18 PERFORATED STONES 



favorite pastime among the ancients, as it lias been, to a less extent, in 

 more modern times. The ancient and modern game of quoits differs 

 considerably from the Indian game above alluded to, though it involves 

 no new principle. Instead of a lauce to cast at a rolling disk, the lance 

 is reduced to a mere peg inserted into the ground, and the disk becomes 

 a missile to cast at it, the object being the same in both games, viz, 

 to transfix the disk. Wheu the disk was imperforate, as it often was, 

 the object was to cast it as near the stake as possible. It will be 

 remembered that the "chungke" disks of the eastern Indians are also 

 imperforate. It would seem, then, highly probable that the more 

 modern method of playing quoits is in the nature of a development 

 from a game closely resembling, perhaps, the game of "chungke." 



The knightly game of riding at a ring, which was a favorite pastime 

 of the mediaeval knights and is even now practiced in the so-called 

 tournaments of our Southern States, is probably to be regarded as 

 another form of the same game which was developed when the horse 

 became an essential part of the equipment of a warrior. In this form 

 of the game the ring is suspended from above, and the object is to 

 transfix and bear away the ring on the point of the lance while riding 

 at speed. 



Were we able to reconstruct the entire past history of such games as 

 the above, whether played by the Indians of the United States or by 

 mediaeval knights, we should doubtless find that they originated in the 

 practice of a warlike art. The lauce is a favorite weapon of savagery, 

 and that special means should be invented to develop skill in its use is 

 not at all surprising. The rolling disk at which to cast the spear is the 

 analogue of the target for the arrow. A practice origi nating as a means 

 of developing an essentially warlike art and subsequently used as a 

 pastime by the warriors would, in the course of time, inevitably become 

 a mere game, though, of course, intentionally or unintentionally, always 

 fulfilling somewhat of its original function, viz, the training of eye, 

 hand, and foot. 



Dies. — The San Buenaventura half-breed stated that some of the per- 

 forated disks of hard stone were made for the express purpose of fash- 

 ioning pipes. The end of the, stone to be fashioned was inserted into the 

 hole of a perforated stone and turned by the hand till reduced to the 

 proper shape. The perforated stone hence served as a kind of die, if the 

 term can be employed correctly in this connection. It seems probable 

 that this use of the perforated stones was a purely secondary one. Any 

 of the disks of comparatively hard and rough stone would answer to 

 round off and roughly finish the soft steatite pipes, and their use for this 

 purpose would readily have suggested itself. Their employment-ill this 

 way once understood, it is of course possible that the professional pipe 

 makers, if there were such, may have found it convenient to make and 

 to keep for this particular purpose different sizes of perforated stones, 

 limiting them perhaps exclusively to this special function. In fact, Fig. 



