484 CERTAIN MOUNDS OF ARKANSAS AND OF MISSISSIPPI. 
“The origin of this form of vessel," says Professor Holmes," “is suggested by 
а fine red piece from * Mississippi, now in the National Collection. Тһе knob is 
the head of a turtle or other full-bodied reptile, and the spout takes the place of 
the creature’s tail. Many of the animal-shaped vases would resemble this form 
closely if an opening were made through the top of the body and through the tail." 
This animal-form “teapot” referred to by Professor Holmes, is figured by him 
in a later work.? 
We found on the lower Arkansas twenty-eight of this “ teapot” form of ves- 
sel, ranging in size between the mere toy but 1.9 inches in height, and the capacious 
vessel 7.6 inches high; some of dark ware; some of yellow ware having a solid 
coating of red; others of yellow ware decorated with red and white; and in two 
instances with red, white and black. There were also two life-forms with spouts. 
The more noteworthy of these “teapot” vessels will be described in their proper 
places. 
We believe this novel *teapot" type, so far as the United States? is concerned, 
to be peculiar to eastern Arkansas and nearby regions. As we went westward on 
the river, the type was less often met with, only one being found in the cemetery 
at Greer. We have seen a few said to have come from near the city of Little 
Rock. Іп photographs of two large collections of pottery from Arkansas, west of 
Little Rock, the “ teapot” form appears but once. 
A large percentage of the pottery of the Lower Arkansas is undecorated.? 
When decoration is present it consists of the use of pigment, or of designs con- 
ferred by a pointed implement, sharp or blunt. In the case of some vessels found 
in one site, incised decoration with red pigment rubbed into the lines was encoun- 
tered. | 
The pigments employed, as Professor Holmes? points out, were generally clays, 
white or tinted with iron oxide. Dr. H. F. Keller has made for us eight determin- 
ations and analyses of coloring matter on vessels from the lower Arkansas and of 
various masses of white and of red material which we found with skeletons, some- 
times carefully stored in vessels. Тһе red pigment is oxide of iron; the white 
pigment is clay. One of the masses of red material “is very intense in color and 
contains more than sixty per cent. of ferrie oxide, the remainder being silica and 
alumina. This material is undoubtedly red ocher.” 
! Fourth Ann. Rep. Bur. Am. Ethnol., p. 403. 
* Twentieth Ann. Rep. Bur. Am. Ethnol., Plate XL, b. 
° Compare vessels with spouts, from Panuco Valley, Mexico. Jesse Walter Fewkes, “Certain 
Antiquities of Eastern Mexico." Twenty-fifth Ann. Rep. Bur. Am. Ethnol., Plate CXXVII, a, b 
so compare vessels, with single and double spouts, from Central America. Catalogue of Col. 
lection of Sefior Arango, Medellin, Colombia. | 
* Holmes describes опе as coming from “ Mississippi." Fourth Ann. Rep. Bur. Am. Ethnol., 
p. 403. 
Я ar ee A: аг р эке from Coahoma County, Miss., which county borders the Mississippi 
river. Charles Peabody, “ Exploration of Mounds, Coahoma County, Mississippi,” Peabody М 
Papers, Vol. III, No.2. Plate XIV. 5 5 nou m 
* Undecorated vessels, commonplace in shape and so poorly fired that after their long deposit in 
I ground, they were hardly more than paste, were sometimes the principal yield from a 
ay's work. 
" Twentieth Ann. Rep. Bur. Am. Ethnol., p. 86. 
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