PLAKED AND CHIPPED STONE. 



2. Irregular Flakes of Flint, Obsidian, etc., prodnced by a single blow,- 



Some may represent cutting tools of the most primitive kind. 



OBSmiAN KNITE AND NtFCLEUS (^). 



3. Two-edged narrow Flakes of Obsidian and prismatic Cores or Nuclei, 

 from which such Flakes have been detached by pressure (Figs. 2 and 3, 



Mexico). — Tlie mode of manufacture of these flakes or knives has been des- 

 cribed by some of the early Spanish authors on Mexico.^ Obsidian breaks 

 like the cretaceous flint of Europe, and hence the Mexican knives are identi- 

 cal in shape with the neolithic flint knives found in the countries bordering on 

 the Baltic Sea. 



4. Pieces of Flint, Quartz, Obsidian, etc., roughly flaked, and either 

 representmg rude tools, or designed to be wrought into more regular 

 forms.— Unfinished Arrow and Spear-heads. 



5. Arrow-heads. — Thej^ are the most abundant aboriginal relics in the 

 United States; but being chiefly made of hard and brittle silicious materials, 

 they were easily damaged in hitting the object at which they Avere aimed, and 

 many of them consequently bear the marks of violent use. Yet perfect speci- 

 mens are by no means scarce. The art of arroAV-making survives to the 

 present day among certain Indian tribes inhabiting parts of the United States 

 not yet settled by whites, and the Xational Museum contains a large number 

 of modern stone arrow-heads (partly in shafts) which equal, and even surpass 

 in workmanship, the best specimens picked up in fields or recovered from old 

 Indian burial-places. The modes of their manufacture have been witnessed 

 and described by explorers, and these operations now appear less difiicult 

 than they were formerly supposed to be. 



A classification of the arrow-heads Avith regard to their chronological de- 

 velopment is not attempted, and hardly deemed necessary. I^orth American 

 Indians of the same tribe (as, for instance, the Pai-Utes of Southern Utah) 



'The fullest account is given by Torquemada (Monarqiiia Indiana, Seville, 1015). The Aztec artisan, he 

 states, dislodged the obsidian flakes from the block by pressure, employing a large wooden J-shaped imple- 

 ment, which acted somewhat in the manner of a punch, the cross-piece resting against the chest. A trans- 

 lation of Torquemada's description is to be found in E. B. Tylor's "Anahuac," London, ISGl, p. 331. 

 Motoliuia makes simUar statements, which, it is believed, have not yet been quoted in English works. 



