HOLMES) INTRODUCTOKY. 187 



their inhumation with the dead tliat they appear among antiquities at 

 all. A majority of such objects, taken from graves and tumuli, liuown 

 to post-date even the advent of the white race in North America, are 

 so far decayed that unless most carefully handled they crumble to pow- 

 der. 



It is impossible to demonstrate the great antiquity of any of these 

 relics. Many of those obtained from the shell heaps of the Atlantic 

 coast are doubtless very ancient, but we cannot say with certainty that 

 they antedate the discovery more than a few hundred years. 



Specimens obtained from the mounds of the Mississippi Valley have 

 the appearance of great antiquity, but beyond the internal evidence of 

 the specimens themselves we have no reliable data upon which to base 

 an estimate of time. The age of these relics is rendered still less certain 

 by the presence of intrusive interments, which place side by side works 

 of very widely separated periods. 



The antiquity of the relics themselves is not, however, of first im- 

 portance; the art ideas embodied in them have a much deeper interest. 

 The tablets upon which the designs are engraved may be never so recent, 

 yet the conceptions themselves have their origin far back in the forgot- 

 ten ages. Deified ancestors and mythical creatures that were in the 

 earlier stages rudely depicted on bark and skins and rocks were, after 

 a certain mastery over materials had been achieved, engraved on tab- 

 lets of flinty shell ; and it is probable that in these rare objects we have, 

 if not a full representation of the art of the ancient peoples, at least a 

 large number of their most important works, in point of execution as 

 well as of conception. 



Man in his most primitive condition must have resorted to the sea- 

 shore for the food which it affords. Weapons or other appliances were 

 not necessary in the capture of mollusks; a stone to break the shell, or 

 one of the massive valves of the shells themselves, sufficed for all pur- 

 poses. 



The shells of mollusks probably came into use as utensils at a very 

 early date, and mutually with products of the vegetable world afforded 

 natural vessels for food and water. 



For a long period the idea of modifying the form to increase the con- 

 venience may not have been suggested and the natural shells were 

 used for whatever purpose they were best fitted. In time, however, by 

 accidental suggestions it would be found that modifications would en- 

 hance their usefulness, and the breaking away of useless parts and the 

 sharpening of edges and points would be resorted to. Farther on, as 

 it became necessary to carry them from point to point, changes would 

 be made for convenience of transportation. Perforations which occur 

 naturally in some species of shell, would be produced artificially, and 

 the shells would be strung on vines or cords and suspended about the 

 neck; in this way, in time, may have originated the custom of wearing 

 pendants for personal ornament. Following this would be the trans- 



