REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 45 



were collected in his vicinity. From a long-esteemed correspondent of 

 the Institution, Mr. "W. E. Guest, formerly of Ogdensburg, New York, 

 now of Canada, have been received a number of curiously- worked bone 

 implements, chiefly awls or perforators, employed anciently in sewing 

 leather garments and moccasins. An unknown donor has sent us a line 

 sample of the h^avy stone mauls used by the mound builders or their 

 predecessors, in mining the native metallic copper from the Lake Supe- 

 rior region, where the vast deposits of this metal were resorted to for the 

 materials out of which to make spears, tomahawks, tish-hooks, sinkers, 

 and i^ersonal ornaments. 



Mexico. — From other districts not included within the United States, the 

 Institution has received important contributions in ethnology. Dr, Sar- 

 torius, from near Mirador, in Mexico, has sent specimens of the stone im- 

 plements and ornaments formerly in use among the aboriginal races of 

 that country. Some of these, namely, the perforated ornaments, beads, 

 knives, and chisels, are prepared from a variety of jade — a hard green 

 mineral, held sacred by the natives — and others, such as knives, flakes and 

 arrow-points, are of obsidian, a material from which long-bladed portions 

 can be flaked off by a slight pressure on the sides of the core. The tra- 

 ditional knife for the rite of circumcision among the Jews was of stone, 

 and the suggestion has been made by Dr. Foreman that the custom 

 originated with a people living in Asia Minor or Arabia during the stone 

 age. This collection also contains earthenware images, saucers, incen- 

 sories, bowls, cups, candlesticks with and without handles, together with 

 domestic utensils made of dried gourds, which are sometimes converted 

 into children's rattles. All these are of modern workmanship and now 

 in use among the people of the country. From Dr. Sumichrast, also of 

 Mexico, we have received a perforated stone tube — probably part of a 

 pipe. 



Porto Rico, West Indies. — From Porto Rico, George Latimer, esq., 

 who has long been a very liberal contributor to the collections of the 

 Institution, has sent three additional specimens of remarkable elliptical 

 stone rings, resembling an ordinary horse collar, made from a very hard 

 syenite rock, and carefully sculptured and polished. It is suggested that 

 they were placed on the neck of the human sacrificial victims during 

 religious ceremonies, probably for eficcting strangulation before the fatal 

 stroke of the obsidian knife. One of them is of a different pattern, being 

 shaped like a horse-shoe, or the letter U, and of more massive propor- 

 tions. Included in this interesting collection are also several ancient 

 stone chisels similar to those found in the United States, and a number 

 of terracotta images of grotesque form. 



From Barhadoes, West Indies, through the kindness of Granville 

 Chester, esq., we have obtained several ornaments of carved shells and 

 a hatchet of the same material. Articles made of shell are now exciting 

 much interest, as this substance seems to have been widely employed at 

 as early a period as that of the age of the mound-builders. 



