266 THE MENOMINI INDIANS [eth.ann.u 



stores, are worn — beads of sufficiently primitive appearance to induce 

 one to believe the assertion that their people had made them. 



These beads were evidently made from the thick portions, or perhaps 

 joints, of freshwater mussels ; they are of the size of buckshot, with 

 a perforation drilled from each side toward the middle. The perfora- 

 tions being somewhat of funnel shape, and showing marked stria?, would 

 indicate that the drilling had been made with other than a metal instru- 

 ment. On subsequent investigation respecting the manufacture of 

 articles requiring perforation, I was informed that the Menomini used 

 sharp-pointed pieces of quartz and jasper, rotating these rude drills 

 with the hand and fingers. As regards the use of the bow-drill, either 

 for making fire or for drilling stone or shells, no definite information 

 could be ascertained, as none of the more intelligent or aged natives 

 remembered having seen them in use. 



Although lire-sticks were used for making fire and for drilling harder 

 substances, like bone and shell, the aperture drilled was probably not 

 of greater depth than could conveniently be accomplished by rotating 

 by hand the drill point of silicious material used. 



As a matter of interest and comparison, it may be appropriate to 

 state in this connection that the Chumash, an extinct tribe who for- 

 merly inhabited Santa Cruz island, opposite Santa Barbara, California, 

 formerly made globular shell beads similar to those found in Wiscon- 

 sin. The tribe referred to were also the manufacturers of the beautiful 

 stone and shell weapons found on the Pacific coast, where the subject 

 of shell and bone drilling may be studied in every variety of ornament. 

 The most interesting shell beads found in this locality are made from the 

 tivola, abelone, etc. The cylindrical shell beads, the smallest of which 

 are three-sixteenths of an inch in diameter and an inch and a quarter 

 in length, have "perforations but little more than a millimeter (or less 

 than oue-sixteeuth of an inch) in diameter, and the difficulty in making 

 them must have been very great." 1 Large quantities of these beads 

 have been discovered, and some specimens procured by the writer are 

 4 or 5 inches in length, with a bore just large enough to permit the 

 passage of a broom straw. Even smaller perforations are noted in the 

 work just cited. 



In the recent excavation of graves, bundles of thin triangular pieces 

 or spicules of hornstone have been found. Each of these bundles con- 

 tains several hundred specimens, the individual drills being carefully 

 flaked from a core so as to be almost perfectly triangular longitudinally, 

 gradually tapering to a sharp point. These specimens have an average 

 length of an inch and three-fourths, and a diameter at the thicker end 

 not exceeding one-eighth of an inch. 



These delicate drills had no doubt been employed in making the inden- 

 tations at the ends of the cylindrical beads, which subsequently served 



'Wheeler's report U. S. Geog. Survey West of the 100th Meridian. Washington, vol. vii. p. 266, 

 pi. xiii. 



