Stone Implements. 305 



for hafting, that at trrst sight it seems difficult to say whether they 

 iire finished implements, or whether they would have become per- 

 forated hammer-heads had the process of manufacture been com- 

 pleted. Certainly in some cases the cavities appear needlessly deep, 

 xmd conical, for the mere purpose of receiving the finger ajid thumb, 

 so as to prevent the stone from slipping out of the hand ; and yet 

 such apparentlv unfinished instruments occur in different countries 

 in sufficient numbers to raise a presumption that the form is inten- 

 tional and complete." 



Now, though we have a fair number of these unfinished imple- 

 ments, none of them show any signs of having been used for any 

 particular purpose. Sir John Evans also suggested that some of 

 them may have l)een discarded owing to difficulties having been met 

 with in the boring operations, and this is certainly the case with 

 .some of ours, and the one with eccentric hole alreadx referred to 

 •owes its peculiarity probably to the same cause. 



I now come to some oblong stones which have been looked upon, 

 .and probably rightly so, as hammers. Some of them actually show 

 signs of bruising at one end. They look like short, thick rolling- 

 pins. If I remember rightl\. Mr. L. Peringuey exhibited some 

 similar, but larger and thicker, stones some years ago at a meeting 

 •of the S.A. Philosophical Society, and tried to show that stones of 

 this nature were buried at certain spots to deliminate the borders of 

 the areas which certain Hottentot hordes claimed as their own. 

 Yet it seems to be worthy of consideration whether after all they 

 may have been as a rule nothing more than prosaic rolling-pins for 

 •crushing and flattening out soft, e.specially boiled, food. At all 

 •events similar rolling-pins are still in use in Abyssinia. For pound- 

 ing hard grains, etc.. the Kafirs still use stone handmills with different 

 mullers. but I am not aware that they used special implements for 

 :softer food material. Stones which have been interpreted as rolling- 

 pins have also been found in Great Britain (Evans, I.e.. p. ^51). 



There is one magnificent specimen in the Albanv Museum, of 

 -vshich I have brought a photograph. It was ploughed up at Thar- 

 field. about eight miles east of Port Alfred, and presented to the 

 Museum by the late Hon. Dr. W. G. Atherstone. It is about 20 inches 

 long. It is so ridiculously like a modern rolling-pin that it forms a 

 great favourite with the lady visitors to the Museum, and it is very 

 difficult to suggest any other use for it. Mv friend. Dr. R. Brown, 

 told me that similar stones have been found in X.S. Wales, and 

 "have been described as " ceremonial stones," but as far as his recollec- 

 tion goes, there is nothing definite known about the use thev have 

 been put to. 



It is, however, possible that this and similar stones mav have 

 been used for the preparation of karosses. which fomied an important 

 item in the daily life of the primitive natives of South Africa. An 

 •old Kafir told Dr. Atherstone that stones like the last one were used 

 to shape assegai-heads, but I am afraid this information cannot be 

 relied upon, since Kafirs and other native races will tell one anvthing 

 one wishes, except the truth. 



