180 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 65 
One other feature of this atlatl remains to be described. Seven 
inches from the butt, on the flat side (pl. 82, d), are the marks of 
wrappings. These correspond exactly to the position \in which 
there was found, lying below the atlatl and in contact with its con- 
vex side, the curious stone object shown in plate 83, 6 (placed as found 
in pl. 82, ¢; with restored wrappings in fig. 88, 6). This object is of | 
fine-grained white limestone with bands of natural red color encir- 
cling, or rather running through, a projection which rises from one 
end (pl. 83, 2). In the top of the projection and in the upper sur- 
face of the other end are shallow round depressions that appear to 
have been made for the reception of inlays (fig. 88, 6). Running 
through it below the projection is a drilled hole which held the 
bindings that attached it to the atlatl shaft; its weight is one ounce. 
Two objects from the Sayodneechee burial cave are, on the basis of 
the above specimen, identifiable as atlatl stones. One (pl. 83, ¢) is 
of indurated shale; its peculiar shape, with flat bottom, square ends, 
and high, loaf-like top, is best shown in the photograph. It weighs 
24 ounces. The other (pl. 83, a) is smaller, thinner, and lighter 
I'icg. 88.—Spear throwers. 
(one-half ounce) ; its material is mica schist. Both show distinct 
traces of lashings on their upper or convex sides, but not on their 
lower or flat surfaces. This bears out the theory that they were once 
bound against sticks (presumably atlatl shafts), for had they been 
suspended as ornaments or for any other purpose, the lashing marks 
would run all the way round them. 
For what reason these stones were attached to the back sides of 
atlatl shafts is not obvious; they may have served as weights to 
give a proper balance or to lend added power to the apparatus. 
The peculiar shape of the Cave I specimen, and the very fine finish 
of all three, make it seem possible, however, that they may have 
had other than a utilitarian purpose. That the practice of binding 
a stone to the back of the atlatl] was a common, if not universal, one 
among the Basket Makers, is shown by an example from Grand 
Gulch in the Field Museum, Chicago, which bears a small, beauti- 
