CHAPTER V. 



IMPLEMENTS, ORNAMENTS, ETC. 



Most of the minor relics of art discovered in the State of New York are such 

 as are known to have been common amongst the Iroquois and other tribes which 

 once occupied its territories. The character of these is so well known as to 

 render unnecessary any detailed notice of the various articles obtained in the 

 course of the explorations here recorded. A brief reference to the more remark- 

 able specimens is therefore all which will be attempted, 



Upon the site of every Indian tOAvn, as also within all of the ancient enclosures, 

 fragments of pottery occur in great abundance. It is rare, however, that any 

 entire vessels are recovered. Those which have been found, are for the most part, 

 gourd-shaped, with round bottoms, and having little protuberances near the rim, 

 or oftener a deep groove, whereby they could be suspended. A few cases have 

 been known in which this form was modified, and the bottoms made sufficiently 

 flat to sustain the vessel in an upright position. Fragments found in Jefferson 

 county seem to indicate that occasionally the vessels were moulded in forms 

 nearly square, but with rounded angles. The usual size was from one to four 

 quarts ; but some must have contained not less than twelve or fourteen quarts. In 

 general there was no attempt at ornament ; but sometimes the exteriors of the pots 

 and vases were elaborately if not tastefully ornamented with dots and lines, which 

 seem to have been formed in a very rude manner with a pointed stick or sharp- 

 ened bone. Bones which appear to have been adapted for this purpose are often 

 found. After the commencement of European intercourse, kettles and vessels of 

 iron, copper, brass, and tin, quickly superseded the productions of the primitive 

 potter, whose art at once fell into disuse. Pipes and various articles of clay, 

 which may be denominated terra cottas, continued, nevertheless, to be made. The 

 pipes of native manufacture were preferred, as they still are, to those of European 

 or American production. After the introduction of tools, and as soon as the 

 Indians became acquainted with foreign models, great improvement was made in 

 their manufacture. The following examples will furnish very good illustrations of 

 the forms of the Indian pipe. 



Fig. 9 was found within an enclosure in Jefferson county, Plate IV. No. 4. It is 

 engraved one half the size of the original. It is of fine red clay, smoothly moulded, 

 and two serpents rudely imitated are represented coiling around the bowl. Bushels 

 of fragments of pipes have been found within the same enclosure. Some appear to 

 have been worked in the form of the human head, others in representations of 

 animals, and others still in a variety of regular forms. 



