356 ETHNOLOGY. 



The width of the implement decreases somewhat at one end, giving the 

 narrower portion the appearance of being itself a handle for the instru- 

 ment. The total length of the specimen is nine and seven-eighths inches. 

 The width, for two-thirds of the length, varies but little from three 

 inches. The width of the "handle" or narrower end is within a trace 

 of two inches. The broad end, or that opposite the handle, is chipped 

 from each side about equally, but on one side of the specimen, at this 

 end, there is a more uniform slope, and a degree of smoothness which 

 indicates a rubbing motion at this point, as in digging in loose soil. If 

 held by the so-called "handle" or narrow end, with the smooth side of 

 the opposite end dotvn, it will be evident that this instrument was in all 

 probability used as a spade ; if held with the handle from and the smooth 

 end toward the person, then the implement becomes a hoe. In either 

 case the polished end is thereby easily explained ; otherwise, it is inex- 

 plicable and the rude implement is an enigma. This implement was 

 plowed up in a field from which a majority of the si)ecimens figured 

 in this volume were obtained ; and, although from this locality some 

 truly rude implements have been secured, yet we have not considered 

 this as belonging to that more archaic class of stone implements, 

 although so greatly resembling them in general appearance and work- 

 manship, and being identical as to mineral material. "SYe ourselves 

 have no doubt that its use was to dig up those roots and bulbs which 

 the Indian used as food; or it may be that, with this and similar 

 implements, the ground was prepared for corn-planting, and, as we have 

 shown, may be called a shovel or a hoe in accordance with the manner 

 ner in which it is held. 



Of the Delaware and Iroquois Indians Loskiel* mentions that "they 

 used formerly the shoulder-blade of a deer, or a tortoise-shell sharpened 

 upon a stone, and fastened to a thick stick, instead of a hoe 5" and we 

 readily see, on comparing such "hoes" with the one of stone, which we here 

 figure, that the latter is fully as capable of doing the same work, and of 

 doing it as well ; and we doubt if there was as much Avork in llaking fig- 

 ure 196a into its present shape as there would be in sharpening a tortoise- 

 shell or a bone by rubbing, and then fastening the " blade" to a thick 

 stick. 



We have seen that among the rude implements of chapter II, was 

 one which we considered as probably an agricultural tool 5 but we must 

 limit its agricultural use to that of merely digging such roots as were 

 used as food by the i)rimitive people of this region. In the implements 

 which have been described in this chapter, we see a wider range of work 

 intended in their manufacture, even including figure 196a ; all of them 

 being designed for use in the cultivation of vegetables and grain, as 

 well as in the mere gathering of the latter when fully grown. We have 

 seen also that, according to Loskiel, both bone and shell implements 

 were formerly used, and this explains why stone hoes and shovels are 



* Loskiel, 1. c, p. 66. 



