EARTHENWARE OF THE NEW YORK ABORIGINES 1 37 



Fig. 228 is a small terra cotta head^ much like the next, and comes 

 from an early historic site south of Delphi. It does not seem to 

 have been part of a pipe^ but is much like a curious article described 

 by Sir J. W. Dawson in his Fossil men, from Montreal. Of these 

 he said, ' The Hochelagan women, however^ had a very ingenious 

 contrivance for hanging their pots over the fire, which deserves 

 notice. They had no doubt found by experience that when an 

 earthen pot was hung over the fire by strings or withes tied to the 

 outside, the flames would sometimes reach the perishable means 

 of suspension^ and^ burning it, allow the pot to fall, and its con- 

 tents to be lost. Hence they contrived a mode of fastening the 

 cord within the throat of the vessel^ where the fire could not reach 

 it. This hook for suspension \vas made in the shape of a human 

 head and neck, the hole for the cord being left behind the neck. 

 Many of these heads were found detached, and their use was not 

 *known till the fragment illustrated was found.' This Onondaga 

 fragment may be of this kind, but the practice could not have been 

 common. The simpler method of inserting a stick too long to be 

 withdrawn when turned horizontally, as a point of attachment for 

 the cord^ would satisfy most Indian housewives. Certainly, in New 

 York^ detached heads suitable for such uses are rare. 



Fig. 229 much resembles the last^ but is larger, and more sugges- 

 tive of use on a pipe. It is from Jefiferson county. 



Fig. 230 is much more recent, but comes from the Onondaga 

 town of 1654. During its later occupancy European pipes found 

 their way there, and perhaps even at an earlier day. The material 

 was rare as yet, and the thrifty Onondagas, ' men of business,' as 

 a later French missionary called them, saw a possibility of an orna- 

 ment in the broken pipe stem of the white man. If slender, it was 

 needful only to smooth the ends; if thick and heavy^ it might be 

 carved and made more ornamental still. The white and carved 

 pipe stem here shown is of unusual thickness, but early pipes varied 

 greatly in this. It has been cut in several ways. 



Fig. 231 is of a generally rectangular form, though each edge is 

 slightly convex. It is beveled from the central square on each 

 side, and grooves appear on every face. It could hardly have been 



