326 ETHNOLOGY. 



was made to turn in such way as to separate a portion of the stone, 

 which, when the iierforation was accomplished, would fall to the 

 ground.* A drilling-stick of this description really may have served 

 for perforating soft stones, but could not be successfully applied to 

 hard uiaterials." We have carefully examined in detail all our speci- 

 mens of " breast-plates" from slate and other minerals, and find that 

 the holes through them can be duplicated by the aid of any of the 

 specimens we have figured, merely twirling the drill between the thumb 

 and fingers. 



Figure 159 represents a flat slab of very hard, finely grained sandstone, 

 which in outline bears some resemblance to a small mammal, crouching 

 down ; as a muskrat or small rabbit. This resemblance may be ac- 

 cidental, and the outline produced in the more prosaic use of a whet- 

 stone, as the margins are all polished and cut by contact with other 

 stones. The five deep cuts upon the side of the specimen have been arti- 

 ficially produced, and while they bear some resemblance to grooves 

 on polishiugstones, such as were used in sharpening celts and skinning- 

 stones, we rather incline to the opinion that they were made to give the 

 stone a more animal-like appearance. 



We shall again refer to the specimen in chapter xviii. 



The object of placing the specimen in the present chapter, is to refer 

 more particularly to the hole drilled through it, which, if the stone be a 

 representation of an animal, corresponds to the eye. 



When the specimen taken from a grave was procured, there was on each 

 side of the stone, where the perforation now is, a shallow circular depres- 

 sion, with a "nipple" in the center, showing that a perforation had been 

 commenced ; the drill used being a hollow reed. This of itself added to 

 the animal-like appearance. By the aid of the two stone drills (figures 

 IGl, 102) we completed the perforation ; accomplishing it after eleven 

 hours of not difficult but rather tiresome labor. While drilliug, which 

 was done by simply twirling the drills to and fro, we kept the specimen 

 under water. The drill, figure 162, is of slate, and comparatively soft, but 

 it did not wear away more rapidly than the jasper specimen, in conse- 

 quence of the latter continually splintering ; the splinters amounting to 

 about the same as the gradual wear of the softer specimen. Figure 

 IGO represents a fragment of a large "breast-plate," very carefully 

 polished along the edges, and smooth on the broad surfaces. When 

 found, there was a siugle hole drilled through it, the uppermost one in 

 the specimen as novf figured. The mineral is a dense sandstone, but 

 more yiehliug than the " animal" carving, figure 159. With the softer 

 drill, figure 1G2, we made the nine perforations seen in the illustration. 

 The time occupied in drilling each hole varied from a half to three-quar- 

 ters of an hour ; the wear upon the implement was scarcely appreciable. 

 Considering that thin plates of stone were so frequently perforated by the 

 aborigines that they might be suspended to the person, and that 



* Palalittes, &c., p. 359. 



