348 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



[bull. 60 



The primitive shaping crafts, dassecl for convenience under the 



term " sawing," were in universal use by the abo- 



Sawing Processes rigines for dividing bits or masses of the raw material 



intended for further elaboration. The process does 



not necessarily imply a saw — a toothed or notched implement — but 



rather any thin-blacled implement employed in grooving or dividing 



Fig. 205. A California Indian grinding shell ornaments on a flat stone. 



stone by a sawing movement. These implements may be of stone or 

 metal or of less durable materials, as bone, or wood, or even copper 

 used with sand as the abrading agent. A distinct variety of the 

 sawing-abrading process occasionally referred to is that in which a 

 cord or a strip of rawhide, aided by sand, is employed. It is not 



Fig. 120G. Traces of abrading work left in rock bodies in jjlace. 



probable, however, that this method was ever in general use by any 

 people. 



Although the sawing processes, as practiced by the aborigines, 

 appear not to have been observed and recorded in detail by anyone, 

 the evidence furnished by worked stones and stone im]:)lements which 

 retain traces of the work sufficiently elucidate the operation if not 



