316 BUEEAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 60 



between the tliiiinb and first finger of his left hand with the edge of the arrow- 

 head upward, the base resting edgewise on the deersliin cusliion in the palm. He 

 then used the smaller deer prong, which had been sharpened in the same form 

 as the larger one, but all its proportions, in every respect, were very nuich 

 smaller; its ])oint could not have been larger than one-sixteenth of an inch 

 square, lie rested this point on the edge of the arrowhead where he desired 

 to make the slot, and commenced sawing back and forth with a 

 [Rocking Motion of I'ocking motion, the fine chips flew from each side, the point of 

 "^ *^^ the deerhorn descended, and in less than a minute the slot was 



cut. The arrowhead was turned over and the same operation repeated on the 

 other edge. It seemed that by this process, if he desired, the arrowhead could 

 have been cut in two in a very few minutes. He now examined his work in the 

 strong sunlight and, being satisfied, handed me the completed arrowhead. It 

 had taken him 40 minutes to split the two Hakes from the large piece of obsidian 

 and chip one of them into the arrowhead. ^ 



The practice of this method of chipping at present by the Cali- 

 fornia Indians is illustrated in figure 180. 



John Smith, who had an intimate acquaintance with the Indian 

 tribes of the Virginia region, gives a brief but explicit 

 lowhatans accouiit of the ordinary method of providing arrow- 



lieads among the tribes of Virginia: ''His arrow- 

 head he <}uickly maketh with a little bone, which he ever weareth 

 at his bracert, of an}' sjDlint of a stone, or glasse in the forme of a 

 heart, and these they glew to the end of their arrowes." ^ 



Sellers, referring to observations made by Titian R. Peale, who 

 accompanied Lewis and Clark on their exploration 



Wcstorn Trilios 



to the Pacific, contributes the following : 



Mr. Peale said he had seen squaws chipping flakes into small arrow points, 

 holding the flake in their left hand, grasped between a piece of bent leather, 

 and chipping off small flakes by pressure, using a small pointed bone in the 

 right hand for that purpose. From this it was evident that John Smith's story 

 was no mytli.^ 



A similar process, identical with the blade-making process de- 

 scribed by I3eckwith, was demonstrated by an aged 

 shoshoiiu AVashoe Indian for the benefit of Mr. S. L. Lee, who 



described it in a letter addressed to Prof. O. T. 

 Mason, da led Carson City, Nev., IDOI, The chip})ing implements 

 were two points, a large and a small one, made of buckliorn rein- 

 forced Avith a piece of "rabbit brush" and wrapped with buckskin. 

 These articles were later presented to the Museum by Mr. Lee and 

 are illustrated in figure 173, h. 



That stone, on account of its hardness and brittleness, was unsuited 

 for the making of chipping implements is entirely apparent, but its 

 use, probably in the absence of more suitable materials, is recorded 



'' Roddins, IIow Our Ancestors in the Stone Age Made Their Implements, pp. 671-674. 

 - Smith, True Travels, Adventures, and Observations, vol. i, p. 132. 

 ^ Sellers, Observations on Stone-chipping, pp. S72-S7.3. 



