THROWING-STICKS FROM MEXICO AND CALIFORNIA. 



BY 



Otis T. Mason. 



In the roi)ort of the iSTiitional Miisemii for 1884 I ]niblislie(l a short 

 l>;il)eiou tlie Eskimo " thro\viuj>-sti('ks" in tlic Depaitiuciit of Ethnolo.ny. 

 The object of the articile was to show liow the methods and problems 

 of natural history aie a]i])lieiihle to the products and apparatus of 

 human industry. Here we had a homogeneous people in bh>od aud 

 language, occupying a zoological area which we call hyperborean, and 

 stret(;hiug out to cover Labrador, Greeidand, all Arctic (Canada, and 

 the shores of Alaska, from tlie Mackenzie district all around to Mimnt 

 St. Elias. It was with genuine pleasure that the author afterwards 

 received from Dr. Seler, Mr. Murdoch, Dr. Stolpe, Dr. Uhle, .Air. Bahn- 

 son, Mrs. J^uttall, and Dr. JMortillet their own later contributions upon 

 the same ingenious implement, with the acknowledgments that their 

 publication was stinudate<l by the '-Eskimo paper."* 



In Science, for October 30, 18{)1, T gave a brief description, without 

 ligures, of an example secured foi- me on Lake Patzcuaro, Mexico, by 

 Capt. John G. Bourke, U. S. Army. Tln^ ai>paratus was bought bj' 

 this gentleman from a hunter, and may now be seen in the U. S. National 



* Altmexikaiiisclie, Wnrfbretter, von Dr. Ed. Seler, Internatiouales Arcliiv fiir 

 Etliu()'>rii]iliie, Bit. iii, 1890; Tlie history of tlie tlirowiug-sticlc, Avliicli itrif'ted from 

 Alaska, to (Jn'tuilniid, )iy John Mnnloch, Am. Antliropologist, .Inly, lSt)0; Ucber 

 iiltnirxikanische nnd siidauuTikanische W'nif lirettcr, von Dr. Iljaliiiar .Stoli>e, in 

 tStockholm, Intiinal. Archiv f. Ethnog., I>d. in, 1890; f^eber die, Wiirflnllz<'r der 

 Indianer Amerikas, von Dr. Max Uhle, Mitthfil. der Anthrop. (Uisellsch. in Wi«'u, 

 lid. XVII, n. v., VII, 1S87; ITeber siidauierikanischo Wnrfholzcr ini Kopenhaj>ciiC'r 

 Mnseum, von Kristian IJalinson, Intcruat. Archiv f. Ethnog., ii, 1889; Mrs. Zelia 

 Kiittall, iu a paper read before the Woman's Anthrojtologieal Society in Washington. 

 ( ntitled "The Atlatl or Spear-Thrower of the Ancient Mexicans, Arch, and lltiinol, 

 Pajiers of the Peabody Mnseum, I, No. 3; Les |»ro]iulseurs a crochet niodernes et 

 preliistoriques, par Adrien de Mortillet, Rev. Mensnelle de I'ficole d'yVuthroi)ologie 

 de Paris, i, 15 aoftt 1891. 



Procceding.s National Musfiini, Vol. XVI — No. 932. 



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