262 MIXED PAINT. 



Another kind of paint, bluish-black in color, is also abundant in the 

 graves. This is a prepared material, and is sometimes found in small ir- 

 regularly-shaped masses, which were probably hardened while in shells, or 

 in such a little ball as Fig. 132, from Dos Pueblos, or still more carefully 

 Fig. 132. moulded into conical forms and ornamented with punctures 



like some of the cakes of red ochre. More frequently, how- 

 ever, this prepared paint, when taken from the graves, is in 

 receptacles of various kinds. The very small cups made of 

 serpentine are often filled with this paint, and the little conical 

 Ball of- black paint, cups formed from the vertebrae of large fishes seem to have 

 been often used as receptacles for this particular kind of paint. These 

 little vessels have already been referred to, and are figured on a previous 

 page. By far the most common receptacles for this paint, however, are the 

 smaller shells of Haliotis, several common bivalves, and the larger limpets 

 of the coast. The paint itself is probably that mentioned by Viscaino as 

 blue and silvery, and consists of a mixture of wad with some resinous sub- 

 stance. In its present state it can be softened by heat, and if burnt gives 

 off a peculiar pitchy odor. At first I supposed that the wad was mixed 

 with asphaltum, but this does not seem to be the case. A mass of the wad* 

 in its natural state (P. M. 13139) was found by Mr. Schumacher in a grave 

 at the isthmus, on the island of Santa Catalina, and its determination by Dr. 

 Wadsworth led to the proper understanding of the character of the black 

 paint. 



*Of this mass Dr. Wadsworth says: "The black material given me is toad or hydrous oxide of 

 manganese (bog m.iuganese),'with some hematite, specular variety." 



