202 ART IN SHELL OF THE ANCIENT AMERICANS. 



have been employed. In this manner we may trace the origin and devel- 

 opment of artificial forms. 



As we have seen in the early modification of food utensils the begin- 

 ning of the art of cutting and shaping shell, which in time led to the 

 manufacture of objects of taste, and probably proved an important step 

 iu'the evolution of native American art, so in this convenient and 

 workable material, as employed in the mechanical arts, we witness the 

 inception of many important human industries, and in the rude machines 

 constructed from shell probably behold the prototypes of numerous 

 works in stone and metal. It cannot be supposed that such of these 

 objects as we do possess are of very ancient date, as the material is not 

 sufficiently enduring. It is also improbable that such objects would, as 

 a rule, be so frequently deposited in graves, as food vessels or objects of 

 personal display, and objects not so deposited must soon have disap- 

 peared. 



The early explorers of the American coast make occasional mention 

 of the employment of shells in the various arts. As many of these 

 notices are interesting, and have an important bearing upon the subject 

 under consideration, I will present a number of them here. Among a 

 majority of the American Indians, knives of stone, obsidian, jasper, 

 and flint were in general use, but it would seem that shells artificially 

 shaped and sharpened were also sometimes used for shaping objects in 

 wood and clay, in preparing food, in dressing game, and in human 

 butchery. 



Strachey informs us, in volume VI of the Hakluyt Society, that when 

 the omnipotent Powhatan "would punish any notorious enemy or tres- 

 passer, he causeth him to be tyed to a tree, and with muscle shells or 

 reedes the executioner cutteth oSi his joints one after another, ever cast- 

 ing what is cutt off into the fier ; then doth he proceede with shells and 

 reedes to case the skyn from his head and face." ' 



Such knives were also rfsed by Powhatan's women for cutting off 

 their hair* ^ 



A number of authors mention the use of shells as sealijing-knives. 



Kalm, speaking of the Indians of New Jersey, says that "instead 



of knives, they were satisfied with little sharp pieces of flint or quartz, 



or else some other hard kind of a stone, or with a sharp shell, or with a 



piece of bone, which they had sharpened." ^ 



The Indians encountered by Henry Hudson during his first voyage, 

 in making him welcome, " killed a fat dog, and skinned it in great haste 

 with shells which they had."^ 



Beverly asserts that before the English supplied the Virginia Indians 

 with metallic tools, " their Knives were either sharpen'd Eeeds, or Shells, 



' Strachey, in Hakluyt Society Publications, vol. VI, p. 52. 



"-Hid., vol. VII, p. 67. 



'Kalin's Travels, London, 1772, vol. I, p. 341. 



■• Collections New York Historical Society, vol. I, 2nd series, p. 198. 



