216 



ANCIENT MONUMENTS. 



Fig. 1(i; 



the Eastern States, of whicli Fig. 107 is an example. They 

 are sometimes composed of slate, and are of various sizes, 

 often measuring five or six inches in length. They are very 

 well adapted for flaying animals, and other analogous pur- 

 poses. 



Axes. — The remark made in respect to the occurrence of the arrow-points, is 

 equally true of the ancient axes. Although abundant in the valleys occupied by the 

 mound-builders, they are not frequent in the mounds themselves. Those taken 

 from the tumuli do not, however, difler materially from others found scattered over 

 the surface of the earth from the St. Lawrence to Panama and the hills of Chili. 

 They all have the same general features, and vary only in their materials and the 

 style of their workmanship. Some of those found in the mounds and elsewhere at 

 the West, are wrought with great skill, and from rare and beautiful materials, 

 usually of the granitic or sienitic series of minerals. Amongst the Mexicans and 

 Peruvians, axes of obsidian, and of basalt, greenstone, etc., were retained in com- 

 mon use, long after the discovery of the art of hardening copper. 



The form of these relics seems to have been determined entirely by the manner 

 in which they were designed to be used. Those intended for deadening trees or 

 as war axes, have groov es for the adjustment of handles. There are many which 

 are destitute of this feature, and which were probably designed to be used as 

 chisels ox gouges. Examples are given of each of these classes. 



Fig. 108 is a fine specimen of the ancient axe. It was 

 found within the large enclosure on Paint creek, noticed 

 on page 58, and is regarded as a genuine relic of the 

 mound-builders. Its form is almost identical with that of 

 the forest axe of the present day. It is made of a very com- 

 pact greenstone, and measures eight inches in length by 

 five inches and a half in its greatest breadth, and weighs eight 

 pounds. The marks of the pointed instrument with which it 

 was chipped into form, are still discernible, notwithstanding 

 the long use to which it has evidently been subjected. 



The manner in which these instruments are mounted 

 is apparent enough from their construction, and could 

 hardly be mistaken even though the explanation were not 

 furnished by the practice of the tribes still retaining their use.* A tough u-ilhc, or 

 green slip of wood of proper size was bent into the groove and encircled the axe ; 

 the ends were then firmly bound together with ligatures of hide or other material. 



Fin. lOf*. 



* LosKiEL says of the axes of the Delaware Indians : " Their liatchets are wedges, made of hard stones, 

 six or seven inches long, sharpened at the edge, and attached to a wooden handle. They are not used to 

 fell trees, but only to peel them, and kill their enemies " (p. 54). Au.\ir, speaking of the Southern tribes, 

 observes : " They twisted two or three hickory slips, about two feet long, around the notched head of the 

 axe, and bv means of this simple and obvious invention they deadened the trees, by cutting through the 

 bark, and V>urnod them when thev became thonmghly dry" (p- 40.")). 



