SAVAGE WEAPONS AT THE CENTENNIAL EXHIBITION. 249 



shark's teeth tied upon a staff, and sharpened bones. When the dispo- 

 sition exists a weapon will be found somewhere, and the most curious 

 are those where the choice of material is but small and metal is inacces- 

 sible. Metal once obtained, the variety of weapons decreases, and 

 knives, daggers, and swords assume a somewhat uniform character. 



The persistent ceremonial use of stones for knives, after the use of 

 metal bad been fully established for the ordinary affairs of life, is notice- 

 able in many old records and in the observation of late travelers. We 

 may mention the stone knives used by the Egyptians, Ethiopians, and 

 Hebrews in circumcision, 1 ™ by the Egyptians in embalming, 1 ' 11 in obtaining 

 the balm of Gilead, 102 in the human sacrifices of Mexico, in the gashing 

 of the flesh of fanatics, 103 and in inducing the cicatrized wounds which 

 form the ornaments or tribal marks of some savages. To these may be 

 added the gashing of the flesh 

 by the New Zealanders in their 

 mourning, and the stone fleams 

 used by the North American In- 

 dians for bleeding. 



Museums have crude stone 

 spalls and well-fashioned knives 

 of stone in variety, but we can 

 only appeal for illustrations to 

 the collection in Philadelphia. 

 In the upper and stone periods 



of tliP bill of TTissarlik in Asia Fig. 67. — Obsidian nucleus and flakes, Mexico. 



Minor, Schliemann .found numerous flint knives. 104 Some have edges 

 like ordinary knives ; others are serrated. At a depth of L'3 feet he 

 found double-edged knives of obsidian, sharp as razors. 



Flint flakes and nuclei from the stone age 

 of Scandinavia, and flint knives from Green- 

 land and New Zealand made of spalls, and 

 others of chipped flint, are shown by Nil- 

 fig. es-obsidian knife, Can/anna. son ins an j Dy j3r. Abbott, of New Jersey. 106 

 Obsidian was a favorite material where obtainable. It was used in 

 Mexico in the manufacture of sacrificial flake-knives, arrow-points, &c. 107 

 The flakes were split off by the skillfully applied pressure of a T-shaped 

 wooden implement. The nucleus and flakes (Fig. G7) were shown in the 

 National Museum and are from Mexico. The same collection in the 

 Government Building had the obsidian knife (Fig. 08). This has a 



l00 Exodus, iv, S>; Joshua, v, 2. 



101 Herodotus, ii, 86; Diodorus Siculus, i, 91; Kitto, i, 81. 



'o- Pliny, xii, 54. 



m Ibid., xxxv, 46; xi, 109. Compare also Pliny, xix, 57; xxiii, 81; xxiv, (5, 62. 



io( u Troy and. its Remains," p. 7'.t. 



im " Stono Age," p. 7fi and PI. ii ; Figs. 24, 23, and PI. iii, v. 



106 Smithsonian Report, 1875, p. 300. 



107 Torquemada. 



