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from this peculiar construction is, that they were thus formed for 

 convenient and constant wear upon the person (it may be as badges 

 of authority), the curved or hollow side being placed next to the body. 



The most perfect in form and execution of the tomahawk is that 

 with a perforation or hole called the eye, in the prototype of the iron 

 period, the hammer and axe of the present age. These implements 

 and others with perforations and excavations, have presented appa- 

 rent difficulties to modern observers, but it will be conceded that 

 they are not greater than those which will be presented by the third 

 division of the subject under consideration; every portion of it is re- 

 plete with instruction, and illustrates the ability of man, even in his 

 most degraded condition, to make rocks and stones subservient to his 

 necessities. How grateful should he be to the bountiful Creator, 

 who has made him capable in all conditions of living, but especially 

 so of enjoying life in obedience to revealed laws, which insure com- 

 parative happiness whilst on earth, and promise permanent bliss in 

 that which is to come. 



The ordinary holes are mere perforations, made by revolving a 

 sharp-pointed flake of jasper, hornstone, or other hard stone, upon 

 the object to be perforated, usually slate, limestone, or soapstone, the 

 perforation being made from opposite sides, until the opening met at 

 the middle, but in other and more finished works, such as those 

 made for the insertion of handles in tomahawks and hammers, and 

 more remarkably in smoking pipes, and the tubes which were pro- 

 bably used for that purpose. 



There is no reason to doubt that these holes were made by nearly 

 the same means, and identically the same principles that are now 

 used to drill glass and the hardest gems. A round stick of soft 

 wood was revolved by rubbing the hands against it in opposite direc- 

 tions, with silicious sand and water continually renewed between the 

 end of the stick and the article to be bored. 



A further supposition is not unreasonable, that a bowstring loosely 

 drawn and passed around the stick, would give increased motion and 

 more rapid effect to the process. 



The pages of Schoolcraft describe and illustrate similar arrange- 

 ments in use among existing tribes for producing fire by rapid fric- 

 tion. 



Another method of perforation it is more than probable was em- 

 ployed, which is well adapted to the boring of loosely aggregated 

 sandstone implements. A fragment of chalcedony, jasper, or horn- 

 stone, inserted and secured by cement to the end of the mandril, and 

 revolved by the means previously described. This mode, it will be 



