STONE AGE IN NEW JERSEY. 3G9 



one example, and unless it be iiicomplete — an unfinisbed specimen — wo 

 can form no idea of its use, 



Squier and Davis bave given* a series of illustrations of " pendants," to 

 wbicb tbis specimen bears mucb resemblance botb in size and fiiiisb, 

 altbougb it is a little longer tban tbose of tbe ^Yest. 



Tbey say, ''Tbese pendants are of frequent occurrence in tbe vicinity 

 of tbe ancient works, tbougb seldom found, if found at all, in tbe 

 ancient works tbemselves. Tbey, for tbe most part, resemble tbe 

 plumbs of tbe arcbitect, and are usually made of rare and beautiful ma- 

 terials." As will be seen at a glance, tbis specimen readily comes under 

 tbe bead of " pendants," as just described, but tbe specimens figured by 

 Squier and Davis all bave a groove encircling eitber one end or botb, 

 according to tbe sbape of tbe specimen, wbereby a cord was securely at- 

 tached to pass tbrougb tbe opening in tbe lobe of tbe ear, if worn as an 

 " ear-bob," or around tbe neck to let tbe " pendant " bang upon tbe breast. 

 If tbis specimen, tberefore, is simplj^ unfinisbed, it is a pendant, and not 

 of an " unknown " use; but is it unfinisbed? A careful examination 

 sbows it to be uniformly polisbed or smootbly ground from one end to 

 tbe otber. There are no rough portions or unfinished places ; hence we 

 are compelled to think it had some other use. 



Tbe authors we bave just quoted give on page 219 of their work fig- 

 ures of two pear-shaped stones, the dimensions of which are not given. 

 They consider it possible that tbey were used as club-beads or something- 

 similar, and quote Carver, who describes "a weapon in use by tbe tribes 

 beyond the Mississippi Kiver which consisted of a curiously wrought 

 stone, inclosed in leather, as above, (the Cbippewayan poggamoggon) 

 and fastened like the slung-sbot of the present day to a thong a yard 

 and a half long, which was also wound around the wrist. These weapons 

 were used in battle." 



A specimen like figure 212 may possibly be a weapon such as above 

 described, but it would appear, for two reasons, that it was not so used. 

 In the first place the size, weight, and careful polishing are not in 

 keeping with such a weapon as tbe "slung-sbot" described by Carver; 

 and, secondly, if a wea])ou, would it not be oftener met with ? It has 

 been suggested that it w^as a mould, about which clay was spread, to 

 form the bowls of the clay i)ipes used by the aborigines; but its size 

 is too great for this purpose. AVe bave not seen any clay ])ipes with a 

 bowl of as great a diameter as this would make. Tbis s})ecimen measures 

 four and a half inches in length, and one inch and three-quarters in its 

 greatest breadth, which is a little above the middle of the specimen. 

 The material is a fine-grained sandstone, and the whole surface being 

 carefully ground and smoothed almost to a polish, tbe specimens can 

 hardly be considered merely a pcHtle, as it miglit apjiear at first glance. 



Figure 213 rei)resents one of two specimens found together in a field 

 near Trenton, N. J. We have seen a third, highly polisbed, of horn- 



* Auc. Mod. Mis. Valley, -p. 235, tig. rJ>J. 



S. Mis. lin 21 



