The Technique of Porcupine-Quill Decoration Among the North American Indians Volume 4-5

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1918 Excerpt: ...well-finished fragments or those bearing attractive patterns; indeed in most cases the discs are of crude ware, indicating that the sherds were picked up at random and that perhaps weight rather than quality or finish was the desideratum. As might be expected, there is a greater proportion of ornamented than of plain pieces. Pottery discs of this kind are generally supposed to have been used in gaming. Owing to the disparity in their sizes, it may be presumed that the smallest ones were employed as counters. A few examples are shown in plate Xl111. These objects grade into a class of rude stone discs to be described, and in all probability were used for the same purpose. Smok1ng P1pes P1pes Of Earthenware Whatever the esthetic attainments of the Cherokee of Nacoochee as exemplified by their pottery, they probably reached the height of their artistic ability in the manufacture of smoking pipes of earthenware and of stone. Writing of Cherokee pipes nearly a century and a half ago, Adair said: "They make beautiful stone pipes; and the Cherokee the best of any of the Indians: for their mountainous country contains many different sorts and colors of soils proper for such uses. They easily form them with their tomahawks, and afterward finish them in any desired form with their knives; the pipes being of a very soft quality till they are smoked with, and used to the fire, when they become quite hard. They are often a full span long, and the bowls are about half as large again as those of our English pipes. The fore part of each commonly runs out with a sharp peak, two or three fingers broad, and a quarter of an inch thick--on both sides of the bowl, lengthwise, they cut several pictures with a great deal of skill and labor, such as a buffalo and a panther on ...