654 



ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1908. 



moth {Elephas primigenius) and mastodon {Mammiit aTnericanum) 

 and numerous other animal remains, such as the bison and prehistoric 

 horses. In the spring there ^yere also found numerous implements 

 of flint, mainly arrowheads. This naturally was first interpreted as 

 an instance of actual association of mankind and the elephants, but 

 careful investigation proved that the elephant remains far antedated 

 the human relics, and that the latter were votive offerings cast into 

 the spring by recent Indians as a sacrifice to the spirit occupant, 

 the bones being venerated as those of their ancestors (Holmes). 

 Another instance, not of the association of the mammoth with man- 

 kind, but of the mastodon, is probably authentic. This Avas in Attica, 

 New York, and is reported by Prof. J. M. Clarke. Four feet below 



Fig. 9. — Prehistoric engraving of mammoth on wall at Combarelles ; after MacCurdy. 



One-sixth natural size. 



the surface of the ground, in a black muck, he found the bones of the 

 mastodon, and 12 inches below this, in undisturbed clay, pieces of 

 pottery and 30 fragments of charcoal (Wright). The remains of the 

 mastodons and mammoths are very abundant in places, the Oklahoma 

 spring already mentioned producing 100 mastodon and 20 mammoth 

 teeth, while the famous Big Bone Lick in Kentucky has produced 

 the remains of an equal number of fossil mastodons and elephants. 



Indian tradition points but vaguely to the proboscidians, and one 

 can not be sure that they are the creatures referred to, yet it would 

 be strange if such keen observers of nature as the American aborigines 

 should not have some tales of the mammoth and mastodon if their 

 forefathers had seen them alive. One tradition of the Shawnee 



