30 HUGO RIED'S ACCOUNT OF THE INDIANS 



which is given in Fig. 7. The original measures two feet 

 in length in a straight line, one and one-fourth inches across 

 at the handle and one and three-fourths inches at the broadest 

 part. The average thickness is about three-fourths of an 

 inch. The weapon is made of hard wood (apparently dog- 

 wood, or mesquite), and ornamented with various markings 

 which are burnt upon the surface. The end opposite the 

 handle is finished so as to imitate the head of what appears to 

 be a snake. 



When viewing the weapon edgewise, it will be observed 

 that considerable curve exists, but it is not known that these 

 Indians were ever acquainted with the art of throwing the 

 Makana so as to produce the strange and erratic motions pur- 

 sued by a boomerang at the hands of a native Australian. 



The weapon was thrown near the ground, so as not to pass 

 over a rabbit while it was running. Its general form seems 

 similar to the Zuni or Kleani, and a similar weapon used by the 

 Moqui, a notice of which was first published by the writer 

 in the Trans. Authrop. Inst. of Great Britain and Ireland 

 Vol. IX, p. 464. 



8. The black beads referred to are made of dark, greenish black ser- 

 pentine, some specimens resembling diorite, excepting as to 

 hardness. They vary in size : the smallest one measuring about 

 one-fourth of an inch in diameter and one-eighth in thickness, 

 and the largest, known to the writer, measures seven-eighths of 

 an inch in diameter by one and a half inches in length. The 

 perforation in this specimen is one-fourth of an inch in 

 diameter, and presents transverse striae caused by the sand 

 used in drilling. 



The shell beads were usually made of Haliotis and Tivola. 

 Shell money-beads were flat, and about one-third of an inch 

 in diameter. Other beads used for necklaces were cylindri- 

 cal or sub-cylindrical, larger in the middle than toward either 

 end. Many of them, found in graves, present the same style 

 of delicate perforations as we find in the beads from Santa 

 Cruz Island. The writer is of the opinion that these narrow 

 perforations were made by means of sea lions' whiskers as 

 drills, and extremely fine silicious dust. The channels are 

 scarcely large enough to admit a good sized thread, and in 

 several beads which have split lengthwise it is apparent that 

 drilling was done from both ends, as the perforations cease a 

 short distance from the middle of the bead, thus passing 

 one another, perhaps less than the tenth of an inch. It is 

 evident, from the appearance of other unfinished specimens, 



