PREHISTORIC ART. 447 



fliut chipping, he seems to have been able to toy with his art and per- 

 form it in any A\ray he pleased. He drilled large holes and small, he 

 used hard drills and soft, the latter even of pine wood. He used hol- 

 ow drills as well as solid, and we have cores that have been drilled 

 from one or both sides with a straightness and evenness that seems 

 marvelous. He was able to start his drill on the smooth and polished 

 surface of a hard stone, apparently without any wobbling of the drill, 

 leaving the edge of the hole as smooth and sharp as though it had 

 been afterwards reamed or turned. The prehistoric objects found in 

 the mounds of the United States are of even finer workmanship and 

 more artistic than is usual in Europe. 



Pipes, tubes, etc. — These objects, sometimes of hard stone, are drilled 

 in a remarkable manner, which, when considered as the work of a 

 savage, done without metal tools, excites our wonder and admiration. 

 The pipes have been drilled in several directions and at difl'erent 

 angles. 



Plate 74 (in the chapter on musical instruments) represents divers 

 stone tubes supposed to have been used as trumpets or horns, but 

 they will serve as illustrations of the art of drilling. A certain 

 number display this art in a high degree. The long cylindrical tubes 

 do not show to the casual observer their real value as representa- 

 tives of this art. Although only about 1 inch in diameter and of 

 length varying from 6 to 12 or 14 inches, they have been drilled their 

 entire length with a hole more than one-half their diameter, and all 

 from one end — that is to say, the drilling of this large hole has been 

 begun at one end of the finished tube and continued until nearlj^ 

 through at the other end, when the drilling (of the large hole) was 

 stopped, the tube reversed, and drilled from the other end with a small 

 hole which met the large one. The evidence of this manipulation is 

 abundant, and is here treated as a fine art because of the manual dex- 

 terity required to drill accurately and continuously a large hole through 

 so small a cylinder for such a distance without break or change of 

 direction. 



It is not intended to pursue the subject of drilling in this paper, 

 only to call attention to its existence as a" fine art and to note the deli- 

 cacy and difiiculty in some of the oi)erations as shown by the specimens. 

 The reader who is desirous of pursuing the subject further is referred 

 to the paper on this subject by Mr. J. D, McGuire, published in the 

 report of the United States National Museum for 1894. Many of the 

 specimens described by Mr. McGuire are from the Division of Prehis- 

 toric Archaeology. 



Ceremonial Objects. 



Many ceremonial objects show fine execution in the way of stone 

 drilling, and the subject will be continued incidentally during their 

 descri|)tiou. 



There were a large series of objects in use among the aborigines of 



