ABORIGINAL CHIPPED STONE IMPLEMENTS OF NEW YORK 55 



Mohawks, the Rev. Johannes Megapolensis says, ' When their corn 

 is ripe, they take off the ears and put them in deep pits, and preserve 

 them therein the whole winter.' A fuller account will be found in 

 the New England prospect. ' Their corn being ripe, they gather it, 

 and drying it hard in the sunne, conveigh it to their barnes, which be 

 great holes digged in the ground in forme of a brasse pot, seeled with 

 rinds of trees, wherein they put their corne.' 



The origin of indian corn is a question of much interest, and a great 

 deal has been written upon it. Besides what has been said above, 

 Roger Williams gave the New England tradition : ' The crow 

 brought them at first an indian grain of corne in one eare, and an 

 indian or French beane in another, from the great god Kautantouwit's 

 field in the southwest, from whence they hold came all their corne 

 and beanes.' Corn hills were large, and stood well apart. They are 

 still to be seen in some New York woods, and the cultivation was 

 very simple. Roger Williams has a note on what he thought a 

 curious preference in tools: 'The indian women, to this day, (not- 

 withstanding our howes,) doe use their naturall howes of shells and 

 wood.' Spades are not mentioned, and, bearing this fact in mind, it 

 is quite likely that those stone implements of New York which resem- 

 ble what are called spades elsewhere, are to be considered hoes, if 

 they were really digging tools. The question admits of reasonable 

 doubt, but the classification may be allowed for present convenience. 

 It may be added that less was needful for digging than is often sup- 

 posed. In an emergency the writer has been surprised to see how 

 much excavating he could do on an indian site with a sharp stick, 

 or a broad and pointed stone. With improvised tools and plenty of 

 muscle a great deal could be easily accomplished, but the necessity 

 for this was so rare in indian life that little faith need be placed in the 

 New York stone spade. 



Fig. 147 represents the finest of these articles known to the writer. 

 It is a leaf-shaped implement of a bluish grey stone, and came from 

 Oneida lake, where it was plowed up in 1877. The average thickness 

 is three eighths of an inch, and the length is 1 1 J inches, with a breadth 

 of five and one quarter inches. This and the two following figures 

 are reduced to about two thirds of the actual size. It is sharpest at 

 the broad end. This article seems much too large for either spear or 



