94 ISLAXD CULTUBE AREA OF AMEEICA [eth. anx. 31 



Tools. 



Implements of crescentic form. 

 Eared axes. 

 Engraved axes. 

 Problematic stone objects. 

 Grinding implements and pestles. 

 Stone fetishes, amulets, and idols. 

 Enigmatical objects. 



Celts and Axes 



petaix)ids 



There are a very few examples of the first group of stone imple- 

 ments or true petaloid celts in collections from the St. Vincent region, 

 and a much smaller number of these have heads or figures engraved 

 upon their surfaces. Their general form is almond-shaped, identi- 

 cal with those from Porto Eico. They may be characterized by a 

 sharj? edge at one end and a point at the opposite end. These celts 

 are supposed to have been once set in a vrooden handle or to have 

 been carried in the hand without any such attachment. Xo speci- 

 men of the so-called monolithic type of petaloid. or those with 

 handle as well as blade made of one stone, has yet been recorded from 

 the Lesser Antilles, although several are known fi-om the larger 

 islands. 



AXES AND CHISEXS 



The second group of stone implements, or axes and chisels, differ 

 from petaloids in the absence of a pointed tip, which is, as a rule, 

 rounded into a head. While in the first group no head is differenti- 

 ated from the body or shaft of the lilade. and there is no groove 

 surrounding the imjDlement for the attachment of a handle, in this 

 group there are notches in the margin that may have served for that 

 purpose or grooves to whicli a handle was attached. Plate 9, ..1, 

 represents an unidentified perforated stone object. The edges of 

 some of these axes (pi. 9, 5, (') are often so blunt that they could 

 hardly be classified as cutting implements, although they ma}' 

 have been used for hollowing out logs for canoes after fire had 

 reduced the interior of the log to charcoal. D and F are typical 

 forms. 



The stone chisels (jjI. 9, E), of which there are a few, are longer 

 and narrower than the axes, being beveled at one or both ends into 

 a cutting edge, but these implements are often pointed at one or 

 bo.th ends. The jxjinted specimens are sometimes flat on one side 

 and curved on the opposite side, although man}' are curved on both 

 faces. Wlien the edges of these chisels are squared they often bear 



