Page:Anthropology.djvu/137

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136
MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS RELATING TO ANTHROPOLOGY.

were found in good preservation, the remains of a gun barrel and lock, a number of glass bottles, one of which was found nearly half filled with some sort of liquid. These articles were probably obtained from the Dutch, either by present or by trade. There was also found a pair of shears, a pistol, lead pipes, strings of wampum, small brass rings, glass beads; a female skeleton with a brass comb; the hair was in a state of preservation wherever it came in contact with the comb. After the Podunks had removed from these parts they were known to have brought a dead child from toward Norwich and interred it in this burying place."

The Podunk Indians were of peaceable disposition, and we have no records of serious feuds between them and the white settlers. They (the Indians) suffered much from forays of the Mohawks, who roamed across the wilderness from the northwest.

Of scattered relics, quartz and flint arrow points are most frequently found here. These were probably in numerous instances lost by the Indians in hunting. Then we have stone axes, hoes, chisels, gouges, and pestles. A large proportion of the axes, hoes, chisels, gouges, and pestles are made of trap-rock, and many of them have had but very little artificial fashioning to adapt them to their uses.

There are localities in this State, one of which in New Britain, I have particularly examined, where trap-rock, broken from the face of a cliff by the atmospheric vicissitudes of centuries, has accumulated in a sloping pile at the foot of the cliff. This débris consists of elongated and angular fragments, some of which, untouched as they are by art, would, if found in our fields to-day, be mistaken for genuine Indian relics. Kettles excavated from lumps of soapstone are sometimes found. These are usually broken and portions missing. They are of rude oval form, with a capacity of from one to three gallons; they have short, projecting handles or lugs at the ends, and are without ornamental carving. The sides and bottoms are from half an inch to an inch in thickness, and are sometimes externally sooted, indicating that they were used in cooking.

Fragments of clay pottery are frequently found here, though it is rare to find a single piece large enough to show the size or shape of the vessel from which it was broken. Occasionally a sufficient number of pieces of one utensil are obtainable to admit of a reconstruction. One which I have in my possession was put together with glue and brick-dust, and some gaps were supplied with the same composition. It is now sound, strong, and perfect in appearance, and, for exhibition purposes, as good as if it had never been broken. This pot is egg-shaped, about fourteen and a half inches high and eleven inches in diameter, with a contraction in the rim below the mouth. The sides are about three-eighths of an inch thick. Similar pottery is always rudely ornamented on the outside by dots or lines, smooth or serrated, which were impressed by pointed implements when the clay was soft. Granules of quartz or mica