;98 



DRILLING IN STONE WITHOUT METAL. 



to be seen.* This liammered native copper is so soft that it can easily be cut 

 with a knife, and therefore cannot have fnrnished the implements for working 

 those hard mineral substances, which, indeed, successfully resist well-tempered 

 steel. As a consequence, it must be presumed that the manufacturers of the pipes 

 performed their work in the most tedious and painful manner, by rubbing the 

 stone and grinding it with sharp sand and water, althougli this method leaves 

 many details in the execution of their productions unexplained. In viewing, for 

 example, their figures of birds, it is difficult to comprehend how thev succeeded 

 in representing the feathers, which are indicated by steady and boldly cut lines, 

 straight and curved, in close imitation of nature, t The perforations and hollows 

 of the mound-pipes are drilled with perfect accuracy, showing at once that the 

 implement whicli produced them was not merely turned between the hands, but 

 moved by an apparatus which coincided, in all probability, with the bow-drill 

 still used by watchmakers and other artisans. The latter, it is well known, con- 

 sists of a straight drill, wliich passes through the centre of a disk grooved at the 

 periphery and revolves around two fixed points, one of them l^eyig formed by 

 the bore. j\Iotion.is imparted by means of a bow, the string of which encircles 

 the disk. It certainly would appear hasty to attribute to the aborigines of North 

 America a knowledge of this implement, if it were not for the circumstance that 

 there occur among the relics of the former population rings of stone and bone 

 which are almost identical with the disks just mentioned, and most probably 

 have served the same purpose. In fact, it is almost impossible to assign them 

 any other destination. These rings are of various sizes, but similar in shape, 

 being deeply grooved upon the outer edge, and pierced by eight equidistant 

 small holes radiating from the centre. | Fig. 9 is a full-sized drawing of one 

 which was discovered in a mound on 

 the north fork of Paint creek, about 

 six miles distant from Chillicothe, 

 Ohio. The sketch, however, repre- 

 sents the object as perfect, whereas 

 the original, foi'merly belonging to 

 Dr. Davis, constitutes only one-hrlf 

 of the ring, which consists of a dark 

 stone of medium hardness. The 

 character of the rings encourages me 

 to attempt the restoration of the an- 



I'iCf.O. 



* Only the inhabitants of Mexico, and some countries in the southern portion of the Ameri- 

 can continent, understood the manufacture of bronze. It will hardly be necessary to add 

 that iron was altogether unknown to the natives of America until Europeans taught them 

 its use. 



tThe amount of labor bestowed upon the manufacture of these specimens must have been 

 enormous, considering the time it is said to have required for fashioning articles of a much 

 simpler character. According to Lafitau a North American Indian sometimes spent his lite- 

 time in making a stone tomahawk, yet without entirely finishing it. Lafitau, Maurs des 

 Sauvages Ameriquains, Paris, I7"24, vol. 2, p. 110. 



" Mr. Wallace has found that plain cylinders of imperfect rock crystal, four to eight inches 

 long, and one inch in diameter, are made and perforated by very low ti'ibes on the Rio Negro. 

 They are not, as Humboldt seems to have supposed, the result of high mechanical skill, but 

 merely of the most simple and savage processes, carried on with that utter disregard ot time 

 that lets the Indian spend a month in making an arrow. They are merely ground down into 

 shape by rub!)ing, and the perforating: of the cylinders, crosswise, or even lengthwise, is said 

 to be done thus : A pointed flexible leaf-shoot of wild plantain is twirled with the hands against 

 the hard stone, till, with the aid of fine sand and water, it bores into and through it, and this 

 is said to take years to do. Such cylinders as the chiefs wear are said sometimes to take two 

 men's lives to perforate. The stone is brought from a great distance up the river, and is very 

 highly valued."— Tj/Zor, Researdies, S\'c., p 187. 



t Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley, p. 224. 



