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BUEEAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



[BULL. 60 



grasped by the finger tips of the left hand against the thumb or the 

 ball of the thumb of that hand, as illustrated in figure 172. In the 

 latter method the hand was always protected from injury by a pad 

 of buckskin or other like device. 



Typical examples of the chipping tools are shown in figure 173 

 and the relation of the bone point to the implement edge operated 

 on in figure 174. The point of the tool was set against the margin of 

 the stone, as here shown, and the chips were forced off by a spas- 

 modic push. It appears that when the point of the tool was ronnded, 

 the push was sometimes accompanied by a slight rocking motion. 

 In skilled hands the bone point was quickly moved to the proper 

 point on the margin of the stone for the next flake, and so on until the 

 shaping was complete. The positions illustrated in most of the 



Fig. 172. Sharpeuiuj; au arrow poiut by tLipiiiug with a Imiii' iioint. 



accompanying drawings are those taken by the writer in demon- 

 strating the various methods recorded by observers of the aboriginal 

 work. 



It was the good fortune of Maj. J. W. Powell to witness the opera- 

 tion of this and other processes of shaping stone, as employed among 

 a number of tribes in the Colorado Valley, and his photograph 

 (nuide by Ilillers) of an aged Paiute man demonstrating the manner 

 of holding the chipping implement and the blade under treatment 

 is probably the only record of its kind in existence. This photo- 

 graph is reproduced in figure 175, and an enlarged drawing of the 



