574 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1896. 



San Diego, California, collected by Mr. Edward Palmer. The finder 

 reports it as a doll and not an idol nor a rattle. The lower iiart is 

 spherical; a small orifice is shown in front; through this have been 

 pushed two little x^ebbles a quarter of an inch in diameter. Whether 

 the insertion of these pebbles was intentional or accidental, we have 

 no means of knowing, nor is it known whether their insertion changed 

 the character of the instrument in the intention of the maker from a 



doll to a musical instrument. The 

 walls of the sphere are solid and 

 quite thick, and not calculated to 

 give off much sound, and, while the 

 rattling of the two pebbles can be 

 heard, yet they sound but faintly 

 and can be heard only a short dis- 

 tance. The more it is examined, 

 the less certain is the conclusion 

 that it was ever intended as a rat- 

 tle. Another item is that the pro- 

 tuberances representing ears have 

 been pierced and, though the right 

 ear has been pulled out and the 

 string lost, yet in the left ear the 

 hole is i^erfect and contains a 

 string of white and green glass 

 beads alternated. This would 

 seem almost decisive iu favor of 

 the object having been a doll and 

 not a rattle, though it may have 

 been used for both. 



Specimen, Cat. No. 165685 (U.S. 

 N.M.) from the Porno Indians, 

 Mendocino County, California, is 

 a rattle made of the scrotum of an 

 animal, cut open and sewed to- 

 gether, inclosing pebbles or shot. 



Fig. 213. 



POTTEHY RATTLE (OE DOLL ?). 



San Diego, California. 



CM.. No. 197.-SD, U.S.N.M. 3.i natural siz. 



NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS, EAST 

 OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS. 



Fig. 214 represents a musical 

 instrument of the fiute or fiageolet type. It is blown from the end, 

 but is without a mouthpiece; whether always so or because of its loss 

 is not known. It is made from the humerus of a swan, is 10 inches in 

 length; the sound or vent hole is lateral and 2^ inches from the upper 

 eud. The natural hollow of the bone forms the bore of the instrument, 

 and is nearly filled with asphaltum at the vent hole, apparently for the 

 purpose of reducing its size and giving the necessary vibrations when 

 blown through the ui)per eud. Tliis asphaltum has so far deteriorated 

 or become degraded as that the instrument will emit only an imperfect 



