358 TRANS. ST. LOUIS ACAD. SCIENCE. 



which have been taken from this mound, from time to time, it is 

 impossible to compute. Many of them are now scattered among 

 the cabinets of curiosity collectors, many hundreds I myself have 

 counted, while the ground is strewn with the fragments of those 

 destroyed by careless excavators. Three vessels of this ware 

 were usually found deposited with each individual.* A gourd- 

 shaped jug with a long neck, holding from half a pint to two 

 quarts, was placed close to and by the side of the head ; on the 

 other side would be found a smaller jug or drinking vessel, with 

 the mouths of both sorts often moulded into the form of the head 

 of some bird : the owl seems to have been a favorite model. Not 

 infrequently the whole figure of the bird or animal, or of the 

 female form, would be rudely represented. In the latter case, 

 while the maker seemed not to be deficient, to some degree, in 

 the knowledge of anatomy of the human form, and has suggested 

 the spinal column with considerable accuracy, it is always dis- 

 torted by a curvature from the base of the neck outward, so as to 

 make the figure decidedly humpbacked ; the lower limbs are 

 folded under the body and barely suggested, while the sexual dis- 

 tinctions are so strongly marked as to render the object sometimes 

 indecent. 



As already noted, the corpse was placed lying upon the back, 

 the arms folded across the breast. In the angle formed by the 

 bend of the arm, and resting upon the arm and the side of the 

 chest, would be found the third article of pottery mentioned. 

 This had usually the shape of an ordinary pan with flaring sides ; 

 often, too, like a bowl, and as often again the vessel would be 

 moulded into the shape of a frog, fish, or large clam shell ; some- 

 times a much smaller cup would be found within the larger dish, 

 placed close to one side. In one of these cups was observed a 

 small bone or relic (not yet identified). The vessel resting upon 

 the arm was doubtless filled with food, as some sort of small fruit, 

 completely carbonized, was found in one. I also observed in 

 others fragments of mussel shells, so thoroughly decomposed as 



* For the plates here given I am indebted to the kindness of Dr. G C. Swallow, Dean 

 of the Agricultuml College of the State University of Missouri. Although they were 

 engraved from pottery taken by him from mounds at New Madrid many years since, no 

 better representations could be made of many of those recently exhumed from the works 

 upon Bayou St. John. As stated in another place, thsy all seem to have been mad^ of the 

 same material and after the same models. 



