HOLMES] PAINTBD VASES, MISSISSIPPI VALLEY 101 



quite unnecessiaiT, siuoe the geiienil luiture of all is .so well understood. 

 Definite explanations must come from a study of the present people 

 and usages, and among the Mississippi vallev tribes there are no doubt 

 man}' direct survivals of the ancient forms. Mr C C Willoughl)v 

 has discussed this toijic at length in a paper published in the Journal 

 of American Folk Lore. The same region furnishes many similar 

 symlxjls engraved on shell, bone, and stone. 



PAINTED VASES 



Several specimens, selected to illustrate the interesting color treat- 

 ment so characteristic of this group of pottery, are presented in plates 

 XXXIX, XL, XLi, XLii, and xliii. The iiattish bottle, plate xxxix a, is 

 by no means as handsome or elaborate in its designs as arc others in 

 our collections, but it serves quite well to illustrate the class. The 

 red color of the spaces and figures is applied over the light yellowish 

 ground of the paste and is carefully polished down. The specimens 

 reproduced in plates xl, xli, and xlii have been referred to and suf- 

 ficiently described in preceding pages. An exceptionally tine example 

 of the colored human figure is given in plate xxxixi'^. Parts of the 

 head and body are finished in red, other parts and the necklace aj'e in 

 white, while certain spaces show the original yellowish graj^ color of 

 the paste. 



POTTERY OF TENNESSEE 



I am so fortunate as to be able to add a number of plates (xliv, 

 XLV, XLVi, xLVii, XLViii, XLix, and l) illustrating the wares of the 

 Cumberland valley, Tennessee, and especially of the Nashville district. 

 These plates appeared fii'st in Thruston's Antiquities of Tennessee, 

 and I am greatly indebted to this author for the privilege of repro- 

 ducing them here. 



POTTERY OF THE LOWER MISSISSIPPI VALLEY 



Archeologic investigation has not extended into the central south- 

 ern states save in a few widely separated localities, and enough 

 material has not been collected to permit a full and connected study 

 of the primitive art of the province. It would seem from present 

 information that the region of the lower Mississippi is not so rich in 

 fictile products as are many other sections; at anjf rate our museums 

 and collections are not well supplied with material from this part of 

 the South, and literature furnishes but brief references to the practice 

 of the ceramic art (see Introduction). Some fugitive relics have come 

 into the possession of museums, and on these we must mainly rely 

 for our present knowledge of the subject. Much of the earthenware 

 appears to be nearly identical with, or closely allied to, that of the 

 middle Mississippi region, as well as with that of the Gulf coast far- 

 ther east. 



