ANTIQUITIES OF THE OUACHITA VALLEY. 15 
“Тһе decoration of this ware is even more noteworthy than the forms. 14 
consists, іп the main, of incised work. the scroll motive, which takes a multitude of 
forms, prevailing to a remarkable extent. The treatment is refined and even 
elegant, and the application of the designs to the diversified forms of the vessels is 
masterly. This is well illustrated in Figs. 15, 81, 131. The principal band of 
decoration encircles the body of the vessel, often covering the entire surface, The 
neck, and especially the rim, of the bowl-forms is in cases occupied by a very much 
conventionalized and abbreviated band of the same scroll motive. Although highly 
conventionalized and applied to purely formal shapes, it is clear that this scroll in 
all its manifestations still carried with it in the mind of the initiated the animal 
concept, and a limited number of examples are seen in which the scroll units take 
the place, on animal shaped vessels, of the members of the body. The number of 
units employed is normally four, but this is not adhered to strictly, the repetition 
varying with the requirements of the vessel decorated. It is most interesting to 
note that, as seen in the tracings of designs shown in the illustrations, the scroll unit 
is repeated from three to six or more times, and that, when viewed from the under 
side of the vessel, the interspaces take the form of a swastika which has three or 
more arms according to the number of the scroll units used—the swastika figure 
being, however, a mere accident, and thus without significance. A noteworthy 
feature of these designs is the elaboration of some of the scroll work interspaces. 
A disk-like figure often fills the wider openings, while the narrower are occupied 
by incised reticulations, which we may assume are conventional suggestions of the 
body markings of the creature symbolized. 
“This treatment of formal elements of animal origin is so universal that we are 
safe in assuming that, whether the actual decorator of these vessels had the life 
form in mind or not, the origin of each and every part of the decoration is in a life 
concept, and doubtless one with which superstitious notions were associated. Con- 
sidering the simple and graceful forms of the vessels embellished with the scroll 
work, the elegance and completeness of the designs, and the skill of execution and 
remarkable adjustment to the vessel forms, these potters of the old-time villages 
among the Louisiana bayous may claim to have reached the highest mark among 
all the valley peoples in the esthetic treatment of earthenware.” 
We shall now take up the detailed account of our season’s work, with the 
explanation that many aboriginal dwelling-sites which we carefully investigated, 
but in which no burials or artifacts of interest were found, are omitted from our 
report, and that mounds and sites are described in order, going upstream. 
OUACHITA RIVER. 
The Ouachita, a comparatively narrow stream, is navigable in the Winter and 
Spring seasons from its union with Black river to Camden, Arkansas, a distance, 
as we have said, of about 300 miles by water. 
