SMITHSONIAIST ARCHAEOLOGICAL COLLECTION. 



33 



Tennessee). Concerning the destination of the tablets nothing is definitely 

 known. At first sight, one might be inclined to consider them as objects of 

 ornament, or as badges of distinction; but this view is not corroborated by 

 the appearance of the perforations, which exhibit no trace of that peculiar 



130 



PIEIirEl) TABLETS AND BOAT-SHAPED ARTICLES (J). 



abrasion produced by constant suspension. The classification of the tablets 

 as &quot;gorgets,&quot; therefore, appears to be erroneous. There are, indeed, per 

 forated tablets which unquestionably were worn as ornaments; but they will 

 be considered hereafter. Schoolcraft regards the objects under notice as im 

 plements for twine-making. According to another conjecture they were 

 used in condensing and rounding bow-strings, by drawing the wet strips of 

 hide, or the sinews employed for that purpose, through the perforations. It 

 is suggestive that the Indians of Southeastern Nevada have been seen using 

 similar pierced tablets for giving uniform size to their bow-strings. 18 There 

 are in the collection some flattened stones of less symmetrical outline, pierced 

 with a number of holes which are rather irregularly distributed, but equal in 

 size to those observed in the tablets just described (Fig. 133, potstone, Penn- 



18 Smithsonian Report for 1870, p. 404. 



