CHARM .STONES, OK I'J.UMMIOT.S. 301 



Fi^-. 8 re])reseiits an implement found in Napa County, Cal., and is 

 made of auriferous slate containing a streak of free gold; it had i)rol)- 

 ably been brought from the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and 1 had noticed 

 that the greater portion of the charm-stones found appear to be made 

 of rocks 7iot found in the localities where the implements were used ; 

 and the fact that many of them are of fine workmanship and rare ma- 

 terial would go to show that they were uot used for ordinary purposes. 



During the past twenty years the writer has at various times endeav- 

 ored to ascertain from the aborigines the uses to which the so-called 

 l)luniniets or sinkers were originally put. 



Most of the investigations iu this line have been made iu tiie central 

 and northern portions of California, and the conclusions arrived at are 

 that in tJio.s-e localities they were not used as sinkers or plummets. 



Mr. llenshaw says : "On calling the attention of an Indian to the ring 

 pecked near the extremity of one of the medicine stones, he said he did 

 not know its purpose, but that the stones so encircled were considered 

 to be more i)Otent than the others. In reply to my question, ' Why such 

 a stone could not be used as a sinker to a fishing-line ?' a Santa Barbara 

 Indian replied that he never saw one used in this way, and added, of 

 his own accord, ' Why should we make stones like that, when the beach 

 supplies sinkers in abundance ? Our sinkers were beach stones, and 

 when we lost one we picked up another.' " 



In Ilios, City and Country of the Trojans, by Dr. Henry Schliemann 

 in 1880, which I have just been reading, page 430, is figured a "per- 

 forated object of green gabbro rock, probably a weight, which closely 

 resembles some of our perforated charm-stones," and on page 437 sev- 

 eral "sling-bullets of hematite or loadstone," which the author remarks, 

 " ai-e all well polished, and, with the rude implements which the Trojans 

 had at their disposal, it must have been tremendous work to cut and 

 smooth hard stone into the cylindroid shape of the pellets before us." 



In fact, labor must have had very little or no value at that time, 

 for otherwise it is impossible to imagine that whole months should 

 have been wasted on the manufacture of one bullet which was lost as 

 soon as it was slung. It will be seen that Dr. Schliemann uses the same 

 argument in relation to the uses of these implements that the writer 

 used in the ilrst writing of this article, several years ago, relative to the 

 use of charm-stones as "sling-shots or weights for fishing nets or lines," 



lie also refers to several such bullets in the British Museum from 

 Assyria and Camirus, made of hematite, loadstone, and granite. 



Having given the various theories which have been advanced by dif- 

 ferent writers on this subject, we will proceed to take up and consider 

 the six different uses which might have been made of these imjdements. 



(1) As sling-shots. — It is not probable that the Indians would have 

 spent so much time and labor in the manufacture of these implements 

 for such purposes when the beds and streams and other places would 

 furnish abundance of water- worn pebbles. 



