1896.] d71 [Cushing. 



than half-natural carving tools. As soon as we had discovered a few of 

 them I secured fresh teeth and experimentally made knives and cutters 

 of the various kinds I have described. I found these diminutive shark- 

 tooth blades — the one edge of each outwardly, the other inwardly, 

 3urv'ed — by far the most effective primitive carving tools I had ever 

 learned of, and therein perceived one of the principal causes of the pre- 

 eminence of the ancient key dwellers in the wood carver's art, so con- 

 stantly evidenced in our collections. There were girdling tools or saws 

 — made froan the sharp, flat-toothed lower jaws of king-fishes — into the 

 hollow ends of which curved jaw-bones, the crudest of little handles had 

 been thrust and tied through neat lateral perforations ; but these also had 

 formed admirable tools, and I found not a few examples of work done 

 with them, in the shape of round billets that had been severed by them 

 and spirally haggled in such a way as to plainly illustrate the origin of 

 one of the most frequent decorations we found on carved wood works, 

 the spiral rosette just referred to. There were minute little bodkin- 

 shaped chisels of bone and shell, complete in themselves ; and there 

 were, of course, numerous awls and the like, made from bone, horn and 

 fish spines. Rasps of very small, much worn and evidently most highly 

 prized fragments of coral sandstone, as well as a few strips of carefully 

 rolled-up shark skin, told the story of how the harder tools had been 

 edged, and the polished wood-, and bone-work finished, here. 



Weapons. — It was significant that no bows were discovered in any por- 

 tion of the court, but of atlatlsor throwing sticks, both fragmentary and 

 entire, four or five examples were found. Two of the most perfect of 

 these were also the most characteristic, since one was double-holed, the 

 other single-holed. The first — which is shown in Fig. 4, PI. XXXII — 

 was some eighteen inches in length, delicate, slender, slightly curved 

 and originally, quite springy. It was fitted with a short spur at the 

 smaller end and was unequally spread or flanged at the larger or grasp- 

 ing end. The shaft-groove terminated in an ornamental device, whence 

 a slighter crease led quite to the end of the handle, and the whole imple- 

 ment was delicately carved and engraved with edge-lines and when first 

 taken from the muck exhibited a high polish and beautiful rosewood 

 color. The other — shown in Fig. 3, PI. XXXII — was somewhat longer, 

 slightly thicker, wider shafted, more curved, and, as I have said before, 

 furnished with only a single finger-hole. At the smaller end was 

 a diminutive but very perfect carving of a rabbit, in the act of thump- 

 ing, so placed that his erect tail formed the propelling-spur. This instru- 

 ment also was fitted with a short shaft-groove and was carved and deco- 

 rated with edge and side lines, and the handle-end was beautifully 

 curved down and rounded so as to form a volute or rolled knob, giv- 

 ing it a striking resemblance to the ornate forms of the atlatl of Cen- 

 tral America ; a resemblance that also applied somewhat to the double- 

 holed specimen, and to various of the fragmentarj^ spear-throwers. 

 Arrows about four feet in length, perfectly uniform, pointed with hard 



PROC. AMER. PHIL08. SOC. XXXV. 153. 2 U. PRINTED .JULY 7, 1897. 



