140 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



the French governor, July 2, 1645, ^^§'ing him to make a settle- 

 ment in the Mohawk country, he said, ' Leave these stinking pigs, 

 which run among your habitations, which eat nothing but what is 

 filthy, and come and eat of good victuals with us.' A small boar's 

 head from an Iroquois site in the Seneca country is very accurately 

 worked out, and has also the remarkable feature of being hollow. 

 The Senecas alone seem to have made heads in this way. 



It will thus be seen that New York aboriginal work in clay took 

 a very narrow range outside of pipes and pots. Small amulets, 

 disks and beads comprise nearly everything that was made, and 

 examples of these are few in number. The reason is obvious. Pots 

 and pipes of necessity being made of clay were often finely adorned ; 

 for mere ornament they chose more showy and less fragile 

 materials. 



Fig. 147a is inserted out of its proper place, and is somewhat 

 reduced, being 2-| inches long. It is a curious article, broken at 

 the broad end and sharpened at the other. It is a little wider the 

 other way. In appearance it is precisely like the frequent punches 

 made from sharpened prongs of antlers, but is of clay, the neat 

 pointing having been made before burning. Its purpose, of course, 

 was the same as that of the horn punch, but why clay was used 

 when horn was abundant is a puzzle. The owner thought it the leg 

 of a pot. It was found in the vicinity of Canandaigua lake, and its 

 occurrence suggests how many odd forms may come to our knowl- 

 edge through closer observation. 



A general view has thus been ^iven of aboriginal work in clay 

 in New York. It is necessarily somewhat summary in treatment, 

 leaving out many fine pipes, specially, because these are so many 

 that typical examples alone can be given. In the hard work of 

 cataloguing, Mr Richmond has never lost sight of making notes of 

 place and history, whenever possible, an indispensable feature in 

 study of this kind. Future students will appreciate what^ has been 

 so faithfully done, and the New York collection will have a value 

 altogether above the beauty and variety of its articles. The aid 

 of all is asked in making it more complete. 



