VESSELS IMITATING LIFE FORMS. 



383 



It will be difficult to determine the origin of this curious practice. 

 We shall not be able to say that it came from the elaboration of han- 

 dles, simply to please fancy, for the reason that vessels of this class are 

 rarely known to have had simple handles; nor from the modification of 

 simple ornaments, as such were but little used. It is still less probable 

 that animal forms were first modeled independently, and afterwards 

 changed in such a way as to serve as vessels. There are no examples 

 of animal forms in clay independent of vessels. It would not be con- 

 sistent with primitive methods of procedure to copy nature direct, at 

 least until some mystic significance had become attached to the form 

 employed. It is possible, however, that the origin of this practice is 

 not to be found within the plastic art itself, but in the shapes of antece- 

 dent aud co-existeut vessels of other materials in which life forms had 

 been employed ; or in the use of natural objects themselves as utensils, 

 the original forms not having been lost sight of and having in time sug- 

 gested the employment of other natural forms. Examples of the latter 

 class may be cited. 



Fig. 373. — Trough-shaped vessel : Arkansas.- 

 [National Museum.] 



Shells were primitive vessels. The hard cases of seeds and fruits were 

 also much used. These were doubtless antecedent to vessels of clay. 

 They were the natural models for the potter, the carver in wood or 

 stone, and their employment as such served to lead up gradually to a 

 more realistic and general use of natural shapes in works of art to 

 which they were not essential features. The importance of the various 

 animal forms was increased by their association with religious ideas. 

 Nearly all the vessels of this class presented in the following illustrations 

 come from the vicinity of Pecan Point, Arkansas. 



Glay vessels imitating both marine and fresh-water shells are occasion- 

 ally obtained from the mounds and graves of the Mississippi Valley. 

 The conch shell appears to have been a favorite model, especially in its 

 modified form, Fig. 374, a aud b. The clam shell is also imitated in c and 

 d. The more conventional forms of these vessels are exceedingly in- 

 teresting, as they point out the tendencies and possibilities of modifica- 

 tion. An instructive example illustrated in e has four groups of nodes, 



