72 



STONE ART. 



[ETH. ANN. 13 



from Kanawha valley, West Virginia, and from Savannah, Georgia, a 

 few specimens of the same materials. 



Celts. 



What is true of the uses and distribution of stone axes applies with 

 much the same force to what are called celts — not a good descriptive 

 term, but one which is now given to the implement in lieu of something- 

 better. It would appear difficult or impossible to do with these rude 

 tools any work for which we commonly use an ax or hatchet ; and yet, 

 by the aid of fire, or even without it, the aborigines contrived to accom- 

 plish a great deal with them. 



The Maori of New Zealand do all their wonderful work of wood 

 carving with only a chisel or adze (of stone or shell).' Among the 

 Iroquois, in cutting trees, Are was applied at the root, the coals were 

 scraped away with a chisel, and this process was repeated until the 

 tree was felled. The trunk was divided into lengths in the same way. 

 Similarly canoes and mortars were hollowed out. * The Virginia Indians 



at an early day employed a similar process. 

 They also cleared ground for cultivation by 

 deadening trees with their tomahawks,' 

 and used adzes made of shell in cleaning 

 out the charred w^ood in making canoes.'' 

 The Nootka of the northwestern part of 

 the continent in felling a tree use a flint or 

 elk horn set in a handle, this being struck 

 with a stone mallet. In hollowing canoes 

 a musselshell also is used as an adze, and 

 sometimes fire is applied. The outside is 

 shaped by similar means. ^ 



Stone chisels have been found in various 

 edge. ■ steatite quarries, where vessels and other 



utensils of this material were made, and the marks of their use is plain 

 both on the vessels in an unfinished state and on the cores, as well as 

 on the quarry face." 



The different ways of hafting, as shown by specimens in the Bureau 

 collection, were as follows: 



(1) A hole was cut entirely through a stick and the celt was inserted 

 so that it would project on both sides; 



(2) The hole was cut partly through, and the celt was pushed in as 

 far as it would go ; 



1 Wood, J G.i Natural History of Mankind, p. 200. 



* Morgan, L. H. ; League of the Iroquois, p. 358. 



s Beverly, Eobt.; History of Virginia. 1722, p. 198. 



» Wyth, John: Graphic Sketches, part I, plate 14. 



' Catlin. Geo. ; Last Rambles Among the Indians, pp. 100-101. 



sMohr, Smithsonian Report for 1881. p. 618; Barber, Amer. Nat., vol. Xll, p. 403 : McGuire, Ibid., 

 vol. XVII, p. 587; Walker, Science, vol. IX, p. 10; Schumacher, Eleventh Annual Report of l•e.^body 

 Museum, p. 263. 



Fig. 46. — Notched ax, showing polishetl 



