FOOD VESSELS OF STONE. Ill 



different materials, but mostly of serpentine. While many, and perhaps all, 

 of these specimens have been manufactured de novo, several strongly sug- 

 gest the probability of their being the bottoms of larger vessels, such as 

 have been already described, which have been utilized, by giving an even 

 and uniform edge to what were the fractured sides of a deeper bowl or cup. 

 Others, again, are certainly things of themselves, and in no way referable 

 to other patterns of stone vessels.* In some instances, as Fig. 3, Plate VI, 

 there is a trace of ornamentation of a primitive kind in the one incised line 

 extending along the rim ; but as a class they are not symmetrical in outline, 

 nor do they exhibit any care in the finish. Their appearance is strongly 

 suggestive, especially the smaller specimens, of being mere playthings for 

 children : which is the more plausible from the fact that our present Indians 

 still fashion, both in clay and stone, similar articles as toys for their children. 

 One of the smallest, however, and also the rudest (Fig. 9, Plate V), still has 

 some of the characteristic red pigment adhering to it, and such vessels pos- 

 sibly were not considered too small for toilet cups for adults. Figs. 4, 6, 7, 

 8, 9, 10 of Plate V, and Figs. 3 and 4 of Plate VI, represent a series of these 

 saucer-like vessels, and scarcely require detailed descriptions. As they are 

 represented on the plates reduced to a uniform scale of one-fourth their 

 diameter, reference to special measurements is unnecessary f 



The presence of pigment in one specimen, as already referred to, will 

 scarcely give us a clue to the intended uses of the shallow vessels ; but, 

 whether for adults or children, there are so many possible suggestions that 

 can be made by reference to similar forms in our own homes that it is 

 scarcely necessary to give them any definite name or ascribe as probable 

 any one or more special uses to them. 



In addition to these, which as a class were probably used more in con- 



* Among a number of articles said to have been taken from Indian graves, lately discovered in 

 Gloucester County, New Jersey, are two steatite saucers of the same shape as the larger examples of 

 this pattern from California. As no others of this form have been found, or at least appear in any of 

 tin- large private collections in the State, it is presumable that this saucer-shaped pattern was but 

 little used by the Indians of the Atlantic coast, and even the genuineness of many vf the steatite articles 

 which are said to hare been found in Gloucester County may well be questioned. 



t Several much smaller specimens of these little paint-cups have been received from Mr. Schu- 

 macher's later explorations on the islands, and are now in the Peabody Museum. One is hardly over 

 an inch in diameter and less than one-half an inch in depth. Several others, made of steatite and of 

 serpentine, vary from this size to 3 inches in diameter. — F. W. P. 



