PREHISTORIC ART. 



567 



of so-utliern California and. the islands of the coast the continuity of 

 music in prehistoric times is made out, and he wisely observes (p. 235) : 



It is au important principle, which archa-ologists sometimes overlook, that arts may 

 survive and obey tlie laws of technic evolution even though the men through whose 

 instrumentality they live and have their being have no immediate blood relationship. 



To which the author is tempted to add that the survival of identical 

 arts among peoples widely separated by time or space is not evidence 

 of independent discover}^ or separate invention. The underlying idea 

 of Professor Mason's statement is that this survival of similar arts 

 must have been by teaching of some sort which could only have been 

 accomplished by contact or communication interme- 

 diate between the peoples. While a similarity of arts 

 (or of language) is not evidence of consanguinity be- 

 tween different peoples, yet it is evidence of a high 

 order, sufficient in the absence of anything to the con- 

 trary, to carry conviction that there has been commu- 

 nication between them of some sort. 



CALIFORNIA. 



Bone ivhistlcs or flageolets.- -There are in tbe Museum 

 a number of bone whistles or flageolets, obtained from 

 ancient graves on the California coast and the adjacent 

 islands. The majority are made of the long bones of 

 birds. The simpler forms are plain tubes of various 

 lengths, one end being closed with asphaltum. In 

 others a square or oval vent hole is cut; in most cases 

 near one end, but sometimes nearer the middle. In 

 many specimens there is a transverse ridge of asphaltum 

 fastened to the inside of the tube immediately below 

 the hole, which deflects the current of air over the edge 

 of the hole and makes tbe musical tone as in a flageolet. 



Fig. 201: represents a whistle of bone 3.4 inches in 

 length, from Santa Cruz Island. (Schumacher collec- 

 tion.) One end is closed, and there is a transverse ridge of asi>haltum 

 within the tube beneath the vent hole. It is blown from the end, flag- 

 eolet fashion, and emits but a single note, thus: 



Sva. 



Fig. 204. 

 HONE WHISTLE. 



.Santa Crnz Island, 

 California. 



Cat. Xo. 18323, U.S.X.M. 

 ^4 natural size. 



In fig. 205 is shown an instrument from La Patera, Santa Barbara 

 County, on the mainland. Dr. C. C. Abbott,' speaking of this speci- 

 men, says: 



It represents a large example of what we must consider a bone whistle, although 

 in its present condition it would not be of use even in a musician's hands. As will 

 be seen in the illustration, the end farthest from the lateral hole is closed, the niate- 



' Report upon U. S. Geographical Surveys West of the One Hundredth Meridian, 

 VII, Archa-ology, pp. 231, 235. 



