IMPLEMENTS AND WEAPONS OP THE STONE AGE. 117 



well knows the effective use of the antler by the deer 

 at bay, and nothing is more natural than that he 

 should adapt this weapon to his own use, so that 

 perhaps the antler is the oldest of all strikers or war- 

 clubs. But the implement has other forms. A stick 

 with a clubbed end was a usual form in America, and 

 corresponds to the waddy so effectively used by the 

 natives of Tasmania and other Austral savages. This 

 was rendered more deadly by a sharp bone or antler, 

 or a chipped flint, firmly socketed in the wood and 

 bound with thongs. Sometimes a row of flints was 

 set along the edge of the handle, as described by 

 Captain Gray in the case of Australian savages, and 

 a saw-edged sword of this kind used by the Mexican 

 tribes, and fitted with very Palaeolithic obsidian or 

 flint blades, was much dreaded by the early Spanish 

 adventurers. Schoolcraft and Catlin figure many 

 strange and grotesque forms of these weapons, and 

 they abound in museums. Those of a more modern 

 date have a metal blade instead of a sharp stone. If 

 the so-called Palaeolithic axes of Western Europe were 

 used as weapons in the state in which they are now 

 found, they must have been handled in this way, by 

 being attached with thongs or cement to pieces of 

 wood or of bone. 



To this class of weapons undoubtedly belong most 

 of those strangely-shaped stone axes and picks, with 

 a socket for a small handle, which are found in primi- 

 tive graves both in the Old and New World (Fig. 24) . 

 They are generally of so small size and weight, and 



