The Indian Village of Baum 



273 



men have read strange stories in the 

 bones and stones they found there, and 

 both are laid out now, like an open book, 

 in the Kthnologj^ Building for the public 

 to peruse. 



On the ground above the village trees 

 were growing that had sprouted not less 

 than eight hundred years ago. The 

 people whose tools and toys we contem- 

 plate today had rotted in their graves 

 four hundred years before Columbus 

 saw America. If they were there when 

 the Norsemen visited Vineland the Good, 

 neither people learned of the other. 

 There is absolutely no suggestion in au}^ 

 of their relics that they had ever had the 

 remotest contact with a European race. . 

 The}^ were a primitive , aboriginal people , 

 that returned to the soil as mysteriously 

 as they sprang from it. 



The implements the}^ fashioned out of 

 the rude materials about them show that 

 they had reached a high degree of civil- 

 ization for a prehistoric people. It is 

 marvelous to see to what uses they put 

 the bones of animals. From the bones 

 of deer, bear, coon, and wild turkey they 

 fashioned needles, awls, fish-hooks, and 

 arrow-points. Not only are there plent}" 

 of fish-hooks made from bone, but there 

 are pieces of bone to show the various 

 stages of manufacture. 



What a patient creature was the prim- 

 itive man ! How pathetic are the traces 

 of his first early struggles to create ! 

 There are the pieces of bone which he 

 had slowly hollowed and polished and 

 cut to make a hook. Tliere, too, are 

 his failures, the hooks that he broke 

 before he had done, the eloquent tokens 

 of bootless pains. 



Side by side with bone arrow-points are 

 those of flint. Probably each weapon 

 had its advocates. Flint knives, flint 

 drills, tell of rude skill definitely di- 

 rected. A stone awl-sharpener be- 

 speaks the careful workman. 



In the collection is a small carved 

 stone. The characters on it are quite 

 plain to all, rude as they are, but the 



interpretation is not clear. Wigwams 

 are indicated by a few artistic strokes 

 of the knife. Nearby are a turtle and 

 a fox, and above is a watchful eye look- 

 ing down on all. What is the story 

 the Indian artist tried to tell ? 



Some pieces of pottery were found 

 that make one think of the modern 

 Mexican's handiwork. The bowls are 

 rudely wrought, but a stone slab, with 

 a stone roller, is almost the exact coun- 

 terpart of the Mexican metate. Like 

 the Mexican woman of today, the 

 squaw of old knelt patiently, hour after 

 hour, grinding corn on the metate for 

 the simple maize cakes that were the 

 staff of life. Corn of the eight-rowed 

 and ten-rowed variety was found in the 

 buried village; also beans, wild grapes, 

 papaw^ seed, walnuts, hickory, wild plum , 

 chestnuts, and hazel nuts. 

 • Turtle shells, used for drinking cups, 

 and stone pipes of reall)^ dainty cut are 

 among the recovered treasures. Dis- 

 coidal stones wnth holes in them sug- 

 gest games of chance, such as all early 

 people delighted in. 



Many of these articles are found in 

 ash-pits or refuse heaps that had been 

 sunk about the village to keep it in tidy 

 condition. Others were found in the 

 graves. Ornaments, in the shape of 

 bone or bead necklaces, were discovered 

 with the skeletons of children in par- 

 ticular. The teeth of the elk, cut and 

 perforated, are plentiful in some graves. 



It is strange that nowhere does one 

 find human bones used for utilitarian 

 purposes. There are awls made from 

 the tibia-tarsus of the wild turkey, from 

 the shoulder blades and from the ulna 

 of deer and elk, but nothing from the 

 human scapula dr femur. One of the 

 most interesting collections is that of 

 scrapers, used to remove the hair from 

 the hides of animals, to dress them for 

 raiment. They are made from the 

 metacarpal bones of the deer and elk, 

 and great quantities of them were found. 



Among the heaps of bones were many 



