88n 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1897. 



Fig. 78. 



SEKPENTINE ARROW - SHAFT STRAIOHTENER WITH 

 THREE SMOOTH GROOVES, ORNAMENTAL IRREGULAR 

 INCISED LINES. 



Santa Barbara County, Calilbrnia. 



Cnt. N.i. 20216, U.S.N. M. M lliltur.il size. 



obloiiji' form ami exhibitiiii? on the upper face a groove, or sonietiraes 

 two or three parallel grooves, for receiving the arrow shafts (tig. 78). 

 The grooves are mostly smooth and shining from long usage. Mr. 

 Paul Schumacher found a number of these implements in southern Cali- 

 fornia graves, and he describes 

 their application.' The stones 

 were heated and the crooked 

 shafts rubbed back and forth in 

 the grooves under pressure until 

 they became straight. As the 

 stones had to withstand a consid- 

 erable degree of heat, serpen- 

 tine, a material possessing tliat 

 quality, was generally chosen. 

 Straighten ers of the ruder kind 

 were made in California of frag- 

 ments of soapstone vessels. The Apaches and other western tribes used 

 until lately very neat straighteners of serpentine, often iirovided with 

 two grooves. The author, however, was informed that they did not heat 

 the stone, but heated the shafts, and then i^ressed them back and forth 

 in the grooves. Some of the California specimens have been cractkled by 

 the heat to which they were exposed. From the uniform jxdish of the 

 grooves, it maybe inferred that such stones were also used for smooth- 

 ing the shafts. Similar utensils, apparently for the same use, are in the 

 Museum collection, 

 ranging in locality 

 from Massachusetts 

 to California. 



The Eskimos used 

 a different tool for 

 straightening their 

 arrow shafts. It was 

 a piece of 

 bone, or ^ 

 frequent- 

 ly ivory, 

 heavy 

 and solid, 

 wnth an 



enlargement at the upper end through which was a perforation usually 

 of lozenge shai)e. The arrow shaft was put through this hole, and 

 the instrument, used as a wrench, bent the shaft as was required to 

 make it straight. Dr. Boas figures one of them '^ (fig. 79), and European 

 prehistoric archa'ologists have frequently done the same. ' 



' Arcbiv. fiir Anthropologio, IX, p. 249. 



■^ Central Eskimo, Sixth Ann. Rcpt. Bur. Etlinol., 1S81-S.5, p. .525, (iji. 474. 



3 Boyd Dawkius, Early Mau iu Britain, p. 238, lig. 92. 



Fig. 80. 



AREOW-SHAFT STRAIGHTENERS OF WOOD OR IVORY. 



Fig. 79, Central E.skinio. 



6th Ann. Ui.pt. liur. Etiii.ol., Iss4-.i, fit'. -174, p. V.'.S. 

 Fig. SO, Hup« Indians. Smithsonian Report, IS'i:!, pi. xx\ix, fig. !. 



