IMPLEMENTS OF STONE. 



227 



There is another variety of tubes, which it may not be improper to notice in 

 this connection, though partaking rather of the character of oi"naments tlian 



implements. Fig. 125, No. 1, represents one of these. It is in the form of a trian- 

 gular prism, with sides slightly concave and angles rounded. It is three inches in 

 length by one and three tenths in diameter at the ends, and is perforated longitudi- 

 nally ; the bore is half an inch in diameter. It is of the same variety of stone as 

 the large tube first described, and of similar workmanship. No. 2 is, however, the 

 prevailing form of articles of this description. It is a hollow cylinder, a little 

 over four inches in length, swelling gently from the ends to the centre, where it 

 measures an inch and a quarter in diameter ; calibre, half an inch ; material as 

 above. Both these articles are highly polished. It is possible that they were worn 

 as amulets, or as simple ornaments. This notion is favored by the fact, that none 

 have been discovered which are not made of rare and beautiful stones. 



Pipes. — The mound-builders were inveterate smokers, if the great number of 

 pipes discovered in the mounds be admitted as evidence of the fact. These con- 

 stitute not only a numerous but a singularly interesting class of remains. In their 



construction, the skill of the makers seems to have been exhausted. Their general 

 form, which may be regarded as the primitive form of the implement, is well 

 exhibited in the accompanying sketch. Fig. 126. 



for the cure of diseases, sometimes used tubes of stone. The operation in which they were used, was a kind 

 of cautery. 



" One mode was very remarkable, and the good effect it sometimes produced heightened the reputation 

 of the pliysician. They applied to tlie suffering part of the patient's body the chacuaco, a tube formed 

 out of a very hard black stone ; and through this they sometimes sucked and at other times blew, but 

 both as hard as they were able, supposing that the disease was either exhaled or dispersed. Sometimes 

 the tube was filled with cimarron or wild tobacco lighted, and here they either sucked in or blew down the 

 smoke, according to the physician's directions ; and this powerful caiistic sometimes, without any other 

 remedy, has been known entirely to lemove the disorder." — Vanegas Calijunila, vol. i. p. 97 



