200 RELIQUIAE 



It is possible that these transversely marked implements may have been used 

 in Games, not being without resemblance to some of the gambling-instruments 

 of the Indians of North-west America, as we are informed by Dr. Robert Brown. 

 We learn, moreover, from Milton and Cheadle's ' North-west Passage by Land,' 

 4th edit. 8vo, 1865, p. 150, that these Indians also notch sticks as they win 

 and lose the stakes in their nearly interminable games of chance. Indeed 

 Dr. Brown says that the Indians always keep count, in this way, of the number 

 of days they travel with you, and so on. 



3. The closely notched tally -like fragment, from Cro-Magnon, in B. Plate XII. 

 fig. 10, has already been described (page 96); and the notched bone implement, 

 fig. 4s, B. Plate XXIV., with its snake-like ornament, has a similar character. 



4. B. Plate II. fig. 8 6 shows three series of parallel incised lines, at right 

 angles to three imperfect transverse lines, one of which is forked at one end ; 

 and there are some chevron marks touching these latter lines. They all seem 

 to have been cut subsequently to the Eel (?) in the carving ; and their meaning, 

 if they had any, remains enigmatical. Possibly they were meant as a symbol 

 for water. Their ogham-like arrangement (that is, the parallelism of some, 

 perpendicular to an axial line) is noticeable, though it may really be accidental. 



V. As to the Pitting. With regard to the pitting on fig. 13, B. Plate XIII., 

 whether it be ornamental or inscriptive, we need not refer to many specimens 

 as analogous, although punctate markings and circular indentations are not at all 

 uncommon as savage decoration. 



1. As the first instance, we may allude to the ornament of an Australian 

 Boomerang (from Victoria), now in the Christy Collection, which is covered on 

 one side (the convex face) with irregular transverse rows of rough pits, filled 

 with white pigment. These are necessarily much larger than those on fig. 13, 

 as the numbers in the rows are about the same on the two specimens, but the 

 Boomerang is very much the broader of the two. 



2. For a second example we may refer to another specimen in the Christy Col- 

 lection, namely an African armlet with an ivory pendant ornamented with rows 

 of dots, or pittings filled in with dark-coloured pigment. 



3. Eor a third case we refer to a broken subcylindrical Dart-head, from La 

 Madelaine, now in the University Museum, Oxford (fig. 7, B. Plate XXV.), which 

 bears on one edge, high up towards the point (lost by an old fracture), a series of 

 about forty small pits. These may be looked on as forming three longitudinal 

 rows, with an irregular alternation, and with some confusion at the lower end, 



