802 Idols and Idol Worship of the Delaware Indians. [October, 



material is a compact argillaceous substance of a pale, oliva- 

 ceous color. It is, in fact, .an indurated clay-stone, and no 

 doubt a nodule from the underlying cretaceous plastic clay 

 cliffs on the shore of Raritan bay, near Keyport, New Jersey. 

 These nodules abound in the clays just mentioned. The speci- 

 men shows, at the point of fracture, that this nodule is of 

 unusual hardness, and has a clean conchoidal fracture. The 

 slight depressions on the forehead are due to weathering, and the 

 general condition of the surface indicates a considerable degree of 

 antiquity. This fact, again, is of interest, as it adds to the series 

 of facts already gathered concerning the handiwork of our coast 



tribes, which go to show that at the time of the C 



:olumbian d 



covery of the continent, the natives were not in as 



" advanced ' 



condition as they previously had been, and that t 



he majority 



the most artistic of their productions in stone, if 



indeed not 



of them, were at that time veritable relics, and 



considered 



In the execution of the idol we have been considering, the 

 artist has secured the peculiar Indian physiognomy, yet it has 

 been from simple economy ol labor given to certain salient points 

 offered by the natural form of the nodule, the work being 

 entirely limited to the front and upper part of the head. There 

 is, strange to say, no labor given to the sides, the bunch-like 

 prominences being left untouched, and the effect is produced of an 

 irregularly winged aspect, somewhat Egyptian. This, of course, 

 is purely accidental, and may be classed as one of those treacher- 

 ous resemblances which have led to so much vain speculation as 

 to the ethnic relationship of American and Egyptian civih- 



The height of this fragmentary carving is five and one-half 

 inches; the breadth, four and one-eighth. Curiously enough, 



ings found in Ohio, an,! nearly coincide with the measurements 

 given of the specimens found in Western New York, to which 

 reference has been made. Can, indeed, this uniformity of size be 

 merely accidental ? Does it not rather indicate that these simi- 

 lar objects, whether in the possession of mound-builders or coast 

 tribes, had a like significance, and was it not in all probability 

 religious in its character? , 



I am indebted to Professor Samuel Lockwood, of Freehold, 

 New Jersey, for much of the information concerning the interest- 

 ing object here described, and the details of its discovery. The 

 specimen is in his cabinet. 



