IIOLJIKS ! 



ABORIGINAL AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES PART I 



327 



Having selected a suitable flake, Islii assumes the new pose shown in plate t. 

 1) [flg. 185]. * * * The actual disposition of flake and tool is better indicated 

 in the detail views of plate ii [fig. 180]. The flake to be worked will be observed 

 resting on a bit of leather and placed transversely across the proximal fleshy part 

 of the left palm and there held by one or more of the finger tips. The chipping tool, 

 gi-asped firmly with the right hand, is placed on the upper side of the flake, ver\' 

 close to the edge, and by a quick, downward pressure a chip is removed from the 

 underside of the flake. That much of this seemingly simple act will be noticed 

 by any casual observer, but it may be well to analyze. the act a liltl<' so as fo 

 show that it is, after all, not so simple as it looks. There is, so to speak, some 

 knack about it. First of all, we may note the fact, well shown in the illustra- 

 lion, that the axis of the tool used and the edge of the obsidian to be worked 

 do not nie(>t at a right iingle, althougli they :ii-c in nearly the same plane. Sec- 

 ondly — and lliis docs nof show well in the illustration — the cliiiiiiing tool is so 



Fig. 1S4. Flaliing aud notching tools used by Ishi. 



turned on its axis that the plane of its cutting edge meets the plane of the flake 

 to be worked at nearly, if not quite, a right angle. That this turn of the chip- 

 ping tool is necessary, or at least deliberate, is certain, because Ishi employs it 

 invariably in the later stages. * * * jsJq^ having experimented very nnich, 

 I am unable to say why Ishi proceeds as he does, but he gets results which I 

 can not imitate, try as I will. Ishi removes thin aud fairly slender chips that 

 extend two-thirds or more across the face of the flake, while my cliijis arc 

 thick and short. Consequently his ai'rowpoints when finished are thin and 

 shniH'iy, while mine, nnicli to his disgust, are thick and clumsy affairs. My 

 work resemliles the abrupt Mousterian retouch, while Islii's is the true Solu 

 triau technique. 



As to the actual movements involved in chipping, these would be rather 

 diflicvdt to describe. The pressure exerted, if n(>t too great, conies mostly from 

 a wrist action ; but if greater weight is needed the leverage is thrown back to 

 the elbow aud shoulder. The precision of the movement in the later and more 

 delicate stage of the work is guided by placing the index finger of the tool 



