100 BUREAU OF AMERICAN" ETHNOLOGY [bull. GO 



the influence of the Mississippi Valley culture was felt along the 

 western border, but the shores are lined with shell heaps, many of 

 great extent. Methods of burial were primitive and considerably 

 varied, and the graves yield many examples of the simple artifacts 

 employed by the people. Numerous caves and rock shelters were 

 occupied for dwelling and burial. 



The ceramic art was in a somevvhat rudimentary stage, although 

 considerable skill and taste were displayed by the Iro(|uois in the 

 manufacture of culinary utensils and tobacco pipes of clay. The 

 vessels ai'e round bodied, often conical beneath, and adapted thus to 

 earthen floors; they were decorated with incised lines forming simple 

 geometric figures, with fabric or cord impressions, and manv, among 

 the Iroquois, with crude figures in relief. The tobacco pipes of this 

 jjeople are varied in form and elaborately embellished with modeled 

 life forms. The Virginia clay pipe with long stem and upturned 

 bowl, carried to England by the early colonists along with the first 

 tobacco, gave form to the conunon clay pipe which prevails even 

 to-day in the English-speaking world. 



Of implements of pecked and polished stone, the grooved ax, celt- 

 hatchet, chisel, pick, gouge-adz, mortar, pestle, slate knife, slate 

 spearhead, and hammerstone are present in large numbers, and 

 articles of faith and ornament include banner stones, bird-shaped 

 stones, plummets, tubes, pierced gorgets, etc. Chipped implements 

 of all ordinary types are well made and plentiful, as are also shell 

 beads, pins, and pendent ornaments. The engraved conch-shell 

 gorgets of Virginia and the Carolinas are of particidar interest, but 

 it is possible that these should be regarded as culture intrusions 

 from the west. 



The tribes of this region surpassed their neighbors in the manu- 

 facture of a few varieties of artifacts only; their gouge-adz takes 

 first rank among implements of this general class. Within the area 

 there are a number of local features of particular interest, some of 

 which are due to the occurrence of mineral deposits of exceptional 

 character, while others are due to ethnical conditions not at present 

 fully determined. Maine lias furnished a group of relics of excep- 

 tional character, most noteworthy of which are certain long, slender 

 celts and gouge-adzes, and ground and polished lance heads, dis- 

 covered and described by Willoughby and tentatively ascribed by 

 him to some pre-Algonquian people. The occurrence of red oxides 

 with the burials has led to the use of the designation "the red paint 

 people." The resemblance of the lance heads to those of the Eskimo 

 and even to those of northern Europe and Asia is noted. The occur- 

 rence in New England and the eastern Lakes region of examples of 

 the ground spearhead and the broad-l)lade(l slate knife, the woman's 

 Icnife of the Arctic, is also worthy of remark. 



