ANTIQUITIES OF THE OUACHITA VALLEY. 129 
Four hundred and eighty-five pottery vessels were found by us in the cemetery 
at the Keno Plantation. By this we do not mean that this number of vessels were 
saved—far from it—but that at least the number of vessels given by us had been 
placed in the cemetery by the aborigines. How many others had been plowed 
away before our coming or what number had been crushed by aboriginal distur- 
bance into fragments too small for us to recognize as having constituted entire ves- 
sels, we are unable to say. 
Our enumeration includes all whole vessels, and all broken ones provided suf- 
ficient of the vessel was found to indicate its entirety at the time of interment. 
Great numbers of those regarded as vessels, however, were not in a condition to 
save, being simply crumbling remains of parts of undecorated vessels of common- 
place form ; while others included in the enumeration were simply large fragments 
of undesirable pottery which had been mutilated by the plow. 
The condition of the vessels in this cemetery was as a rule deplorable. Mostly 
of inferior ware, as a rule lacking sufficient tempering to make it durable, and often 
imperfectly fired, the pottery, after long soaking in water, often crushed into bits 
ог so softened that it fell apart on removal, or in places clung bodily to the sur- 
rounding clay (showing the soil to be more tenacious than the ware), was in an 
almost hopeless state even without superadded conditions for evil. But in addition 
to all this was the fact that owing to the almost complete absence of bones in the 
cemetery, we were rarely able to come upon a burial and to follow it up with the 
trowel, as our custom is (and thus in a fair percentage of cases to come gently upon 
accompanying pottery), but often reached vessels first with the spade, and in a 
manner we do not approve. 
Furthermore, the tenacity of the clay prevented thorough sifting and con- 
sequent recovery of all parts of broken vessels. 
So far as could be determined, the vessels in this cemetery had been placed 
near the head, singly, in pairs, three together, or occasionally in groups of four, 
sometimes all on one side of the skull, sometimes separated by it. Once a vessel 
had been placed on top of a skull, its base resting on the bone; and to one side of 
the cranium was a vessel inverted over another. 
Other methods of arrangement of mortuary accompaniments, practised by the 
aborigines who used the cemetery at the Keno Place, are as follows : 
А single vessel standing upright. 
Two or three upright vessels together. 
One or two upright with one inverted alongside. 
One upright, one on its edge, and one inverted, 
One or two upright with another on its side. 
A vessel standing on its base with two others on their sides. 
A single vessel inverted, or sometimes an inverted pair, side by side. 
An upright vessel covered with a large fragment of pottery. ; 
An upright vessel having another inverted over it or over part of it, sometimes 
fitting closely. 
17 JOURN. А. N. 8. РНША., VOL, XIV. 
