121 AETICLES MADE OF WOOD. 



Another example of wood-work, which was obtained from the graves 

 at La Patera, consists of a series of small slabs of red-wood, so joined as 

 to form a triangle, with a broad base, made of several pieces of the same 

 wood. These are joined together by rivets of asphaltum. Holes have been 

 drilled at the several junctions of the strips forming the object, and these 

 have been filled with asphaltum, which overlaps so as to form rivet-heads, 

 thus holding the structure together. This is practically the same plan as 

 we have seen was adopted in mending the steatite vessels. 



A wooden sword with an ornamented handle is described in another 

 place, and is probably one of the best pieces of work of this material. 



Objects of wood manufactured in ancient times by the Indians of the 

 Atlantic coast have not often been found, and we can only recall the large 

 wooden mortars formed by hollowing a section of a trunk of a tree, and 

 portions of canoes or "dug-outs." One of the latter, of great antiquity, 

 was discovered* "while digging a canal on one of the rice plantations on 

 the Savannah River." 



Those who were personally engaged in excavating at La Patera and 

 Dos Pueblos were struck with the almost entire absence of articles of wood, 

 the principal object being represented by the almost decayed canoe at La 

 Patera. This was of red-wood, which it is well known is almost as inde- 

 structible as red cedar, and yet it was nearly rotted away. Some of the 

 burial places were indicated by red-wood posts which had almost entirely 

 decayed. 



"Jones, Antiquities of Southern Indians, p. 53. 



