360 ETHNOLOGY. 



Michael JSTewbold, esq., of Burlington County, New Jersey, which were 

 found in the immediate ueigborhood of his residence; and here the 

 small portable corn-mills are quite abundant, and were probably used 

 solely in reducing grain to meal. This ftict somewhat induces that col- 

 lector to believe that these long " pestles " were in reality war-clubs ; 

 but we do not think it can be shown that they were ever used as such. 

 Neither does the fact that Indians now use "wooden clubs of a very simi- 

 lar shape and of about the length of figure 200 favor the belief that these 

 so-called pestles were used as clubs. Indeed, the largest corn-mills we 

 have seen in Burlington County could not be well employed in the ab 

 sence of a pestle, as, for instance, the one we have described in this 

 chapter, the basin of which is nine inches in diameter and six inches 

 deep. 



Figure 201 represents a second example of a long pestle, with features 

 that separate it widely from that shown in figure 200. It measures sev- 

 enteen inches in length, lacking one-eighth of an inch, and, instead of 

 being a uniform cylinder, as in the former instance, (figure 200,) is flat- 

 tened along its whole length, giving it a width nearly double its thick- 

 ness. Although smoother than the preceding specimen, it shows the 

 marks of the stone-hammer very plainly, except at the ends, which are 

 smoothed but not polished, and perfectly flat and square. There is a 

 slight variation in the width at the two ends, the specimen gradually 

 widening from the " handle " to the pestle end. Examples of this kind 

 appear to be very uncommon : of the two hundred and thirty pestles we 

 have, and of those we have seen in other collections, we have not met 

 with a duplicate of this. Schoolcraft* has figured one that is similar 

 in all respects to ours; and this is the only illustration we recall of such 

 an one being found elsewhere. It may be, however, that we have merely 

 failed to meet with them, and that they are not very rare. This flat- 

 tened pestle, figure 201, weighs but five pounds and a half, and would 

 make a far better " war-club " than the preceding specimen, or any of 

 the heavier, cylindrical examples ; but in the hands of an expert Indian 

 even, a powerful blow could not be readily struck with such an instru- 

 ment, except the object were quiet, while as to throwing them, we do 

 not believe it was done, or, if it was, it was not a customary thing in 

 aboriginal warfare. In case of surprise, these pestles might have been 

 used for defense. 



Figure 202 represents a very common style of small pestle, of which 

 we have gathered a large series. They are cylindrical water- worn peb- 

 bles, such as are abundant'in the bed of the Delaware Kiver, at and 

 above Trenton, N. J., measuring from eight inches to a foot in length, 

 and from two and a half to three inches in diameter. These pestles are 

 not chipped, pecked, or polished into shape, or altered in any way, except 

 that from two-thirds to three-fourths of their length is split ofi"; the 

 splitting ending abruptly at what is apparently an actual cut into the 

 body of the stone. 



• N. A. Indians, vol. 1, p. 8C, pi. 21, fig. 1. 



