2 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 8o 



land is muck that has been reclaimed by drainage." The account con- 

 tinues : "Additional strength is lent to the theory that some race 

 antedating the Indians lived along the shores of the lake by the finding 

 of fragments of pottery in the same vicinity as that in which the idol 

 was plowed up. It is also stated that there is a large shell mound in 

 the vicinity of Lakeport which is believed to have been thrown up by 

 the vanished race." The form and technique of this idol would seem 

 to leave little doubt of its having been made by Indians, although a 

 similar wooden idol found in Cuba is regarded by some ethnologists 

 as African. The latter, now in the Museum of the Havana University 

 at the Verdado, has been figured by Dr. Montone and also by M. R. 

 Harrington of the Museum of the American Indian. The two speci- 

 mens dififer in form and in the position of the legs, that from Cuba 

 resembling a sitting figure, with the legs bent at the knee, while in 

 the Florida specimen the figure is squatting. The hair of the latter 

 is cut in such a way as to remind one of the Muskhogean stone idols. 

 Both seem to have been made of the same kind of wood and they are 

 weathered to the same color. 



Cushing associated certain wooden slabs that he discovered in the 

 muck at Key Marco with altars and suggested that they were used in 

 worship. The two specimens here illustrated (pis. 2 and 3) are made 

 of soft wood (cypress or pine). They were presented to the U. S. 

 National Museum by Mr. George Kinzie. One of them (pi. 2) is 

 incised on the surface with a circle and cross, as if to represent the 

 sun and a cosmic direction symbol. The form of the other (pi. 3) 

 is dififerent from that of any known wooden object from the region, 

 but it is likewise decorated with an incised cross and straight and 

 curved lines. 



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