3G8 ETHNOLOGY. 



commenting on tue Cape of Good Hope specimen, remarks that " such 

 disks were usually supposed to have been used as Lammer-stones ; lie 

 tbouglit, however, that this was too small to be used for such a pur- 

 pose, and that the suggestion of Mr. Bowker, that it may have been 

 used for insertion into the lobe of the ear, was a very reasonable one." 



While the specimen, figure 210, is somewhat larger and, we sup- 

 pose, heavier than that above described, we think it very j)ossible that 

 it too was used as a " button " for insertion into the lobe of the ear. It 

 certainly is no larger, and probably no heavier, than many of the extrav- 

 agant ear-rings which Mr. Catlin saw and i^ainted in his portraits of the 

 Indians of the present century. 



Figure 210 is a very solid pebble of limestone, of a delicate bluish-gray 

 color, which, when wet, shows beautiful mottliugs of pure white ; and, as 

 the stone is thus rendered so very handsome, is it not probable that it was 

 an ornament, and that, when freshly cut and polished, the blue and white 

 contrasted as distinctly as now when immersed in water ? If the present 

 dullness of the tint is the effect of long exposure, to what extent does 

 this fact bear upon the question of age I 



Figure 211 represents an uninteresting-looking pebble, chiefly notice- 

 able in that but little of the natural surface has been left by the grinder 

 and for the astonishing surface-irregularity which it now presents. The 

 pebble is a fine-grained quartz — sand conglomerate, hard and heavy. 

 Xo doubt the patient fashioner of this specimen had some important ob- 

 ject in view in grinding off the natural surface into the many angular 

 surfaces which now exist. Extending around three-fourths of the cir- 

 cumference of the implement is a well-defined but crooked ridge, close to 

 the middle. This ridge, which is the prominent feature of the specimen, 

 was probably intended for some useful purpose ; but what its object was, 

 and even thatof the stone itself, is a mystery. Asa pebble it would make 

 a very good " sling-stone," but the aborigine certainly did not use the 

 sling. As a " bola" it would give a telling blow to a puma, as described 

 by Mr. Musters j but although pumas {Felis concolor) were common, it is 

 not known that our Indians ever used the bola. It may have been used 

 as a war-club knob, such as Schoolcraft figures, described in the last 

 chapter ; but would a club be any more effective because of elabor- 

 ate grinding and ridges such as are the surface of this specimen ? We 

 cannot think it was ever intended as a stone-hammer. It was never 

 certainly used as such, having no trace whatever of violent contact with 

 other stones ; however it bears more resemblance tp that class of relics 

 than to any other. 



We have met with only a few — eight or ten — examples such as figure 

 211, but all corresponded with this in size, shape, and mostly in mate- 

 rial. One or two were hard jasper pebbles, with veins of fine-quartz 

 running through them. All were ground over nearly the whole sur- 

 face, and most of them were as irregular as the one here illustrated. 



Figure 212 represents a form of relic of which we have met with but 



