal margin projecting for a handle. The 

 surfaces are well smoothed. The genenil outline of the shell is snbtri- 

 angular; it is three inches wide by four and one half in length and is 

 probably made from the Unio cuneatus. 



Beverly gives a plate illustrating two Virginia Indians, man and wife, 

 at dinner; on the mat by the woman is " a Cockle-Shell, which they some- 

 times use instead of a Spoon." " The Spoons which they eat with, do gen- 

 erally hold half a Pint; and they laugh at the English for using small 

 ones, which they must be forc'd to carry so often to their Mouths, that 

 their Arms are in Danger of being tir'd, before their Belly."* 



KNIVES. 



From a very early date shells must have been employed quite exten- 

 sively by the ancient Americans as implements, as weapons for war 

 and the chase, as appliances for fishing, as agricultural implements, 

 and as knives, gouge/s, scrapers, perforators, etc., in a variety of arts. 

 It is a noteworthy fact, however, that our collections do not abound in 

 objects of these classes, and our literature furnishes but little infoi'ma- 

 tion on the subject. Our interest lies chiefly in such of these objects as 

 have been shaped by the hand of man, but to illustrate their use we will 

 find it instructive to study the various ways in which the natural shells 



' Putnam, in Eleventh Annual Report, Peabody Museum, p. 334. 



= Ihid., p. 344. 



'Jones: Antiquities of Tennessee, p. 64. 



■• Beverly: History of Virginia, 17:i2, pi. 10, p. 154. 



