It was a lack of ability to reproduce accurately the lines and character of _any_ object which caused some of the Moundbuilder pipes intended to represent the common otter to look like something else. As a matter of fact, these Moundbuilder pipe carvings, about which so much that is unwarranted has been written, are not superior to the carvings of the Haidas, or other stocks, and indeed, if anything, are not equal to them. They certainly do not compare for a moment with most of the work of the Mexican tribes. A further important conclusion of Henshaw’s is that “there is no reason for believing that the masks and sculptures of human faces are more correct likenesses than are the animal carvings,”[154] which is exactly in accord with my own opinion, not only as concerns the work of the Moundbuilders, but of every other Amerind tribe. They were not sculptors of a kind that could reproduce a likeness to an individual. Their work was always _general_; they seldom drew or painted _from the object_, as an artist or sculptor of our race does, but they accomplished their result by memory, imagination, and “rule of thumb.” The surprise of the Europeans at finding anything at all in the art line, coupled with a wide ignorance on art matters, has awarded all the Amerind carvings and sculptures, as is well illustrated in the Moundbuilder case, a false degree of excellence. The Amerinds of the Mississippi valley probably also carved wood, but their work in this material has, of course, long ago decayed. They worked other things, like shell, and some of the shell carvings are strikingly like Aztec drawings. In this shellwork there are a great many discs and gorgets, engraved with figures of spiders, rattlesnakes, birds, geometrical designs, and representations of the human figure. There are also rude shell masks of the human face, but these are primitive in the extreme. It must be borne in mind that this region was occupied for long ages, and _by many different tribes_, so that the work found is probably from different sources, though all Amerind. A class of singularly shaped stones is found in the Mississippi valley and northward, mainly north of the Ohio, to which the name “bird-stones” has been applied because of their resemblance to avian forms. No satisfactory explanation of their use has been advanced.[155] [Illustration: SHELL GORGET, MISSOURI.]