I do not assume to interpret these designs; they are not to be interpreted. All I desire is to elevate these works from the category of trinkets to what I believe is their rightful place--the serious art of a people with great capacity for loftier works. What the gorgets themselves were, or of what particular value to their possessor, aside from simple ornaments, must be, in a measure, a matter of conjecture. They were hardly less than the totems of clans, the insignia of rulers, or the potent charms of the priesthood. [Illustration: Fig. 275. ENGRAVED SHELL GORGET. Figure representing a spider; circles and Greek crosses.] _The spider._--The spider was represented on the shell gorgets. Figs. 275 to 278[274] present four of these gorgets, of which figs. 275 to 277 display the Greek cross in the center, surrounded by two concentric incised lines forming a circle which is the body of a spider. Fig. 276 shows the same spider and circle, and inside of it a cross much resembling the Swastika, in that the arms are turned at their extremities to the right and form, in an inchoate manner, the gamma. Fig. 278 represents the shell with the spider, and, though it contains no cross nor semblance of the Swastika, derives its value from having been taken from the same mound on Fains Island, Tennessee, as was the true Swastika. (See fig. 237.) [Illustration: Fig. 276. ENGRAVED SHELL GORGET.] _The rattlesnake._--The rattlesnake was a favorite design on these gorgets, affording, as it did, an opportunity for the aborigines to make a display of elegance of design, and of accuracy and fineness in execution. Fig. 279 is a specimen in which the snake is represented coiled, the head in the center, the mouth [V]-shaped in strong lines, the body in volute fashion; on the outside of the circle the tail is shown by its rattle. This specimen is represented three-fourths size, and comes from McMahon mound, Tennessee. Four others of similar design are also from Tennessee and the adjoining States, but the locality is more restricted than is the case with other shell disk ornaments. [Illustration: Fig. 277. ENGRAVED SHELL GORGET.] _The human face and form._--These were also carved and wrought upon shells in the same general locality. The engraving is always on the convex side of the shell which has been reduced to a pear-shaped form.[275] [Illustration: Fig. 278. ENGRAVED SHELL GORGET. Fains Island, Tennessee.] [Illustration: Fig. 279. ENGRAVED SHELL GORGET REPRESENTING A RATTLESNAKE. McMahon Mound, Tennessee. Second Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, pl. LXIII.] [Illustration: Figs. 280 and 281. ENGRAVED SHELLS WITH REPRESENTATIONS OF THE HUMAN FACE. McMahon Mound, Tennessee. Second Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, pl. LXIX.] [Illustration: Figs. 282 and 283. ENGRAVED SHELLS WITH REPRESENTATIONS OF THE HUMAN FACE. Tennessee. Second Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, pl. LXIX.]