132 PEOCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 



Lisburne, and quotes accounts of methods pursued among the native 

 Mexicans, and the Shasta Indians of California. Another, and in 

 some respects more minute description of the process, in use by 

 the Win toon Indians, is furnished by Mr. B. B. Redding, in the 

 American Naturalist, from his own personal observation. The 

 artificer was Consolulu, the aged chief of the Wintoon Indians, and 

 the material, as among the Shasta Indians, was obsidian ; but the 

 process is equally applicable to flint ; the cleavage of which is nearly 

 similar. His implements consisted of a deer-horn prong split length- 

 "wise, four inches long, and half an inch thick, with the semicircular 

 ends at right angles ; two deer-horn prongs, one smaller than the 

 other, with the ends ground down nearly to the shape of a square 

 sharp-pointed file; and a piece of well-tanned buckskin, thick, soft,. 

 and pliable. Laying, as we are told, a lump of obsidian, about a 

 pound in weight, in the palm of the left hand, he placed between the 

 first and second fingers of the same hand the semi-cylindrical deer- 

 horn implement, so that the straight side of one of the ends rested 

 about a quarter of an inch from the edge of the block of obsidian 

 With a small waterworn stone, in his right hand, he struck the other 

 -end of the prong, and a flake of obsidian was severed well adapted 

 for the arrow-head. On the buckskin, in the palm of his left hand, 

 he laid the obsidian flake, which he held in place by the first three 

 fingers of that hand, and then took such a position on the ground 

 that the left elbow could rest on the left knee and obtain a firm sup- 

 port. Holding in his right hand the larger of the two pointed 

 prongs, and resting his thumb on the side of his left hand to serve as 

 a fulcrum, he brought the point of the prong about one-eighth of an 

 inch within the edge of the flake ; and then, exerting a firm down- 

 ward pressure, fragment after fragment was broken ofi" until the edge 

 of the arrow was made straight. As all the chips came ofi" the lower 

 edge, the cutting edge was not yet in the centre of the side. But 

 the arrow-maker nibbed the side of the prong repeatedly over the 

 sharp edge, turned over the flake, and, resuming the chipping as 

 before, brought the cutting edge to the centre. In a similar manner, 

 the other side and the concave base of the arrow-head were finished. 

 The formation of indentations near the base for the retention of the 

 tendons to bind the arrow-head securely to the shaft, apparently the 

 most difficult process, was in reality the easiest. The point of the 

 arrow-head was held between the thumb and finger of the left hand. 



