61 
TOILET ARTICLES 
The inhabitants of this site, like other Iroquoian tribes, 1 probably 
greased their hair and faces, and painted their faces and bodies 2 with 
variously coloured paints derived from vegetal, earthen, and mineral 
substances. It was, of course, impossible for us to discover any evidence 
of the use of vegetal pigments, but a number of mineral and other sub- 
stances, including a few pieces of red ochre and hematite, were found. 
Black paint was probably mostly derived from charcoal 3 and soot, 4 
although pieces of graphite, a material used for the purpose by other 
Indians, 5 were discovered here. That the mineral and other paint materials 
were in some cases reduced to powder by grinding them on a gritty stone 
is suggested by the rubbed pieces of hematite found; other pieces may 
have been crushed to a powder. Two stone celts, a hammerstone, and 
both sides of a small biconcave stone mortar, are partly covered with 
red paint and look as if they had been used as pigment grinders. The 
powdered paint was probably mixed with grease or oil before it was applied 
to the face or body. 6 A large half shell of a freshwater clam has the 
inner surface still coated with red paint and was evidently used as a 
receptacle for the prepared paint. 
The three transverse linear impressions on the nose of the human 
face mask from an earthenware pipe, seen in Plate XVI, figure 20, suggest 
that similar marks were painted on the noses of the Indians themselves; 
they may also represent tatooed markings. 7 
Some of the short bone tubes considered as beads, one of which is 
seen in Plate XV, figure 11, may have been used as hair spreaders, or to 
fasten the base of a feather as among some modern Indians. 
Other toilet articles used by the people of this site were combs, but 
only an unfinished specimen, made from an oblong, concavo-convex piece 
of antler (See Plate XV, figure 1) was found. Marks of cutting can be 
seen on all but two of the edges. The method of producing the teeth seems 
to have been as follows: holes were first worked through the material and, 
from these, longitudinal channels were cut on both faces until all the inter- 
vening material was removed, after which the teeth were further reduced to 
shape. It is scarcely probable that the number of teeth the maker evidently 
intended to give this comb was suggested by the number of fingers of the 
hand. Other combs with five teeth have been found at Iroquoian sites 
in October. 8 The broken specimen in Plate XVII, figure 8, and more fully 
described under “Problematical Objects,” may be the head of a comb. 
Ui'ather du Peron says of the Hurons: “They grease their hair and faces; they also streak their faces with black 
and red paint” (Jesuit Relations, XV, p. 155; See also, Bressani Relation, XXXVIII, pp. 249, 251). 
*The underlying motive Beems to have been ceremonial rather than aesthetic. 
s Arnong the Indians of the lower St. Lawrence, widows blackened their faces with a mixture of powdered char- 
coal and grease (Cartier, p. 182). 
‘Bressani, speaking of the black paint of the Hurons, Bays: “Black they commonly take from the bottom of the 
pots” (op. cit., p. 251). 
‘According to De Vries (p. 105) the Mohawks painted their faces with black lead. 
‘According to Champlain (III, p. 166) the Hurons mixed their colours “with oil made from the seed of the sun- 
flower, or with bear’B fat or that of other animals.” 
UThe Hurons are known to have practised tattooing ( See Bressani, op. cit., p. 251). 
8 Onewasfound in an early Huron site on lot 5, con. V, Bexley tp., Victoria co. (See Boyle, 14, fig, 47). 
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