Page:Observationsonab00squi.djvu/67

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62 ABORIGINAL MONUMENTS

brown porphyry, granulated with variously colored mate- rials; the whole much changed by the action of fire, and somewhat resembling porcelain. It is intensely hard, and successfully resists the edge of the finest tempered knife. The length of the base is five inches, width of the same one and afourth. The bowlis ene and a fourth inches high, slightly tapering upwards, but flaring near the top. The perforation answering toa tube is about one-sixth of an inch in diameter, which is about the usual size. This circum- stance places it beyond doubt that the mouth was applied directly to the implement, without the ordinary intervention of a tube of wood or metal.

The bowls of these pipes are often sculptured into sin- gular devices, figures of the human head, of animals, birds, &c. The sculpture of the manitus above described, consti- tuted an elaborate pipe. ‘So, also, does the following carv- ing of the toad, which, in lugubriousness of expression searcely less than by his gnarled coat, proclaims the nice observation possessed by the ancient artist, and his keen ap- preciation of the ludicrous.

it is carved in porphyry, as is also the following frag- ment of a sculptured hawk, and the accompanying heads of rapacious birds: