PREHISTORIC ART. 



443 



handle on the hatchet, and this method of handling; has been accepted 

 as that employed in prehistoric times. 



These polished stone hatchets have been made with certain art char- 

 acteristics locally pecnliar. In Brittany the hatchets of precious stone 

 have been made with ])ointed poll and a sharp ridge in the center 

 toward the poll. Another peculiarity of the same local- 

 ity is a button on the top or poll end of the hatchet. 

 The same kind of a button appears on those from 

 Guadeloupe and other islands of the West Indies. 

 Those from Illinois have the edge broadened, as if in 

 imitation of a bronze or coi)per hatchet which has been 

 hammered to an edge and thus spread at the edges 

 and corners. The same broadening at the edge ap- 

 l)ears in some of tlie hatchets from Chiricjui, though 

 not to so great an extent as in Illinois. A peculiarity 

 of some of the Chiriqui specimens is that, instead of 

 being made round, square, or oval in section, they are 

 hexagonal. These peculiarities are noticed on account 

 of their apparent artistic feeling, and because they 

 seem to have had no utilitarian origin. The defer- 

 ences in form have been mentioned as peculiarities, 

 and so they are, for they do not apply 

 to all the liatchets from their locality 

 have been fairly within the definition of art, being an 

 attempt to decorate an object of utility, to make it more 

 pleasing to the eye, and to be art for art's sake. No dec- 

 orative designs ever appear on these implements, no in- 

 scriptions, and no marks of ownership. 



One must not forget that, despite all these varieties 

 of art forms of hatchets, prehistoric man continued to 

 make and use this general form of hatchet throughout 

 the i^rehistoric world. 



There has been not a little scientific discussion over 

 the proposition that civilization travels along the line of 

 least resistance; that man in performing sociologic, 

 technologic, or industrial operations, does it, or endeav- 

 ors to do it, in the easiest way, and with the least possi- 

 ble exertion or expenditure of force. This is an at- 

 tempted application of a law of physics to a condition 

 of sociology. It is undoubtedly a law of physics that 

 certain, possibly all, operations of nature are conducted 

 along the line of least resistance. The boiler bursts at its weakest 

 spot, the chain breaks in its weakest link. All combinations of matter 

 are made or accomplished on the line of least resistance. The exist- 

 ence of the law must be admitted, but its universality as to natural 

 things is no evidence of its application to human affairs. The condi- 



Fig. 98. 



HATCHET OF FLINT, 

 PARTLY G R O IT N D, 

 THIRD STAGE. 



Cat. No. 99925, U.S.N.M. 

 hi natural size. 



They seem to 



Fig. 99. 



POLISHED .STONE 

 HATCHET C O M - 

 PLETED. 



Cat. No. 3.51 r4, U.S.N.M. 

 J.J natural size. 



