122 FOSSIL MEN. 



content myself with noticing a few points known as to 

 America which may help to explain European facts. 



One of these is as to the mode of their manufacture. 

 Some persons seem to think that when a certain stage 

 of civilization or semi-barbarism had been attained, 

 any one could make neat flint arrows and spears. This 

 is a great mistake. Alike in the ruder and more ad- 

 vanced American tribes, there were professional arrow- 

 makers, whose skill was acknowledged often over wide 

 districts. In pre-historic times, also, the tribes inhab- 

 iting the mountains and rocky districts were especially 

 arrow-makers, and traded the produce of their skill 

 with the tribes of the plains and valleys. We are 

 even told that the travelling merchants of flint 

 weapons were privileged persons, allowed to go from 

 tribe to tribe without molestation. No doubt, any one 

 could in an emergency manage to tip an arrow in some 

 way, but it required long practice to make well-shaped 

 arrow-heads, and it was not every district that could 

 afford the best material for their manufacture. In 

 some modes of making them, indeed, it required two 

 skilled persons, one to hold the stone, the other to 

 strike off small pieces with rapid and dexterous blows 

 of a hammer and chisel. 



It results from this that the rudeness or skill of the 

 manufacture of flint weapons may be no test of age. 

 One tribe had often more skilful makers or better 

 material than others, and a party out on a hunting or 

 military expedition might be reduced to the necessity 

 of making arrows under disadvantageous circurn- 



