224 



ANCIENT MONUMENTS. 



Rings. — Among the implements maybe classed certain small grooved rings, beau- 

 tifully worked from stone and bone. Some are composed of the micaceous stone, 

 of which the mound discs already described are made, and are carved with the 

 utmost delicacy, and highly polished. They measure about two inches and three 

 fourths in diameter, and the thickness of the periphery is half an inch. They are 

 deeply grooved upon the outer edge, and are pierced by eight small holes, at equal 

 distances from each other, all radiating from the centre. Similar rings, of smaller 

 size, have been found, cut from bone. They are pierced in the same manner with 

 those above described. It is suggested that they formed part of a drilling apparatus, 

 something like the " bow and drill " of the present day. Several of larger size 

 than those here noticed were found, some years since, in a mound at Cincinnati. 

 A variety of relics are found which resemble paint-muUers. Some of these are 

 composed of brown hematite, aftd are very symmetrical in figure. 



Tubes. — Not among the least remarkable and interesting relics, obtained from 

 the mounds, are the stone tubes, of which several examples are given in the sub- 

 joined engraving, Fig. 122. They are all carved from fine-grained materials sus- 



Fl Q . 



ceptible of receiving a polish and of being made ornamental, as well us useful. 

 The finest specimen yet discovered, and which can scarcely be surpassed in the 

 delicacy of its workmanship, was found in a mound in the immediate vicinity of 

 Chillicothe. No. 1 is a greatly reduced sketch. It is composed of a compact 

 variety of slate ; the ground is brownish or leaden green, interstratified with 

 veins of pure black, of variable thickness, from a line to the fourth of an inch. 

 These, when worked obliquely to their planes, are decidedly ornamental. This 

 stone cuts with great clearness, and receives a fine though not glaring polish. 

 The tube under notice is thirteen inches long, by one and one tenth in diameter ; 

 one end swells slightly, and the other terminates in a broad, flattened, triangular 

 mouth-piece, (so called for lack of a better designation,) of fine proportions, which 

 is carved with mathematical precision. It is drilled throughout ; the bore iff seven 

 tenths of an inch in diameter at the cylindrical end of the tube, and retains that 



the plains and upon the mountains," says Molina, " are to be seen a great number of flat circular stones, 

 of five or six inches in diameter, with a hole through the middle. Tiiese stones, which are either granite 

 or porphyry, have doubtless received this form by artificial means, and I am induced to believe that they 

 were the clubs or maces of the ancient Chilians, and that the holes were perforated to receive the handles." 

 — Molina, vol. i. p. ."iPj. 



