22 ABORIGINAL SITES IN LOUISIANA AND IN ARKANSAS. 
careful filling, to leave the mound in almost its normal condition. The Academy 
feels greatly indebted to Miss Mayes for full.permission to make an investiga- 
tion on her property. 
Fortunately the composition of this interesting mound is of a nature to 
facilitate exact conclusions. It was composed of homogeneous, light-brown 
clay, and a mixture of this clay and black soil from the surface filled the pits, 
all of which evidently had been dug from the surface at a time when the deposit 
of black midden-soil thereon was greater than it was at the time of our investiga- 
tion. Hence delimitation of the graves was a matter of comparative ease. 
The aboriginal burials (there were some comparatively recent ones which 
we did not permanently disturb) seemed to have been placed in the eastern portion 
of the central part of the mound. 
The pits contained accumulations of skeletal remains, but were not filled 
with them; nor were the bones in one mass, they having been placed here and 
there in different parts of the grave (some always on the base of it) as if, after a 
deposit, partial filling had taken place and then other deposits had been made and 
covered. These deposits, the bones of which were all very badly decayed, were 
made up sometimes of the bones of one individual apparently, sometimes of a 
number. 
As the burials in this mound present features of considerable interest, they 
will be described in detail. 
Burial No. 1. This pit, roughly circular, 8 feet by 9 feet and 4.5 feet in 
depth, contained deposits of bones beginning 18 inches below the surface, among 
which were sixteen crania. At times, long-bones slanting upward rested along 
the sides of the pit, as was the case in other burials in this mound. 
Together with skeletal remains lying on the base of the pit were: powdered 
hematite (red pigment); two masses of kaolin (white pigment) each about the 
size of a fist; a lump of yellow ochre, also a pigment. With these was a flat . 
` pebble of flint. 
Near these paints was a bicave of fine-grained sandstone, 2.25 inches in 
diameter; and on another part of the base of the pit, with bones, lay a fine 
effigy-pipe of earthenware, 4.3 inches in length and 3.5 inches in maximum 
height. This interesting pipe (for large effigy-pipes of earthenware are of great 
rarity, effigy-pipes of considerable size usually being of stone) represents a frog, 
and is shown in three positions in Plate I and in section in Fig. 3. It has had 
a uniform coating of red pigment, now worn away in places. The pipe has seen con- 
siderable use, as the interior of the bowl, well blackened by fire, clearly shows. 
Apart from the burials, in the soil in this grave, were the base of an earthen- 
ware vessel and part of a base with some of the side of another vessel. In 
one base is a perforation of considerable size; and it is evident, from part of it 
remaining, there has also been one in another base. These perforations had 
been made at the time when the vessel was in process of modeling, previous to 
the firing of the clay. We have here a very interesting feature, namely, the 
5 — 
Medo cc ашк. 
