364 ANCIENT ABOEIGINAL TRADE IN NORTH AMERICA. 



used by the ludians for grooving the shafts of their arrows. • All arrows 

 of the primitive Indians are found with three grooves from the arrow's 

 shoulder, at the fluke, extending to, and conducting the air between, 

 the feathers, to give them steadiness. These grooves, on close exam- 

 ination, are fonud to be indented by pressure, and not in any way cut 

 out ; and this pressure is produced, while forcing the arrow, softened 

 by steam, through a hole in the tablet, with the incisor of a bear set 

 firmly in a handle and projecting over the rim of the hole as the arrow- 

 shaft is forced downward through the tablet, getting compactness, and 

 on the surface and in the groove a smoothness, which no cutting, filing, 

 or scraping can produce. It would be useless to pass the bow-string 

 through the tablet, for the evenness and the hardness of the strings are 

 l)roduced much more easily and efi'ectually by rolling them, as they do, 

 between two flat stones while saturated with heated glue." 



Thus, Mr. Catlin's experience is rather unfavorable to the supposition 

 that the pierced stone tablets mentioned by me were used in condens- 

 ing bow-strings. Yet, after all, they probably served for some similar 

 purpose, which may be clearly defined hereafter b}' continued examina- 

 tion and comparison. I regard them as implements, and not as objects 

 of ornament or distinction.* 



The greenish slate is frequently the material of another numerous 

 class of Indian relics of enigmatical character. I allude to those curious 

 articles bearing a distant resemblance to a bird, which are pierced at 

 the base with diagonal holes, evidently for suspension, the traces of 

 ■wear being distinctly visible. They probably represent insignia or 

 amulets. I have also heard the suggestion that they were used for 

 removing the husk of Indian corn.t 



Of much rarer occurrence than the articles thus far enumerated in this 

 section are perforated implements somewhat resembling an axe with 

 two cutting edges, or, more often, a double pick-axe, which, doubtless, 

 were provided with handles and worn as badges of distinction by the 

 superiors-l These objects are for the most part elegantly shaped, but 

 of small size, and cannot have been applied to any practical use, their 

 material, moreover, consisting generally of soft stone, more particularly 

 of the greenish slate in question. It is evident, therefore, that they ful- 

 filled a symbolical purpose, and were employed in the manner just men- 

 tioned. 



* The Smithsonian Report for 1870, which has appeared since the above was written, 

 contains, among other ethnological matter, an account of an exploration of mounds in 

 Kentucky, by Mr. Sidney S. Lyon. Among the contents of one of the mounds was " a 

 black stone with holes through it." / have seen thU kind of an instrument, says Mr. 

 Lyon, used by the Pali- Utes of Southeastern Nevada, for giving uniform size to their how-stringa. 

 (p. 404.) 



t A group of these singular objects is represented on page 239 of the " Ancient Monu- 

 ments." 



t Schoolcraft gives on Plate 11, Vol. I, of his large work, two colored half-size repre- 

 Beutations of such implements, which he calls " maces." 



