San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1889-05-30
MAINE INDIAN RELICS.
REMARKABLE DISCOVERIES MADE ON
MAcKWoSTH's ISLAND.

There are numerous knobs slightly ele-
waited above the surrounding surface on the
southern and eastern slopes of Mackworth's
island, and from their shape and the vivid
green of the fine, short heritage which adorns
them, so much fresher and brighter than
near by, suggest to the observer
those fairy haunted rings, whose emerald
sheen so awed the woodland wanderers Of
Arthurian days.
It seems almost sacrilege to put the great
pillow into this ground, but the ambitious
teamster, with his four sturdy horses as i'm
patient as himself to begin the work, is ready,
and only awaits direction where to begin.
We will start near the great mound.
Deeply sinks the share into the earth, and
cutting the rich turf Ike cheese, throws up
windrows of dark soil almost wholly COM
posed of decayed shells, but topped with
white masses Of other shells only partially
broken, until the whole mound lies exposed to
view, like lakelet furrowed with white
capped waves, and we may approach and in
spect it,
THE OLD STONE Ak
Here in the center is great heap OF ashes
and stones marked by fire; bones Of beasts,
bird and fish, tusks of bear and teeth of rab-
bit and coon, revealing to us that we are in
vading the hearthstone of a departed race.
Impressive thought! which must perforce
awaken serious reflection.
Here was a home-the home Of a chief,
doubtless, from its superior size-where do
nestle life ran its eventful course, where
councils upon public affairs took place and
feast and merrymaking marked suspicious
occurrences. At this fireside swung in his
rude cradle the infant who was to succeed his
father in the craftsmanship of his tribe, while
beside him his dark eyed mother forecast his
future, glorified with deeds of proves and
limited only by the horizon of savage aspira-
ton, narrow enough, certainly, to the Chris
tian view.
But these are only the sports of Fancy, and
we fain would have more tangible reminders
of the people who once dwelt en- these sunny
slopes. Here are smooth, round stones, fire
stained and crumbling from much heating,
which were plunged red hot into the water
contained in the receptacle of birch bark,
whose seams were smeared with pitch, and
which served as kettle in which to seeth the
savory pottgge.
OF what this pottage was composed is evil
dent, for mingled with the soil are the bones
of the partridge and pigeon; the teeth of the
bear, the hare and the coon; the larger bones
of the moose and deer, as we'll as the vetebr9
of the cod, and the shells of the whelk; COM
Portable viands, certainly; and, Eureka
here at hand, is a stone axl Shade of Skit-
teragasset! was this ak thinel Didst thou
hold this bit of stone, with smoothly polished
edge, in thy tawny hand when Poor Levett"
sought thy wigwam on the opposite shorel
But. LOT bodkin of bone broken, alas by
the plowshare.
What slender fingers have held this, pune
turing with its arrowy point the sweet smell
ing htrch How like a magic wand this frail
thing summons before us picture of tawny
women plying their simple tasks and we
dream while the white winged vessels and
the steamers with trailing pennons of smoke
20 by, some seward, to return, perchance,
40 more forever, like these pictures Of the
misty past
And now we turn up long stone, rounded
and smooth. 1t was employed in dressing
the skins of beasts, which are made soft and
pliable by frequent beating. With the skins
of beasts so prepared the luxurious gallants
of the courts of King James and his unfortu-
nate son were won't to royalty bedeck them
selves; aye, the king himself, once upon a
time, caused to be made for his added pate
"a fayre bonnet" of which he was absurdly
proud And here we have a stone gouge, the
point worn away and broken by much use.
Surely it had an industrious owner. And a
broken arrow head, what tale does this tell
Was it broken in trial of skill between rival
marksmen! Most likely it was broken by q
tree or other hard substance against which it
was directed.
THE RAREST THING OF ALL.
Turning the soil just outside these charmed
circles, little heap of white sea sand brought
from the beach below isrevealed 1t was not
brought here by ants, but by human hands
Perhaps it was placed here to please the dar-
ling of the wigwam for heap of sand was
doubtless as attractive to the golden skinned
papooses of a bygone age as it is today to our
own ruddy checked darlings. May be here
stood the wigwam of the savage potter, who
used the sand to mingle with the clay from
which he shaped the rude samp bowl or to
bacco pipe for numerous bits of such pottery
are scattered about.
Away from the shells, along the bank Of
the old spring which separated the camps,
the pillow has turned up the brown soil, and
here, near the spring, are the fragments Of
a samp bowl 1t repeats to fancys ear ia
miliar story. Some one going to the spring
met with catastrophe, serious one, too,
for the bowl was precious, and the person
who broke this, which was one of the better
sort, being decorated with broken lines in
intaglio made by sharp stone or bone or
pointed stick, met with sore reproof and tbs
act was not soon forgotten. The gentle
maiden, if such it was, who broke this pre-
cious bowl, returned not to the parental wig
wan with bounding step and hilarious music;
indeed, the sad catastrophe may have so dweIt