514 SOME ABORIGINAL SITES ON RED RIVER. 
Burial No. 1 had no artifacts in close association with it. It is possible, however, 
that various objects to be described later, which lay along one end of the grave, 
were put in for the dead in common, in which event the remains of the adolescents 
also shared in the offering. 
Burial No. 2, continuing the deposit described as enclosed by the three skulls, 
had under the skull an ornament of sheet-copper and wood, greatly decayed. 
Along the left humerus, a continuation of the deposit of arrowheads already 
noted, were fourteen others similar to the smaller ones in it. 
At the upper part of the left humerus was a tubular bead of the kind already 
described. A similar one lay on the thorax. 
At the right shoulder were traces of sheet-copper. 
At the right wrist was a mass of galena,' and under the right hand, lying trans- 
versely, was a carefully-made ceremonial axe of quartzite, 6.25 inches in length. 
Lying by the outer side of the upper part of the left femur was a copper-coated 
bead like the others, and around the upper part of the left tibia were fragments of 
a number of similar beads which, strung together, probably had encircled the leg. 
At the right knee was a small ornament of decayed wood which had been 
coated with copper, in fragments, and which had been a rattle, as shown by the 
presence of a number of small pebbles. 
At both ankles were the remains of a number of ornaments of wood, copper- 
coated, crushed together and completely out of shape, among which were small 
pebbles, showing that here, too, rattles had been present. With these were some 
very small, shell beads. 
Burial No. 3 had, under the chin, a circular ornament of wood, in the form of 
a disk, about 1.5 inch in diameter, copper-coated on both sides, and the decaying 
remains of sheet-copper and wood at the left of the lower jaw. 
Along one end of the grave, and nearest to Burial No. 3, but 18 inches and 
1 Galena, lead sulphide, as is well known, is often found in the mounds, and when thus found is 
usually coated with the white, lead carbonate. Lead carbonate is the white lead of commerce. The 
aborigines did not possess the chemical knowledge to make this carbonate from lead, but some of them 
scraped the carbonate deposit from galena for use as paint. Lumps of galena were found by us in the 
mounds and cemeteries of the great site at Moundville, Ala., where also numerous ceremonial palettes 
of stone, smeared over with the white, carbonate paint, were recovered. 
he mass of galena found in the mound at Gahagan differs from the masses of this material hith- 
erto met with by us in that it is lighter in weight and much more friable. It seemed to us, from its 
appearance, that the mass had been pulverized rather than having been a solid lump, when left in the 
mound, The mass was submitted to Doctor Keller, who reported upon it as follows: “The material 
from Burial Number 2, Gahagan, La., consists chiefly of carbonate of lead. It was undoubtedly formed 
by gradual oxidation from galena, of which particles are still contained in it. I have endeavored to 
ascertain whether this material was originally in the form of powder or massive, but I confess that I 
am unable to arrive at a definite conclusion as to this. On the one hand I have seen such earthy nod- 
ules of cerusite with streaks of unaltered galena in them, and, on the other, I find on removing the 
carbonate with acetic acid that the remaining galena is in very fine particles. The external shape of 
the lump is not unlike that of nodules of natural earthy cerusite. There is considerable silicious matter 
admixed to the lead compound." 
If this mass consisted of powdered galena, probably held together by grease, it was doubtless used 
by the natives as a cosmetic, as it is used today by natives of Nigeria and farther north. See J. D. 
Falconer, “On Horseback Through Nigeria,” pp. 67 and 116. 
