34 PERFORATED STONES FROM CALIFORNIA. 



function is far less complete, and one form of implement, while perhaps 

 suggested by a special want and having a peculiar fituess for some one 

 function, must perforce do duty in many ways. 



SIGNIFICANCE TO THE ARCHAEOLOGIST OF MEDICINE PRACTICES. 



In conclusion I wish to record my belief that the practices of the med- 

 icine man and the implements of his profession, together with objects 

 connected with superstitious practices generally, are too often lost sight 

 of or ignored by the archaeologist in the consideration of the possible 

 uses of relics. When an article of unknown use is brought to light, the 

 first question naturally is, to what practical use can it have been put? 

 and too frequently the inquiry stops here and is limited to the economic 

 side of the question, as though everything made or employed by the 

 savage must have an economic function. Yet a large part of the life of 

 the savage is passed in the observance of superstitious practices. In war 

 or at peace, whether about to start on a hunting trip or to engage in 

 the peaceful pursuits of agriculture, his movements are largely regu- 

 lated by omens and signs more or less intimately connected with sor- 

 cery practices. Such practices, centered, as they are, in the medicine 

 man, who is both priest and conjurer, require abundant paraphernalia 

 suited to their important and mysterious functions. Doubtless much of 

 the paraphernalia is of a perishable nature, and not likely to reach the 

 hands of the archaeologist. No one, however, can believe that all the 

 "tools of the craft" are perishable — no one, at least, who has examined 

 the contents of a medicine bag or inspected the accoutermeuts of a 

 medicine man when engaged in his office. Notwithstanding the uni- 

 versal practice of sorcery and the apparent fact that a larger or smaller 

 number of the articles used in its practice must endure and be recov- 

 ered by the archaeologist, it is rarely, indeed, that such observances are 

 appealed to in archaeologic treatises to explain the possible use of imple- 

 ments of unknown function. 



It is true that, from the very nature of the case, the function of such 

 articles is by no means always indicated by their shape and their pecu- 

 liarities, perhaps, indeed, is rarely thus disclosed; but by keeping in 

 mind the importance of sorcery practices and the probable occurrence 

 in the form of relics of the articles used in these performances, the archae- 

 ologist will be less likely to err in his theories of function. Further- 

 more, it is probable that a careful studj" from the above point of view 

 of relics now of unknown use will frequently reveal peculiarities suffi- 

 cient to show their function. 



