20 



MANUFACTURED ARTICLES. 



1. Stone Implements. The stone articles found, no doubt 

 form a very small proportion of the implements used by the 

 lost race. I am able to show you three classes of implements. 



(a) Scrapers. (See Figure lc.) These were made after the 

 same manner and from the same material as the flint arrow 

 heads, found so commonly all over this continent. They are 

 usually of an oval or elongated diamond shape, of various 

 thicknesses, but thin at the edges. Their purpose seems to 

 have been to assist in skinning the game, the larger for larger 

 game, the smaller for rabbits and the smaller fur bearing 

 animals. Probably these implements were also used for scrap- 

 ing the hides or skins manufactured into useful articles. 



(b) Stone Axes and Malls. In the mound on Red River 

 was found the beautiful axe of crystalline limestone, which 

 approaches marble. From the absence of stone so far as we 

 know of this kind in this neighborhood, it is safe to conclude 

 that it came from a distant locality. There are also gray stone 

 celts and hammers used for crushing corn, for hammering 

 wood and bark for the canoes, and other such like purposes, 

 in time of peace; and serving as formidable weapons in time 

 of war. In the mound on the Red River a skull was discovered 

 having a deep depression in its broken wall, as if crushed in 

 by one of these implements. 



(c) Stone Tubes. (See b Fig. 1.) These are among the 

 most difficult of all the Mound Builders' remains to give an 

 opinion upon. They are chiefly made of a soft stone some- 

 thing like the pipestone used by the present Indians which 

 approaches soapstone. The hollow tubes (see figure b.) vary 

 from three to six inches in length, and are about one-half an 

 inch in diameter. They seem to have been bored out by some 

 sharp instrument. Schoolcraft, certainly a competent Indian 

 authority, states that these tubes were employed for astronomi- 

 cal purposes, that is to look at the stars. This is unlikely ; for 

 though the race, with which I shall try to identify our Mound 

 Builders are said, in regions further south, to have left remains 

 showing astronomical knowledge, yet a more reasonable pur- 

 pose is suggested for the tubes. From the teeth marks around 

 the rim, the tubes were plainly used in the mouth, and it is 

 becoming generally agreed that they were conjurer's cupping 

 instruments for sucking out as the medicine men pretended to 

 be able to do the disease from the body. The custom survives 

 in some of the present Indian tribes. A lady friend of mine 

 informs me that she has a bone whistle taken from a mound 

 in the Red River district. 



