MALLERY.] PICTOGRAPHS ON SHELLS. 209 
door of the lodge on the east side which, in the figure, is toward 
the feet. In the chest of the body is a round globule painted red, 
emblematic of the fire within the horns of the crescent in the lodge. 
The lower part of the body is green, symbolic of the eastern ocean 
beyond which dwells the mescal woman who is the ruling spirit or 
divinity to whom prayers are addressed in the ceremony, and the star 
under her feet is the morning star which heralds her approach. In her 
left hand is a device representing the fan of eagle feathers used to 
shield the eyes from the glare of the fire during the ceremony. 
SHELLS. 
The admirable and well illustrated paper, Art in Shell of the Ancient 
Americans, by Mr. W. H. Holmes, in the Second Annual Report of the 
Bureau of Ethnology, and a similar paper, Burial Mounds of the North- 
ern Section of the United States, by Prof. Cyrus Thomas, in the Fifth 
Annual Report of the same Bureau, render unnecessary present ex- 
tended discussion under this head. 
One example, however, which is unique in character and of estab- 
lished authenticity, is presented here as Pl. xv. 
Dr. Edward B. Tylor (a) gives a description of the mantle copied 
upon that plate, which is condensed as follows: 
Among specimens illustrative of native North American arts, as yet untouched by 
European influence, is the deerskin mantle ornamented with shellwork, recorded to 
have belonged to the Virginian chief, Powhatan. Of the group of Virginian mantles 
in Tradescant’s collection there only now remains this shell embroidered one. It is 
entered as follows in the MS. catalogue of the Ashmoleon Museum, in the handwriting 
of the keeper, Dr. Plot, the well-known antiquary, about 1685: ‘‘ 205 Basilica Pow- 
hatan Regis Virginiani vestis, duabus cervorum cutibus consuta, et nummis indicis 
vulgo cori’s dictis splendidé exornata.” He had at first written “Roanoke,” but 
struck his pen through this word, and wrote ‘‘cori’s” (i. e. cowries) above, thus by 
no means improving the accuracy of his description. 
The mantle measures abont 2.2™ in length by 1.6™ in width. The two deerskins 
forming it are joined down the middle; no hair remains. The ornamental design 
consists of an upright human figure in the middle, divided by the seam; a pair of 
animals; 32 spirally-formed rounds (2 in the lowest line have lost their shells) and 
the remains of some work in the right lower corner. The marks where shellwork 
has come away plainly show the hind legs and tapering tails of both animals. It is 
uncertain whether the two quadrupeds represent in the conventional manner of pic- 
ture-writing some real animal of the region, or some mythical composite creature 
such as other Algonquin tribes are apt to figure. The decorative shellwork is of a 
kind well known in North America. The shells used are Marginella; so far as Mr. 
Edgar A. Smith is able to identify them in their present weathered state, M. nivosa. 
They have been prepared for fastening on, in two different ways, which may be dis- 
tinguished in the plate. In the animals and rounds, the shells have been perforated 
by grinding on one side, so that a sinew thread can be passed through the hole thus 
made and the mouth. In the man, the shells are ground away and rounded off at 
both ends into beads looking roughly ball-like at a distance. 
The artistic skill of the North American Indians was not, as a rule, 
directed to represent the forms of animals with such accuracy as to 
allow of their identification as portraitures. Instead of attempting 
10 ETH——14 
