FROM CALIFORNIA. 



27 



it that is suggestive of a club handle. The method taken to secure the 

 disk to the handle of this particular specimen 

 is peculiar and somewhat suggestive of an 

 ornamental purpose. A bunch of vegetable 

 fiber, probably yucca, was glued to the stick, 

 and the disk was fitted upon it, the loose ends 

 of the yucca, looking like yellow hair, being 

 allowed to project above and below the ring. 

 Moreover, particles of the glue still adhere to 

 the stick above and below the disk, as though ^-— - -r' 

 the same fiber, or perhaps feathers, as in the ^^^ 

 New Guinea specimens, had been glued to it. ^^ 

 Professor Putnam mentions a similar specimen 

 also from an ancient grave at Aucon, 1 Peru. 

 The fact as stated, that the handle tapers to 

 a sharp, smooth point, as perhaps was the 

 case with the National Museum specimen, cer- 

 tainly does not favor the idea of its having 

 been used as a weapon. Evidence of another 

 kind, however, has recently been adduced by 

 Prof. Putnam, tending to show that such disks 

 were actually employed as weapons; at the 

 same time it is by no means unlikely that in 

 Pern, as in New Guinea, the implement may 

 have served also as a visible sign of authority. 2 

 Missiles. — I find a curious use assigned by 

 Edward A. Knight 3 to these star shaped and 

 other perforated stones from Pern. While 

 describing various forms of slings, he says: 



Another mode of slinging is by means of a stick 

 thrust through a perforated stone and whirled so as to 

 discharge the missile when it has attained a maximum 

 centrifugal motion. 



His Fig. 32 shows two throwing stones from 

 Peru, adapted to be slung by a stick which is 

 thrust into the hole. The figure alluded to 

 represents two stones, one of the star shaped 

 variety, the other a circular perforated disk 

 like many from California and elsewhere. Mr. 

 Knight thinks that, although the star shaped 

 whorls found in great quantities by Schlie- 



1 U. S. Geog. Surv. West of the 100th .Meridian, Vol. VII. p. 146, Archaeology. 



2 In the Twentieth Animal Report of the Peahody Museum, pp. 542, 543, 1887, Prof. 

 Putnam mentions three human skulls in the museum which were received from the 

 same region in Peru where occur the perforated star shaped disks. Concerning these 

 the author remarks: "These exhibit circular indentures ami holes, just such as 

 would be made by blows given by pointed clubheads like those of which we- are 

 speaking; hence it is presumable that such were used as clubs, although similar 

 objects were also mounted on staves, probably for ceremonial purposes." 



3 Ann. Rep. Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution for L879, p. 232, L880. 



Fig. 13. Star shaped disk 

 mounted on handle, from Peru. 



