414 SOME ABORIGINAL SITES ON MISSISSIPPI RIVER. 
artificial soil to extend a foot into yellow sand which underlies the made ground at 
the Rhodes Place. The bottom of this grave was about 4 feet from the surface. 
An interesting burial (Number 9) was the skeleton of a female extended at full 
length, and having on the left arm the skeleton of a very young infant, its head 
resting on the upper arm of the adult skeleton. This skeleton had at the right 
elbow a bowl, and over the left shoulder a bottle. 
On the surface, and in the soil, but apart from burials, were found at this place : 
a number of flint chisels; a celt of slate; a few small arrowheads of flint; several 
arrowheads made from antler; a number of rude disks wrought from fragments of 
pottery vessels, two centrally perforated ; a canine tooth of a dog ( Cazzs famtliaris) ; 
one bone bead; one pottery support for use in holding a vessel above a fire, of the 
class described by us in a former report,’ this particular support, however, not only 
being concave at the upper end, as such supports usually are, but having a decided 
outward bend of the body to furnish a more secure support when resting against a 
curved surface, than a straight body could afford. 
Also apart from burials, and evidently lost during the occupancy of the site, 
was an undecorated pipe of earthenware, of ordinary type, and a similar pipe was 
found under the following conditions. Here and there throughout this site were 
.large fire-places marked by areas of burnt clay, where it was evident the firing of 
pottery had been carried on. Immediately under the baked clay of one of these - 
fire-places and partly included in a layer of carbonized material, lay the pipe in 
question. This pipe, fired black on the side which had been exposed to the flames, 
but light yellow in color on the upper part, presumably had been overlooked after 
incomplete firing. 
At the Rhodes Place we came upon the southernmost occurrence in our exper- 
ience of a curious aboriginal custom unknown to us before, namely, the interment 
with burials (and occasionally apart from burials, though the separation may have 
occurred after the time of interment) of single wing-bones (metacarpals), or a num- 
ber of these same bones together, which had belonged to various birds, kindly iden- 
tified’ by Prof. F. A. Lucas as follows: swan (Olor americanus); Canada goose 
(Branta canadensis); greater snow goose (Chen hyperboreus nivalis); lesser snow 
goose (Chen hyperboreus); wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo); a large duck. 
At the great aborignal sites at the Bradley Place and at Pecan Point this cus- 
tom was repeatedly noted, as will be set forth in the accounts of these sites, which 
follow in this report. 
These wing-bones, when with burials, often lay near the forearms of skeletons, 
though sometimes the bones were found near other parts of the burials. 
We shall now describe each burial with which were artifacts other than pot- 
tery, and shall give details of such pottery as was found with these burials. 
> “Antiquities of the eo White, and Black Rivers, Arkansas,” p. 280 et seq. Journ. 
Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila., Vol. 
2 Some of the wing-bones found by us were so badly decayed and broken that they were not 
retained for identification. 
