56 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 
being on the outside, were considerably corroded by time and 
exposure and were unfit for use.”—OClark, 2:260 
Squier mentioned a curious burial around a kettle, which may 
be credited to the Neutral nation. A large number of skeletons 
were found together in the town of Black Rock. ‘“ They were 
arranged in a circle, with their heads radiating from a large 
copper kettle which had been placed in the center and filled with 
bones. Various implements both of modern and remote date 
had been placed beside the skeletons.”—Squier, p. 100 | 
The brass kettles which he describes and figures from the 
Canadian ossuaries are quite different in some respects from 
those of New York. The ears and bails project far out from 
the sides in a very clumsy way and the kettles held from 6 to 16 
gallons. As these were undoubtedly French, those of New York 
may show the prevalent English and Dutch forms in the 17th 
century. 
Metallic pipes ; 
Roger Williams’s statement has been given regarding the 
quickness with which the New England Indians learned to cast 
metals, even in the form of pipes. Their ability to cast brass 
may be doubted. When the writer was a child every hunter 
cast his own bullets, and he has done the same. Bullet molds 
occur on Iroquois sites 250 years old. Like things were a part 
of household economy. In the general Bigelow collection is a 
mold for casting pewter spoons, much in use in pioneer days by © 
those who could not afford silver, then a foreign commodity. — 
Were the old spoons bent and battered? They went into the: 
ladie and mold and came forth in pristine beauty. 
Though Hudson said he saw copper pipes in New York in 
L609, none of these are known, nor are metallic pipes common. 
Those found on Indian sites were probably made by white men. 
fewter and lead were easily melted; not so iron and brass. So- 
oars Of lead were often given to the Indians at treaties and 
are sometimes found on their village sites. These were mostly 
used for bullets, but some were formed into rude ornaments, to 
be noted later. In case of necessity the lead ornament or pipe 
might take the form of balls for the gun. 
