140 STONE ART. [ETH.ANN.13 



cut a notch in the end of <i bone, into which the edge of the flalie is 

 inserted and a chip brolien oflt' by a sideways blow.' According to tlie 

 same author, the E.skimo sometimes set the flake in a piece of split 

 wood. The arrow is roughly chixiped by blows with a hammer, either 

 direct or with a punch interposed, and is then finished by pressing otf 

 fine chips with a point of antler set in an ivory handle.- Not only leaf- 

 shape barbed arrows, but also ones either with or without the stem, 

 can be produced by pressure with a point of antler; the former, how- 

 ever, are the more easily made, and were probably earlier in use.^ 



The Plains Indians lay the flat side of a flake of obsidian on a blanket, 

 or other yielding substance, and with a knife nick off the edges rapidly. 

 In their primitive state they probably used buckskin instead of the 

 blankets, and pointed bone or horn instead of the knife.^ 



The Apache holds the flake or flint in his left hand, places his punch 

 at the point where the chip is to be broken ofl", and it is struck by an 

 assistant, thus knocking a chip from the under side; the flake is then 

 turned and the process repeated, until the arrow is complete. The 

 stone is held in the hand, as it can not be chipped on a hard substance.* 

 A punch observed by Gatlin in use by these Indians was a whale tooth 

 6 or 7 iiu^hes long, with one round and two flat sides. The Fuegians, 

 according to the same authoritj-, use a similar process and make as 

 fine implements.'' 



The Eskimo make a spoon-shaped cavity in a log, lay the flake over 

 it, and press along the margin, first on one side and then on the other, 

 like setting a saw, until they form two sliarp serrated edges. The 

 working tool is a point of antler firmly bound into a piece of ivory. The 

 same plan is used by widely separated peoples.' 



iSfilsson, in chipping out gun flints with a stone hammer, found it nec- 

 essary to have the point operated on lie immediately above a point that 

 rested on the rock "anvil" which he used." 



■ The Veeard or Wiyot of California used a pair of back-horn pincers 

 tied togetlier with a tliong at the point; they first hammered out the 

 arrowhead in the rough, and then with these pincers carefully nipped ofl" 

 one tiny fragment after another.^ The Klamath cover the hand with a 

 piece of buckskin to keep it from being cut, and lay a flake along the 

 ball of the thumb, holding it firmly with the fingers. With a point of 

 antler from 4 to 6 inches long, they press against the edge, thus remov- 

 ing scales from the opposite side; they turn the flake around and over 

 frequently, to jireserve symmetry.'" 



' stone Implements, p. 36 (from De Pourtales). 



2 Ibid., p. 35 (from Belcher). 



3 Ibid., p. 38. 



^ Crook in Smithsonian Report for 1871, p. 420. 

 ' Catlin; Last Rambles, pp. 184, 185. 

 « Ibid., p. 290. 



'Stevens; Flint Chips, j). 81 (from ISelcher). 

 8 Ibid., p. 84. 



^Powers in Contributions to X. A. Eth., vol. m, p. 104. 

 '"Ibid., p 374. 



