THE PROBLEM OF THE OHIO MOUNDS. 



35 



The evkleuce that these relics were the work of Indiaus found iu 

 possession of the coimtry at the time of its discovery by Europeaus, is 

 therefore too strong to be put aside by mere conjectures or inferences. 

 If they were the work of Indians, they must have been used by the 

 Cherokees and buried with their dead. It is true that some of the en- 

 graved figures present a puzzling problem in the fact that they bear 

 unmistakable evidences of pertaining to Mexican and Central Ameri- 

 can types, but no explanation of. this which contradicts the preceding 

 evidences that these shells had been iu the hands of Indians can be 

 accepted. 





Fig. :{. Shell gorgi-t with iD.u;i;iviij^ of coiled seriif-nt. 



In these mounds were also found a large number of nicely carved soap- 

 stone pipes, usually with the stem made in connection with the bowl, 

 though some were without this addition, consisting only of the bowl 

 with a hole for inserting a cane or wooden stem. While some, as will 

 hereafter be shown, closely resemble one of the ancient Ohio types, others 

 are precisely of the form common a few years back, and some of them 

 have the remains of burnt tobacco yet clinging to them. 



Adair, in his " History of the North American Indians,"' says: 



They make beautiful stone pipes, aud the Cherokees the best of any of the Indiaus, 

 for their mountainous country contains many diiferent sorts and colors of soils proper 

 for such uses. They easily form them -with their tomahawks and afterwards linish 

 them in any desired form with their knives, the pipes being of a very soft quality 

 till they are smoked with aud used with the fire, when they become <iuite hard. They 

 are often full a span long, and the bowls are about half as large again as our English 

 pipes. The fore jiart of each couimouly runs out with a sharj) peak 2 or ?> fingers 

 broad and a quarter of an inch thick. 



Not only were pipes made of soapstone found in these mounds, but 

 two or three were found precisely of the form mentioned by Adair, with 

 the fore part running out in front of the bowl (see Fig. 5, p. oO). 



T F. 433. 



