Carbuncle -and Split Boulder?? (Rhode Island)

 

Carbuncle Pond

      “From Coventry comes the Legend of Carbuncle Pond. Years ago when that particular region was claimed by Narragansett and Mohegan alike, there lived on Carbuncle Hill a great snake. Its species was unknown, but its size was enormous and in the center of its head was a large gem — a carbuncle deep red, glowing with the brilliancy and radiance of a great fire. Whenever it moved about at night, its coming was announced by the glow of the gem, and even by day its light could be seen in a crimson flood in the darkness of the woods. Efforts of the Indians to capture the snake were unsuccessful until, shortly before the coming of the first white men, a large party of Indians surprised the reptile, and after a terrific battle killed it and secured the carbuncle. Tradition relates that at the scene of the battle a large rock was cleft in twain by the snake's tail. The carbuncle served the Indian tribe as a talisman and warning of danger for many years. When the white men came and heard the story of this wonderful gem, they longed to possess it and arranged an expedition against the Indians for that purpose. They attempted a surprise attack, but their advance was announced by the increased glow of the stone, and the Indians were prepared. After a battle which decimated the Indians, the chief alone was left standing; but when the white men tried to take the carbuncle from him he drew back his arm and gave it a mighty throw. It landed with a great splash in the middle of the pond and was lost forever.”

1. Workers of the Federal Writers' Program of the Works Progress Administration for the State of Rhode Island, Rhode Island: A Guide to the Smallest State, American Guide Series, Riverside Press, Cambridge, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1937.

Rhode Island Folklore thesis 1956

     “Snakes, too, had a certain magic charm. Near the Connecticut line in what is now Coventry, a great snake once lived on Carbuncle Hill. Its species was unknown, but its size was enormous, and in the center of its head was a large gem--a carbuncle--deep red, glowing with the brilliancy and radiance of a great fire. Wherever it went at night, its presence was always announced by the glow of the gem, and even ln the daytime the light from the carbuncle could be seen in a crimson flood in the darkness of the woods. The Narragansetts and Mohegans, who had a mutual claim on this territory, tried to capture the great snake, but all efforts were unsuccessful until shortly before the coming of the first white man. A large party of Indians managed to surround the reptile and kill it; during the terrific battle, the snake cut a huge rock in two with one swipe of his tail. The carbuncle became the treasured talisman of the Indian tribe, and it served as a warning of danger for many years. When the white man carne and heard the s tory of this wonderful gem, they wanted to have it and arranged an expedition against the Indians to take it away. Since the settler's surprise attack was announced by the increased g low of the stone, the Indians were prepared. After the long, bitter battle, all the Indians were killed except the chief who stood alone with the carbuncle. When the white men tried to take the gem away from him, he drew back his arm and gave it a mighty throw. It landed with a great splash in the middle of a pond and was lost forever. Today that small lake is known as Carbuncle Pond.”  Pages 91-92

https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1916&context=theses

"Stones on another map by the same guy, George E. Matteson:"

Mooney writes, "Those who know say that the Uktena is a great snake, as large around as a tree trunk, with horns on his head, and a bright, blazing crest like a diamond upon its forehead, and scales glittering like sparks of fire. It has rings or spots of color along its whole length, and can not be wounded except by shooting in the seventh spot from the head, because under this spot are its heart and its life. The blazing diamond is called Ulunsuti, "Transparent", and he who can win it may become the greatest wonder worker of the tribe, but it is worth a man's life to attempt it, for whoever is seen by the Uktena is so dazed by the bright light that he runs toward the snake instead of trying to escape.

 Even to see the Uktena asleep is death, not to the hunter himself, but to his family.

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/uktena-daniel-eskridge.html

     Of all the daring warriors who have started out in search of the Ulunsuti only Aganunitsi ever came back successful. The East Cherokee still keep the one which he brought. It is like a large transparent crystal, nearly the shape of a cartridge bullet, with a blood-red streak running through the center from top to bottom.. The owner keeps it wrapped in a whole deerskin, inside an earthen har hidden away in a secret cave in the mountains. Every seven days he feeds it with the blood of small game, rubbing the blood all over the crystal as soon as the animal has been killed. Twice a year it must have the blood of a deer or some other large animal. Should he forget to feed it at the proper time it would come out from its cave at night in a shape of fire and fly through the air to slake its thirst with the lifeblood of the conjurer or some one of his people. He may save himself from this danger by telling it, when he puts it away, the he will not need it again for a long time. It will then go quietly to sleep and feel no hunger until it is again brought out to be consulted. Then it must be fed again with blood before it is used.

 No white man must ever see it and no person but the owner will venture near it for fear of sudden death. Even the conjurer who keeps it is afraid of it, and changes its hiding place every once in a while so that it can not learn the way out. When he dies it will be buried with him. Otherwise it will come out of its cave, like a blazing star, to search for his grave, night after night for seven years, when if still not able to find him, it will go back to sleep forever where he has placed it.

 Whoever owns the Ulunsuti is sure of success in hunting, love, rain-making, and every other business, but its great use is in life prophecy. When it is consulted for this purpose the future is seen mirrored in the clear crystal as a tree is reflected in the quiet stream below, and the conjurer knows whether the sick man will recover, whether the warrior will return from battle, or whether the youth will live to be old."

   http://www.nativehistoryassociation.org/uktena_ulunsuti.php

“…the snake cut a huge rock in two with one swipe of his tail.”

Legendary Locals of Coventry

By Andrew D. Boisvert

https://books.google.com/books?id=TXEbAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA12&dq=Carbuncle+Pond&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwieuIjz-tz1AhUCpXIEHYOWCN8Q6AF6BAgEEAI#v=onepage&q=Carbuncle%20Pond&f=false

Untitled

 

Semi-Famous Consulting Ceremonial Stone Landscape Detective Visits Rhode Island

The other Consulting CSL detective on the team of alleged antiquarians "gone wild (in Rhode Island)," Sherlock Stones notes: "Neither eye nor horn needs to be superimposed upon this obvious example of Indigenous Stonework." 

Jipijka'm
Tribal affiliation: Mikmaq
Alternate spellings: Jupijkám, Tcipitckaam, Chipitchkam, Chepitchcalm, Kchi Pitchkayam, Ktchi Pitchkaam, Chepechcalm, Chepichkaam, Chepitchkaam, Che-Pitch-Calm, Chepichealm, Jibichkam, Jipijkma, Chepitkam, Ktchi-Pitchkayam
Pronunciation: chih-pitch-kawm
Also known as: The plural form of their name is Jipijkamak or Jipijkmak, and the female form is Jipijkamiskw or Jipijkamiskwa.
Type: Lake monsters, serpents
Related figures in other tribes: Kci-Athussos (Maliseet), Tatoskok (Abenaki), Mishiginebig (Anishinabe), Maneto (Fox)

Jipijka'm is a great horned serpent, common to the legends of most Algonquian tribes. It is said to lurk in lakes and eat humans. 

Since it has only one horn according to most Mi'kmaq stories, it is sometimes called the Unicorn Serpent in English. Its horn is usually described as red and yellow and has powerful magical qualities.

http://www.native-languages.org/jipijkam.htm

Hobomock  also known as: Chepi, Chipi, Cheepie, Cheepee, Cheepi, Cheepii, Chepian (pronounced chee-pee in Wampanoag.)

Tribal affiliation: Wampanoag, Narragansett, Mohegan, Pequot (MA, RI, and CT)

In Wampanoag and Narragansett traditions, Hobomock was the manito (spirit) of death-- a destructive, often evil being usually in opposition to Kautantowit. Hobomock was sometimes also referred to as "Chepi," which means "ghost" in Wampanoag. Hobomock is the subject of many Wampanoag 'bogeyman' stories, warning children away from dangerous or naughty behavior. In other legends, Hobomock plays macabre tricks on adults such as stealing their eyelids so that they can never sleep again or twisting their feet to make them lame. After the introduction of Christianity, Wampanoag and Narragansett people began to identify Hobbomock with the Devil.

http://www.native-languages.org/hobomock.htm

"Hobbomok appears in dreams in many forms, including a deer, a man, or an eagle, but his favorite forms are the eel and the snake. Terrifyingly, Hobbomok also sometimes appears as a European, as John Josselyn recorded in 1674:

"Another time, two Indians and an Indess, came running into our house crying out they should all dye, Cheepie (Hobbomok) was gone over the field gliding in the air with a long rope hanging from one of his legs: we askt them what he was like, they said all wone Englishman, clothed with hat and coat, shooes and stockings."

(William Simmons' Spirit of the New England Tribes, and Kathleen Bragdon's Native People of Southern New England, 1500-1650.)"

http://newenglandfolklore.blogspot.com/2010/05/hobbomok-and-shamanic-power.html

Chepiwanoxet, known also in earlier sources, such as A Key into the Language of America as Chepinoxet, is a Narragansett word. It may be derived from chepi 'separated,' -wan (particle) -ok 'little' -sett 'place', meaning perhaps 'Little Separated Place,' or possibly 'Little Place at the Northeast,' compare chepewéssin 'northeast wind.'[3]

 

Chepiwanoxet Alternate Names: Chepi, Devil's Island, Gallaudet Seaplane Factory[4]

Chepiwanoxet, known also in earlier sources, such as A Key into the Language of America as Chepinoxet, is a Narragansett word. It may be derived from chepi 'separated,' -wan (particle) -ok 'little' -sett 'place', meaning perhaps 'Little Separated Place,' or possibly 'Little Place at the Northeast,' compare chepewéssin 'northeast wind.'^[3]

Chepiwanoxet Alternate Names: Chepi, Devil's Island, Gallaudet Seaplane Factory^[4]

 

Land Acquisition Early Fence Laws and Sherlock Stones

 

 “The early Fence Laws of New England … were created by men interested far more in land-acquisition than in farming.” - Sherlock Stones

"One begins to see a good deal of structure in how the stones were stacked - artistically, ceremonially, religiously, by an Indigenous person who added one stone snake at a time," Dr. Possum added...

 Original Quote: “…disposal piles. That is exactly what stone walls were. In the days before stonewall building became an art form, the walls were “linear landfills,” in Thorson’s phrase. As landscape historian John Stilgoe explains, “The stone walls of New England … were built by men interested far more in land-clearing than in fencing.”

https://vtdigger.org/2019/01/27/vermonts-stone-walls-never-meant-fences/

John Stilgoe, Thorson, Ives and Sherlock Holmes

 

   “The Art of Looking - It can be taught, but it’s hard for people to accept the fact that there’s a visual way of knowing,” Stilgoe says.

    The morning catches me thinking about “Stone Fences” as opposed to “Stone Serpents,” and how I disagree with many (if not most) researchers in the “borders around the fields” department, here in the Watch House by the Nonnewaug Wigwams.  I’m wondering how long it would take to observe every single row of stones before one could confidently state that the majority of these constructions appear to be either Indigenous made or are just “farmers’ walls.”

    I tickle Google to see just what is meant by the term “farmers’ stone walls.”

     I end up reading a typical article about “stone walls*,” biased by the way Robert Thorson views them (as linear landfills or garbage heaps), and  I stopped a moment when I read this sentence:  “Landscape historian John Stilgoe explains, “The stone walls of New England … were built by men interested far more in land-clearing than in fencing.”

      That’s a name I know I’ve read somewhere, but just to be sure I had to tickle Google yet again to find: “Stilgoe, a professor of Visual and Environmental Studies since 1977, describes himself as “the kind of person who wanders around noticing things.” 

      His title is the Robert and Lois Orchard Professor in the History of Landscape Development. Though his field is, ostensibly, how the American landscape has changed since the 1500s, he’s published on everything from shipwrecks to the joy of bicycling. What he teaches is not so much “a specific topic, but an approach,” as current student Sam H. Rashba ’14-’15 describes it.

      Stilgoe wants his students to notice—to be able to process and interpret visual information by opening themselves up to the subject. What it comes down to is looking.

   “It can be taught, but it’s hard for people to accept the fact that there’s a visual way of knowing,” Stilgoe says. As debates about the value of the humanities rage on, Stilgoe has no doubt that what he teaches is relevant, even urgent…”By 1985, it was very clear to me that fewer and fewer students were coming into college having had any kind of formal education in just going for a walk,” Stilgoe says. “And then, of course, came all of the digital devices. I’m stunned by how much time you all spend looking at screens. It’s time you’re not looking at something else.”

(Such as the actual “stone walls,” I’m thinking, as I read further:)

    “Stilgoe attributes this decline in visual acuity in part to increased emphasis on standardized testing; he wonders why there’s no visual component on the SAT…

    “What I do is probably going to fade out of the universities because there’s so much money to be made doing what I do in the private sector,” Stilgoe says. “A load of men and some women go into what I do essentially for police work.”

   … as Stilgoe continually reminds his students, there’s a lot of power in looking.

“When you start to teach people to [notice things], you destroy the larger narrative,” Stilgoe says.

   Well, yes, professor Stilgoe, I just might agree with that – adding only how difficult that sometimes seems to be, surrounded by Indigenous Stonework few people are even curious enough to look at in person. 

From: https://harvardmagazine.com/sites/default/files/pdf/1996/01-pdfs/JF96Stilgoe.pdf

https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2015/4/2/scrutiny-john-stilgoe/

“Then Again: Vermont’s stone walls were never meant as fences” by Mark Bushnell (Jan 27 2019):

“Thorson was surprised by the stone walls he saw when he moved to the East. Having grown up on North Dakota and worked in Alaska, he was used to wide-open spaces. In New England, he encountered much smaller spaces, and wall after wall. “What struck me was how massive they were,” he says, not individually, but collectively. So he set off to discover how this came to be. Thorson made himself an expert on the walls – examining how and why they were built – and came to appreciate them in a way that he learned their creators did not.

 

The walls are as part of nature as anthills, Thorson says. “The ant doesn’t build these beautiful hills on purpose. The ant doesn’t even care about the hills,” he says. “We fixate on the ant hill, because we see it. The ant doesn’t. To it, they are just disposal piles.”

 

That is exactly what stone walls were. In the days before stonewall building became an art form, the walls were “linear landfills,” in Thorson’s phrase. As landscape historian John Stilgoe explains, “The stone walls of New England … were built by men interested far more in land-clearing than in fencing.”

https://vtdigger.org/2019/01/27/vermonts-stone-walls-never-meant-fences/

“The early Fence Laws of New England … were created by men interested far more in land-acquisition than in farming.” - Sherlock Stones

Hopkinton_012.2_1 Snake Effigy Gone Wild

 

Ceremonial Landscapes Research, LLC works for and consults with federally recognized Tribes to support Tribal traditional values by protecting and preserving ceremonial landscapes.

Historic Survey and Inventory of Stone Features Located Within the Manitou Hassannash Preserve, Hopkinton, RI. 

Martin, Alexandra; Eva Gibavic, Kenneth Leonard, and Richard Prescott. July 2020.

https://www.clresearch.org/past-projects

 

https://www.clresearch.org/

 

Quick overview of Native Stonewalls by Mark Starr

 

"This video is a very brief look at some of the differences between the stone walls built by Native Americans and those built by farmers in Connecticut, east of the Connecticut River. This is a very large topic, and only partially dealt with in such a short slideshow, but should hopefully give the viewer a feeling for the major differences."

https://vimeo.com/666947993?fbclid=IwAR2wjyJ5w3B-Z_SrLbSnJ7zISuqEFY_PxfsZFD1svZTzdWgl84GXwZ8X0iU

 https://www.markhamstarrphotography.com/p1067970682

https://www.markhamstarrphotography.com/ceremonial-stonework--the-enduring-native-american-presence-on-the-land

Ancient Indigenous Fields

 An inadequate effort has been made to search for ancient fields

(Image from: http://nativeamericannetroots.net/diary/1209)

   “To observers in the sixteenth century, the most visible manifestation of the Native American landscape must have been the cultivated fields, which were concentrated around villages and houses,” writes  William M. Denevan in the Pristine Myth: The Landscape of the Americas in 1492. “Most fields are ephemeral, their presence quickly erased when farmers migrate or die, but there are many eye-witness accounts of the great extent of Indian fields. On Hispaniola, Las Casas and Oviedo reported individual fields with thousands of montones (Sturtevant 1961, 73j. These were manioc and sweet potato mounds 3-4 m in circumference, of which apparently none have survived. In the Llanos de Moios in Bolivia, the first explorers mentioned percheles, or corn cribs on pilings, numbering up to 700 in a single field, each holding 30-45 bushels of food (Denevan 1966, 98). In northern Florida in 1539, Hernando de Soto's army passed through numerous fields of maize, beans, and squash, their main source of provisions; in one sector, 'great fields . . . were spread out as far as the eye could see across two leagues of the plains (Garcilaso de la Vega 1980, (2) 182; also see Dobyns 1983, 135-46).

"Field borders" of unknown age... 

(from https://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/2015/02/effigies-as-source-of-protection-to.html)

    It is difficult to obtain a reliable overview from such descriptions. Aside from possible exaggeration, Europeans tended not to write about field size, production, or technology. More useful are various forms of relict fields and field features that persist for centuries and can still be recognized, measured, and excavated today. These extant features, including terraces, irrigation works, raised fields, sunken fields, drainage ditches, dams, reservoirs, diversion walls, and field borders number in the millions and are distributed throughout the Americas (Denevan 1980; see also Doolittle and Whitmore and Turner, this volume). For example, about 500,000 ha of abandoned raised fields survive in the San Jorge Basin of northern Colombia (Plazas and Falchetti 1987, 485), and at least 600,000 ha of terracing, mostly of prehistoric origin, occur in the Peruvian Andes (Denevan 1988, 20). There are 19,000 ha of visible raised fields in just the sustaining area of Tiwanaku at Lake Titicaca (Kolata 1991,109) and there were about 12,000 ha of chinampas (raised fields) around the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan (Sanders, et al. 1979, 390). Complex canal systems on the north coast of Peru and in the Salt River Valley in Arizona irrigated more land in prehistory than is cultivated today. About 175 sites of Indian garden beds, up to several hundred acres each, have been reported in Wisconsin (Gartner 1992). These various remnant fields probably represent less than 25 percent of what once existed, most being buried under sediment or destroyed by erosion, urbanization, plowing, and bulldozing. On the other hand, an inadequate effort has been made to search for ancient fields…”

The Pristine Myth: The Landscape of the Americas in 1492 - William M. Denevan

https://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~alcoze/for398/class/pristinemyth.html

"Field border" of unknown age, the largest boulder in those rows of stones... 

      My observations are centered in and around where I live, a contact era village site in a still rural section of
town (which is a rare thing in itself, something one would tend to think might attract some archaeological investigation). The "stone walls" here have a high degree of probability of being part of those "relict fields and field features that persist for centuries and can still be recognized, measured, and excavated today. These extant features, including terraces, irrigation works, raised fields, sunken fields, drainage ditches, dams, reservoirs, diversion walls, and field borders" - particularly those "field borders" of stone that recall the Great Serpent...

Showing posts sorted by relevance for query agricultural fields:

  https://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/search?q=agricultural+fields

Uktena and “On Its Head”

(Added Eyes and Antlers)

      “According to Mooney (1900:458- 459), the name Uktena is derived from akta, or eye, and implies being a “strong looker,” as everything is visible to it (i.e., it can see thoughts). From the same root is derived akta'tĭ, “to see into closely” which is also the Cherokee word for a magnifying lens and telescope. So the name Uktena implies that it sees thoughts and it does so in an accurate way; knowledge that comes in useful to predict enemy tactics. The horns and crystal on the Uktena’s head are called ulstĭtlĭ', literally “it is on its head,” but when they are in the hands of the medicine person it becomes ulûñsû'tĭ, or “transparent.” So considered together, the changing names and contexts for Uktena horns and crystals imply that the thoughts on the head of the snake became transparent to the person who possessed it.”

“The Socio-Economic and Ritual Contexts of Petroglyph Boulders in the Southeastern United States.”

Johannes (Jannie) Loubser, PhD, RPA Stratum Unlimited, LLC

http://www.stratumunlimited.com/uploads/4/8/1/5/4815662/ritual_and_economic_petro_article.pdf