12 



PERFORATED STONES 



A similar improved digging stick lias been invented by the New Zea- 

 landers and is described as follows: l 



Their only instrument for tillage was "a long narrow stake sharpened to an edge 

 :il one end, with a short piece fastened transversely at a little distance above it, for 

 the convenience of pressing it down with the foot." 



The digging stick was used among the Figians as an agricultural 

 implement, as described by Williams in his Figi and Figians, and 

 quoted by Lubbock, Fre-Historic Times, p. 4GS, 1878. 



It was also employed by the Tahitians, and is described by Wilson, 



quoted by Lubbock (op. cit., p. 481), as "instruments of hard wood, 



about five feet long, narrow, with sharp edges and pointed. These 



they used as spades or hoes." 



The use of the stone weighted digging stick seems to have been very 



common in South Africa. As, however, perforated 



stones from this region have often been classed as 



weapons, several extracts will be given to show the 



nature of the testimony upon which both uses have 



been maintained. 



Edgar L. Layard 2 makes specific mention of the 

 digging stick in South Africa and of the stone 

 weights, although the use assigned to the latter is 

 at second hand. Discussing stone implements, he 

 says: 



Secondly, the perforated round stones found all over the 

 colony. These vary in size and shape, and are as globular as 

 a common ball. They were said to have been used even in 

 later days by the bushinen for the purpose of weighting their 

 bulb-digging sticks. They are described by Patterson aud 

 the older authors on South African travel. 



The following is from Burchell. 3 Not oulv is the 



Fig. 8. Hottentot ili'_ r i;iii^ a 



stick, after Barcheii. use of the digging stick affirmed, but an illustration 

 shows the manner of wedging the stone to the handle: 



We were visited by two natives * * * out in search of wild roots * * The 



other carried, what my Hottentots called a graafstok (a digging stick), to which there 

 was affixed a heavy stone to increase its force in pecking up bulbous roots. The 

 stone, which was five inch.es in diameter, had been cut or ground, very regularly to a 

 round form, and perforated with a hole large enough to receive the stick and a wedge- 

 by which it was fixed in its place. 



Reference to Fig. 8, below, a copy of Btirch ell's illustration, will show 

 how similar is the weight to some of the California specimens. 



Rev. J. (>. Wood 4 gives the following account of the digging stick of 

 the Hottentots: 



1 Dieffenbach's New Zealand, Vol. II, p. 11, as quoted by Sir John Lubbock (Pre- 

 Historic Times, p. -175, 1878). 



Jour. Authrop. Inst. Great Brit. & Ireland, Vol. I, 1872, appendix, p. e. 



-Travels in the Interior of Southern Africa, Wm. J. Burchell, Vol. II, p. 29 and 

 figure on page 45, 1824. 



1 Uncivilized Races of Men, Vol. T >. 231, 1870. 



