set ROR atAS

 

Sab yet

  

 

~, ALDERMAN
STACKS

E

51

.N45

v.10

no.1

INDIAN NOTES
AND MONOGRAPHS

A SERIES OF PUBLICA-
TIONS RELATING TO THE
AMERICAN ABORIGINES

A STONE EFFIGY PIPE FROM
KENTUCKY

BY
GEORGE H. PEPPER

NEW YORE

MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN
HEYE FOUNDATION

1920

wie i |jebbieg st .

Tistitige Quer dey:

<r Daggh gas

es

JB ie 2INDIAN NOTES
AND MONOGRAPHS

er Te
PIS
7 5 ‘

EW

; if
4 be mpl. r a \
UAV TAD aK
\ ~ J ; ey
ea ate
(iS eae

sy
—— ee”
eee

A SERIES OF PUBLICA-
TIONS RELATING TO THE
AMERICAN ABORIGINES

A STONE EFFIGY PIPE IROM
KENTUCKY

MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAN IN‘
HEYE FOUNDATION
1920TuIs series of INDIAN NOTES AND Mono-
GRAPHS Is devoted primarily to the publica-
tion of the results of studies by members of
the staff of the Museum of the American
Indian, Heye Foundation, and is uniform

with HispANic NOTES AND MONOGRAPHS,

published by the Hispanic Society of

America, with which organization this

Museum is in cordial coéperation.A STONE EERIGY Hine
FROM KENTUCKY

BY

GEORGE 'H. PEPPER+

NTUCK

KE

FROM

Lid
)
os
ee

FIGY

E

STONE1 SLONE EFFIGY PIPE. FROM
KENTUCKY

By GEORGE H. PEPPER

NDIAN pipes of zo6morphic form
e antedate the discovery of Amer-
ica, such effigies having been un-
5 earthed from many prehistoric
village-sites and mounds, while similar ones
are in use by members of some of the modern
Indian tribes. As most of the ancient ani-
mal pipes were no doubt employed in cere-
monies, it is little wonder that the highest
skill of the pipe-maker is reflected in these
particular productions. Many effigy pipes
are represented in the collections of the
Museum of the American Indian, Heye
Foundation, but there is one in particular
that, owing to its size, workmanship, and
| history, deserves special consideration.
During the summer of 1915 the Museum
obtained the major part of the collection of

PND LAN NOY ESKENTUCKY

Kentucky archeological objects that had
been brought together by the late Col.
Bennett H. Young of Louisville. One of
these was a stone pipe, of unusual dimen-
sions and perfection of finish, whose distal
end is fashioned in the form of the head of |
a wolf or of some similar animal. In 1876 |
Mr Lucien Carr and Prof. N. S. Shaler|

described the specimen, and since that time |
other writers, including Colonel Young, |
have added information concerning it. Now

that the pipe has been permanently placed |

in the Museum of the American Indian, |
Heye Foundation, the writer has en-|
deavored to assemble all facts that may
prove useful to those having occasion to
refer to this interesting example of abo-
riginal sculpture.

As the first known mention of this pipe
is that given by Carr and Shaler, and as|
only parts of their description have been

 

 

used by more recent writers, their account!
|

will be quoted in full:
“Figure 1—Plate VI [Plate VII] is a carved |

pipe of the mound-builder pattern, and repre- |
sents the head of some fanciful animal. It is|

INDIAN NOTESBy ehel Gey

 

PIPE

made of a highly metamorphosed clayey slate
of a yellowish color; and.in places, as for instance
on the ear of the animal, it has a series of par-
allel lines of a darker color, the whole resembling
very much the graining in a piece of yellow pine.
This pipe is unusually large, and is given here |
ya scale of one-half, being the only figure that |
is at all reduced. It measures 162 inches in|
length, 3% inches in height, and its weight is five
pounds seven and one-half ounces. The bowl
is 12 inches in width. It was found imbedded
in the roots of a tree, and may be some hun-|
dreds of years old. It belongs to Mr. R. S.|
Munford of Rowlett’s Station, Hart County,
| Kentucky, by whom it was kindly loaned for
representation. There is also in the collection
of the State Geological Survey a broken pipe of
steatite, about half the size of this one, having
very much the same head. In this latter speci-
men, the bowl shows unmistakably the marks
of the tool with which it was dug out, the striz
being perpendicular and not circular, as they
would have been if it had been bored out.”’

In 1910, Colonel Young added another
. e . 9
personal touch, in the following words:

‘It was found in the roots of a beech tree
which had grown on the top of a mound near
Green River, in Hart County. .. . . The
pressure of the root and the concussion in the
fall of the tree broke the pipe into nine separate
pieces. Colonel Robert Munford, of Munford-
ville, Kentucky, from whom it was obtained,
and who was a most enthusiastic and zealous

MONOGRAPHS

 

ANDa ae al

KENTUCKY

antiquarian, discovered the pipe in the root
after the tree had been blown down, cut away
the pieces that were holding it, and searched
with intense diligence for the remaining parts
of this splendid piece of workmanship that were
lost. He moved the dirt carefully with his
hands and with a sifter, and in the course of
two or three months found every piece but one.
With glue, which he had learned from the
Indians to manufacture out of buck’s horn, he
welded the separate pieces into a beautiful
whole again, but still one piece was lacking
lor eight months he searched for this last piece
until, like the woman in the Scriptures hunting

for the lost coin, he found it, and his patience |

and courage were rewarded with the delight
which can come only to an antiquarian when.
after long months of toil and watchfulness, he
finds that which he sought.”

The accompanying illustration (pl. 1)
shows the pipe in its present condition. It
is complete in practically every detail, and
neither the surface nor the finest lines of

the incised features have suffered from the

fractures above noted. The pipe is of the
usual form that has the bowl placed at the
end of the stem and at a right angle to it.
The addition of the head of an animal gives
to the stem the suggestion of a body, al-
though there are no physical embellish-
INDIAN NOTESPEE EGY Bre

ments to impart to the stem the appearance
of such. The stem js 10 in. long, and aver-

ages 2 in. in height and 23 in. in width.)

There is a gentle taper from the proximal
end to the bowl, this part being squared
and having rounded edges. The bowl is 23
in. square, 14 in. high, and its opening is 1}
in. in diameter. The stem and the bowl
are without ornamentation, save that of the
natural striation of the stone. The distal
end of the stem is shouldered, and from it
extends a carved ornament in the form of
the head of a wolf or a dog, the statement
of Messrs Carr and Shaler to the effect that
the pipe “represents the head of some fan-
ciful animal’ being somewhat misleading.
When the pipe is resting in a horizontal po-
sition, the under part of the head is a
quarter of an inch above the base of the
stem. The head is carved in the round,
| the ears being conical, and stand in high
relief. The eyes are represented by in-
cised circles, the nostrils by two crescentic
incisions, and the mouth by a _ broad,
deeply-cut line extending from a point be-
low the right eye, around the muzzle, and

AND MONOGRAPHSKENTUCK»y
relatively to the same position under the |
lefteye. The teeth are indicated by twenty- |
five short, vertically-incised lines on the
lower edge of the left mouth-line, and
twenty-eight similar lines on the right side.
On the under part of the jaw there is an
incised, rounded-end figure which evidently
was intended to represent the depression
caused by the angle of the inferior maxillary.
The character of this particular feature is
shown in pl. I, 0.

The carving of the head was carefully |
done, the skilful workmanship representing |

one of the best examples of ancient abo-

riginal carving as applied to pipes. It is

devoid of ornamentation, although the nat- |
ural reddish-brown striation of the stone
is strongly emphasized on the head and
portions of the bowl, and indeed has the|

appearance of intentional embellishment.

The boring at the mouth-end of the stem |
averages three-quarters of an inch in diame- |
ter, and is somewhat irregular. The in- |
terior of the bowl is crudely worked, and |
some of the vertical tool-marks are quite |

deep. The entire outer surface of the pipe

INDIAN NOTESIN MARYLAND

EFFIGY PIPE FOUND

PIPE
STONE

EFFIGY

PEPPER‘

| brown surface, it would seem that the pipe
had suffered no decomposition, and that it

|Natural History, pronounces it to be a
| phyllite, a metamorphosed shale, and that

cs : |
terial to the one described (pl. m). It was

strong probability that it reached those
| parts through barter. Pipes of this type
|are not of common occurrence in the East-
lern states, although one of the first pub-

has been carefully smoothed, obliterating all

     
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
   
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 

EEE iGyY Pre

traces of primary cutting. From the ap-
pearance of the smooth, perfect, yellow-

has changed but little, if at all, since it left
the hands of its maker.

In the Carr and Shaler description of this
pipe the material is given as a “highly
metamorphosed clayey slate.’ In Moore-
head’s “Stone Age in North America,’’? it
is called “oolitic limestone.” Dr Chester|
A. Reeds, of the American Museum of |

the red-brown striation is due to iron dis-

e |
coloration.

In the Museum collections there is an-

other pipe, similar in form, size, and ma-|

collected in Maryland by F. C. Christ, of
Nazareth, Pennsylvania, but there is a

| AND MONOGRAPHS 1-4

——— Bo Se = a12 KEN DU GK Y

lished illustrations of Eastern Indian arti-
facts is that of a pipe with an animal head
carved at the bowl end.*
The Maryland pipe is 134 in. in length
and measures 3% in. from the base of the
stem to the top of the bowl. The stem
averages 2 in. in height and width. It is
rounded on three sides; the fourth side,
that on the left as viewed from the mouth-
end, is somewhat flattened, this exception
having been caused by the bed-plane of the
stone. The bowl is 1} in. in height, and the
opening averages 11 in. in diameter; at the
mouth-end the drilling of the stem meas-
ures ? in. Nine and a half inches from the
distal end there is a raised collar, 7 in.|
broad, which forms the neck of the bird- |
| head with which this part of the pipe is
| ornamented. Judging by the form and
general character of the head, it was prob-

ably intended to represent an owl. Ear-

like projections are. carved in high relief |
and have a forward inclination. The fron-
tal plane is angular and raised; it com- |
mences at the inner edges of the projections, |
and narrows gradually until it reaches the

 

xX PND TAIN, NOPE SBee iGyY Pah

base of the bill, and undoubtedly was de-
| signed to represent the facial angles formed
| by the circular lines of eye-feathers of the
owl. Below this section the head is grace-
fully rounded, but there are no indications
of eyes. The beak is carefully carved and
well formed, the upper mandible overlap-
ping the lower, while deep incisions on the
sides, at the base of the beak, aid in de-
fining this feature. On the under surface
‘of the lower mandible there is a depressed
area with a central ridge that extends back-
ward from the bill (pl. u, 6). The outline
of this part of the carving approximates that
of the under part of the jaw of the other
pipe.

From the general appearance of this bird
pipe it would seem that it had never been
completed. The head is smoothed, but
the implement marks are not obliterated,
ind these are markedly apparent on the
collar and the bowl, while the lack of marks
to indicate the eyes, and the general ap-
pearance of the bowl, lend weight to this
supposition. The general color of the pipe
is yellow-brown, and on the upper surface

| AND MONOGRAPHSKENTUCKY

of the stem are natural longitudinal lines
of reddish-brown, similar in color to those
on the head and the bow! of the other pipe.

On the left side of the stem, below the

bowl of the owl pipe, there is a lightly |

1] VbErs5@
rt HOO MSG

| Csf - MI WUN . = SG
WAN
Fic. 3.—Cherokee inscription on the pipe, with equiva
ents in ri eras type and in English characters

    
    
  
     
      

 

scratched figure composed of interlaced

wave-lines (fig. 1). while a bow-shaped

‘figure is on the opposite side (fig. 2). On|

;
the under part of the stem, near these|

figures, there is a series of characters (fig. 3)

|suggestive of a name, such as is often)

 

INDIAN NOTESRene uG Y (eae

scratched or cut by farmers or others who
find aboriginal objects and who have little
regard for their archeological value. On
closer examination these faintly scratched
characters proved to be composed of de-
vices bearing such close resemblance to
Cherokee alphabetic characters, that a copy
of the inscription was sent to Mr James
Mooney, of the Bureau of American Eth-
nology, who kindly made an individual
comparison of the characters and sent the

following report thereon:

“The inscription is in Cherokee characters,
the final character being doubtful, and is prob-
ably the name of the maker or owner. The
first word, of two characters, is Tstmi, the
|Cherokee attempt at ‘James,’ i.e. ‘Jimmie.’
|The second word is doubtful, by reason of the
imperfect form of the final character. It might
be a-misspelled form for Wdnisgaya, or Wunis-
gaya, ‘Men Far Away,’ or ‘Distant Men,’ used
as a general name; but I am rather inclined to
think that it is a Cherokee attempt at some

y
j

civilized family name, as Winship, etc.

“Cherokee pipes are usually of a red-black
micaceous stone, frequently made darker by
means of grease. As the Cherokee alphabet
was invented about 1820, the pipe, if of the
same age as the inscription, is not more than
100 years old.”

AND MONOGRAPHSKENTUCKY

If this pipe is of Cherokee origin, it must
have been made in prehistoric time. The
weight of evidence would seem to preclude
such an origin, but it may well belong to

the same period and be a production of the

   
 
 
 
 
 
 

same people who were responsible for the |

animal effigy pipe. Who these people were

cannot be definitely determined, but they

were probably the Shawnee,a tribe that, in
early times, had a wide distribution. In
the ‘‘Handbook of the American Indians”

Mr Mooney states that “they probably |

wandered for some time in Kentucky, |
which was practically a part of their own
territory and not occupied by any other
tribe,” also that ‘‘the evidence afforded |
by the mounds shows that the two tribes
(Shawnee and Cherokee] lived together for
a considerable period, both in South Caro- |
lina and in Tennessee, and it is a matter]
of history that the Cherokee claimed the |
country vacated by the Shawnee in both
states after the removal of the latter to the
north.” It would therefore seem that the
owl pipe may be of ancient Shawnee origin
and later became the property of a Chero-

IND TAN INOW!PEE EGY. Pee

 

kee, who scratched thereon the name that
Mr Mooney has deciphered.

Pipes of this particular type are not un-
usual, although most of them are more
crudely made than the ones described. The
late Joseph D. McGuire? described a similar

Ohne as=

‘an unusually large specimen of an _ un-
finished pipe, made of steatite, which is 19
inches long, 4 inches high, and 3 inches wide,
and weighs 9; pounds, and used as a weapon
vould really be terrible. There are few surface
indications showing the striw of the tools with
which these implements were originally made,
and it is impossible to say from an examination
of many specimens whether stone or metal tools
were used, as the surfaces have been smoothed
off. As the shape of this pipe is perfect, it
would indicate that it was intended for use in
its present condition. If, however, it was in-
tended that the bowl and stem were to be bored
out, which was probably the case, it would
indicate that this was one of those ‘great pipes’
to which reference is so often made in works
of early North American travel, the size of
which distinguishes them from pipes intended
for individual use. Pipes of this type vary
from 6 to 19 inches in length, and are apparently
totemic. One specimen in the U. S. National
Museum, from Anderson County, Tennessee, has
a head on it, but it is impossible to determine
whether it represents a turtle or a bird, though

AND MO NOG RA ParsKEN TUG KY

the head in the last illustration was probably

that of a dog or wolf.” |
}

Captain John Smith® speaks in the follow- |
ing words of his meeting with the Sasque-

sahanocks:

“One had the head of a Woolfe hanging in a
chaine for a Jewell, his Tobacco pipe three
quarters of a yard long, prettily carued with a|
Bird, a Deere, or some such devise at the great
end, sufficient to beat out ones braines: with
Bowes, Arrowes, and clubs, sutable to their
greatnesse.”’

Very little is known of the actual use of
this type of pipes, save by analogy, but that
they were used in ceremonies and repre-
sent an elaboration of the ordinary utili-
tarian forms, is unquestioned. Descrip-
tions and illustrations of many such pipes
have been published, and the animal effigy |
pipe of the Young collection has been al
luded to by several writers. At this late
day there is little hope of finding unpub-
lished contemporary descriptions of the use
of such pipes at the time of the conquest,
and owing to the nonexistence of prehistoric
records, save in the way of picture-writing,

INDIAN NOQEEsSNO Es

| the ceremonies in which they played a part
must remain unknown.

NOTES

1. Carr, Lucien, and SHALER, N. S., On
the Prehistoric Remains of Kentucky, Memoirs
of the Geological Survey of Kentucky, N. S.,
Shaler, Director, vol. 1, part 1v, Cambridge,
1876, p. 22.

2. YounG, Bennett H., The Prehistoric Men
of Kentucky, Filson Club Publications, No. 25,
Louisville, 1910, pp. 285-291, ill., p. 288.

3. MoOoREHEAD, Warren K. The Stone Age
in North America, Boston, 1910, vol. 2, p. 77,
fig. 482. ‘‘QOolitic limestone pipe, Hart County,
Kentucky. Highly polished. A beautiful speci-
men. Collection of Bennett H. Young. These
long effigy pipes of this type are to be found in
the Smithsonian and American Museum col-
lections. An example in the G. A. West col-
lection, found in Ohio, is 14 inches long.’’ See
also MoorEHEAD, Prehistoric Implements, Cin-
cinnati, 1900, p. 158, fig. 235. Figures with
the caption, “‘From Col. Bennett H. Young’s
collection, Louisville, Ky., found in southern
Ky.”

4. Memoirs of the American Academy of Art
ind Sciences, Boston, 1785. See SAVILLE, Mar-
shall H., Archeological Specimens from New
England, Indian Notes and Monographs, Mu-
seum of the American Indian, Heye Founda-
tion, vol. v, no. 1, New York, 1919.

AND MONOGRAPHSPLEASE RETURN TO
ALDERMAN LIBRARY

DUE DUE

10°84XX OOO 875 778