T2 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 94 



tried to imitate these scales in flint. What the specific use may have 

 been of such points remains a matter of conjecture. Some of these 

 unusual forms are illustrated in plate 6. 



Beads were plentiful in the graves. Some of them were made of 

 shell, evidently from the columella of a marine gastropod, cut in a 

 round or cylindrical shape. Others were of glass or porcelain con- 

 sisting of a kind of white paste, apparently in imitation of the shell 

 beads. Blue glass beads were also found, these last being, of course, 

 European in origin and probably given or traded to the Indians by the 

 French. • 



Metal objects found included a pair of scissors, a few hawkbells of 

 brass, some bracelets of the same material, and a double-pointed iron 

 spike 6^ inches long. The presence of these articles suggests a reason 

 for not finding more cutting and piercing instruments of flint and 

 bone — their place had probably already been taken by the more 

 efficient metal products of the white man. 



DISTRIBUTION OF POTTERY TYPES 



The most interesting thing about the Natchitoches pottery is its 

 striking resemblance to the beautiful vessels found by Moore at 

 Glendora Plantation and Keno Place on Ouachita River. Comparison 

 of the elaborately decorated bowl shown in plate 5 with some of those 

 illustrated by Moore from the Glendora site brings out this unmis- 

 takable similarity. The design on the body of this bowl is almost dupli- 

 cated in several of the Glendora specimens, but the motif employed 

 on the neck of the vessel shows slight variations. A bowl in the pos- 

 session of Mr. Casler is very nearly identical with the one shown by 

 Moore.'' Likewise, the bottles from Natchitoches are similar in shape 

 to those from the Ouachita region, and the same type of incised scroll 

 design occurs. 



Professor Beyer, of Tulane University, found in a mound on Red 

 River near the town of Campti an earthenware bottle of this same 

 Glendora type. He states that the mound formed part of an old 

 levee, which had been partly eaten away by the river until fully two- 

 thirds of the original mound had been engulfed. It was estimated to 

 have had a diameter of 50 feet and was 6 feet high at the time Beyer 

 investigated it. Before his visit the site had been dug into by a party 

 of young men who had seen some bones and potsherds protruding from 

 the side of the bank. Beyer's description of the structure of the mound 



^^ Moore, C. B., Antiquities of the Ouachita Valley. Journ. Acad. Nat. Sci. 

 Philadelphia, vol. 14, no. i, fig. 47, 1909. 



