holmes] 



ABORIGINAL AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES PART I 



349 



the exact implements and devices employed. So far as known, the 

 work ^Yas purely manual, the sawing implement, hafted or unhafted, 

 being held in the hand without mechanical device for operating. 

 The probnble manner of use of the thin stone blade as a saw-abrader 



Fig. 207. Use of the saw-abrader. 



is indicated in figure 207, and examples of the traces left in the stone 

 treated appear in figure 208. 



Whether the semicivilized peoples of ISIiddle and South America 

 employed more highly developed methods and devices and on a scale 



Fig. 208. Showiu^ the result of sawing from opposite sides and Iireal<ing the thin 



septum. 



commensurate with the magnitude of their building and sculpture 

 work is not known, but it is probable that the pecking, chiseling, 

 and abrading processes with simple stone tools were everywhere the 

 chief stone-working agencies. The extent to which copper and 



