ANCIENT DWELLINGS OF THE RIO VERDE VALLEY. 761 



Of stone implements, the nictates, used for grinding maize, form 

 an exceedingly interesting set of specimens, exhibiting consider- 

 able variation in size and form. The greater number were of the 

 hard, porous, gray scoria known as malpais, a material well adapt- 

 ed for grinding. Others were hewn out of sandstone, varying 

 in color from red to creamy white. The manner in which they 

 are fashioned with no better tool than another stone speaks in 

 eloquent praise of the skill and indefatigable patience of these 

 aboriginal workmen. A series of these primitive stone mills 

 may be seen in the writer's collection at the American Museum. 

 Grooved stone axes and hatchets were numerous, and likewise 

 exhibit an unusually wide range of variation in size, shape, ma- 

 terial, and workmanship. Several of them are, in form and finish, 

 scarcely inferior to the modern articles. Some of the picks and 

 hammers were also models of the handicraft of the stone age. 

 Not the least interesting were stone wedges (doubtless intended 

 for splitting timbers) and agricultural tools. There was also a 

 large assortment of stone knives, resembling in shape the chop- 

 ping-knife of modern housewives. Heavy malls, pipes of lava, 

 whetstones, polishing-stones, and other implements whose use is 

 not apparent, were obtained^ besides mortars and pestles, stone 

 vessels, and plates or platters of volcanic rock. Besides such 

 articles of domestic use, there were the implements of warfare 

 and the chase, including rounded stone hammers, mostly of sand- 

 stone and scoria, grooved for attachment to a handle by means of 

 a hide thong ; also grooved stones used in arrow-making, spear- 

 heads and arrow-points of obsidian or agate, and flints from the 

 war-club (maquahuitl). 



Pigments — red, blue, gray, and black — were found ; also a 

 heavy, black powder, and the usual chipped pieces of obsidian 

 (volcanic glass) and agate, together with ornamental pebbles, etc. 

 Nor were ornaments lacking, such as amulets of shells and rings 

 of bone and shell. Several heavy pieces of obsidian, which were 

 probably transported from New Mexico, were doubtless kept in 

 stock for the manufacture of knives and weapons. A heavy 

 block of red catlinite, or "pipe-stone/* of which small fetiches 

 found in several localities were made, extends the commerce of 

 this people to the region of the Upper Missouri, where the only 

 known quarries of this material exist ; and sea-shells, doubtless 

 from the Pacific, are of equal interest, as showing the extent of 

 traffic to the westward. 



In several rooms large earthenware vessels were uncovered, 

 which, although broken, were still held in position by the press- 

 ure of their contents and the earth surrounding them ; fine root- 

 lets also penetrated the cracks and formed a meshwork serving 

 to hold them together. The largest were of coarse material and 



vol. xxxvii. — 55 



