76 ABORIGINAL SITES IN LOUISIANA AND IN ARKANSAS. 
digging could do, showed no sign of mixed soil or of the presence of artifacts or 
bones. 
A large part of the cultivated portion of the Motley Place has been used 
for the production of rice, and if any aboriginal débris lay on the surface in the 
past it was not evident at the time of our visit, when the fields, no doubt, were 
covered to some extent with sediment from water introduced for the cultivation 
of this plant. 
A field, however, forming part of this great property, let to a colored man 
named James Green, had on the surface occasional fragments of earthenware, 
bits of flint, and a few arrow points, ten of which, unbroken, were gathered by 
the party. One of these, of somewhat unusual shape, is shown in Fig. 33. 
We were informed by the tenant of this field that he frequently found 
objects of interest while plowing, and we obtained from him а “plummet” of 
hematite, 2.5 inches in length, grooved for suspension, and a superb charm-stone 
of chalcedony, shown in Fig. 34, wrought with the greatest symmetry, elongate- 
ovoid in form. We were informed by the tenant, from whom this was acquired, 
that it was the property of his little daughter and that she, at Easter time, when 
the custom to “pick” eggs obtains (namely to tap eggs together, the egg first 
showing a break becoming the property of the owner of the unbroken egg), 
was accustomed to color the ornament and to conceal within her hand that portion 
which is narrow and grooved and to “pick” the other end against eggs belonging 
to her playmates. Our informant added that the child had been a constant 
winner. 
No trace of coloring, however, now mars the milk-white purity of the stone. 
BAYOU D’ARBONNE, LOUISIANA. 
Bayou D’Arbonne, rising in northwestern Louisiana, flows easterly to its 
union with Ouachita river, a short distance above the city of Monroe, La. This 
stream is navigable for about 32 miles up to its union with Bayou Corney, while 
Corney is open for navigation about 8 miles farther, to Stein Bluff, from which 
point our agent, Capt. W. D. Platt, preceded us in a search to the union with 
Ouachita river. 
Our investigation covered Bayou D’Arbonne to a point some miles above its 
union with Corney and included three or four miles of Bayou Corney to the 
Scott Place, above which our agent had found no aboriginal sites. 
Most of the lower 20 miles of Bayou D’Arbonne is low-lying and was under 
water at the time of our visit. Our agent found no aboriginal sites on this part 
of the Bayou. 
SITES INVESTIGATED. 
On the Ouchley Place, Union Parish. 
Near Turkey Bluff, Union Parish. 
Near Johnson Landing, Union Parish. 
