240 RECORDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. 



of tattooiui;- might liave been tliat of tlie medicine man for bleed- 

 ing or scarifying. " 



Tlie same autlior in a paper on " Arrow-points, .Spearheads and 

 Knives of Preliistoric Times," "' figures several flaked stones wjiich 

 have a strong resemblance to those he describes from India ; we 

 refer to PL vii., figs. 6 and 9 from Lake Bienne, Switzerland ; 

 PL XXV., fig. 29 from the island of Crete, and PL xxxix., 

 figs. 2 and 3. 



The best account to come under our notice of these peculiar in- 

 struments is that given by Mr. W. K. Moorehead in his " Prehis- 

 toric Implements.'"" Under the heading of "Scarificators. — 

 ' Delicate Splinters of Flint,' '"' he gives a description of the 

 finding of the instruments in burial places on Santa Rosa Island 

 and San. Nicholas Islands. About a ijuart of these implements 

 was obtained. " They were finely made of j^ellowish-brown 

 jaspeiy or flinty rock. They were all together when found, hav- 

 ing evidently been buried with their former owner. Not finding 

 ;iny other specimens in our extensive explorations, extending over 

 a period of three weeks search for relics, I was convinced that 

 they were not objects of general use, but were part of the para- 

 phernalia of a medicine man among the natives, and that their 

 manufacture required the exercise of unusual skill, and would 

 only be made by certain individuals of the tribe possessing the 

 necessary (lualification. Some ten years after the discovery I had 

 the opportunity to interview some of tlie few representatives of 

 the former aborigines, and from them learned their uses. They 

 said they were used by tlie medicine men in the cure of disease, by 

 scarifying the skin over the affected part, and applying one end of a 

 bone or stone tube over . . . the scarified parts and exhaust- 

 ing the air from the tube by sucking applied by the lips of the 

 operator, thus causing blood to be drawn from the wounds made 



by these splinters Hugo Reid says of tlie Indians 



of Los Angeles county, that local inflammatien was treated by 

 scarifying with pieces of sharp flint and procuring as much blood 

 as possible from the part. (See Overland ^Nlonthlv for August, 

 1K96).'" 



■■ WIImhi Anil. Report Regents Sinitlisonian lust. (U. S. Xtit. Miis. 

 Kei)ort), for 1897 (1899), pt. 1, p. 811. 



•^ Moorelieiul— Prchistoriu Iin))leinents, Ciiu-innati, Ohio, 1900. 



' Moorehoad -Loc ciL, p. 246, fig. .379 (p. 247). 



