ARROWPOINTS, SPEARHEADS, AND KNIVES. 887 



Dr. HoU'mau, in his article entitled "The Graphic Art of the 

 Eskimo,'" figures a half dozen of these similar in some regards to those 

 already shown. They are from Cape Nome, Sledge Island, Diomede, 

 and Cape Darby, all on the Alaskan coast. He introduces these in the 

 attempt to correlate them and similar specimens of Eskimoan art with 

 that of the Paleolithic period as manifested in the specimens from the 

 caverns of Dordogne, France, a proposition to which the author does 

 not agree. 



Fig. 80 is an arrow-shaft straighteiier used by the Hupa Indians of 

 California. It is a piece of yew, 10 inches long, spindle-shaped, and 

 having an oblong hole through the middle. The arrow shaft is drawn 

 through the hole and straightened by pressure on the ends of the tool.^ 



VIII. CLASSIFICATION OF ARROWPOINTS AND SPEARHEADS. 



f, leaf -shaped ; IT, triangular ; III, stemmed; IV, peculiar forms. 



Dr. Ran had ]n'e])ared a paper entitled "The Typical Forms of North 

 American Prehistoric Relics of Stone and Copper in the United States 

 National Mnseum," but he died before it was completed. It has always 

 been the author's intention to complete and publish this i^aper. That 

 portion of the text relating to arrowpoints and spearheads is as follows: 



ARROW AND SPEARHEAD SHAPED OIUECTS. 



They coustitiite the most numerous class of chipped-stoue articles in the Uuited 

 States. Collectors are very apt to desiguate iudiscriniiuately all objects of dart- 

 head-like form, as arrow or spear points, without considering that many of these 

 specimens may have been quite differently employed by the aborigines. Thus several 

 Western tribes used, within recent times, chipped-dint blades identical in shape witb 

 those that are usually called ai'row and spear heads, as knives, fastening them in 

 short wooden handles by means of a black resinous substance or asphaltum. 



The stone-tipped arrows quite recently made by various Indian tribes are mostly 

 provided with slender points, often less than an inch in length, and seldom exceed- 

 ing an inch and three-(|uarter8, as exemplified by many specimens of modern arrows 

 in the National Museum. If this fact be deemed conclusive, it would follow that 

 the real Indian arrowhead was comparatively small, and that the larger specimens 

 classed as arrowpoints, and not a few of the so-called spearheads, were originally 

 set in handles and were used as knives and daggers. However, it is not improbable 

 that in formcn- times larger arrowheads were in use among the natives. 



In many cases, further, it is impossible to determine the real character of leaf- 

 shaped or triangular objects of chipped stone, as they may have served as arrow- 

 heads, or either as scrapers or cutting tools in which the convex or straight Itase 

 formed the working edge. Certain chipped spearhead shaped specimens with a 

 sharp straight or convex base may have been cutting implements or chisels. Arrow- 

 heads of a slender form pass over almost imperceptibly into perforators, insomuch 

 that it is often impossible to make a distinction between them. 



In view of these uncertainties, the writer has brought the arrow and spear point 

 shaped objects under one head, which is the more excusable as, generally speaking, 

 size is the only distinguishing feature. 



' Report U. S. National Museum, 189,5, p. 765, pis. 7, 8. 



*0ti8 T. Mason, North American Bows, Arrows, and Quivers, Smithsonian Keport, 

 1893, pi. XXXIX, fig. 1. 



