764 FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. [120] 



Stone hammer. 



An implement with a conical and a square -cut end used in canoe 

 building for driving wedges. Length, 7J inches. Makah In- 

 dians. Cape Flattery, 1883. 72,695. James G. Swan. 



Makah hammer. 



Stone hammer, resembling in appearance an ordinary pestle, with 

 square-cut ends; used in canoe building and for domestic pur- 

 poses. Length, 7 inches. Makah Indians, Cape Flattery, 1883. 

 72,680. James G. Swan. 

 These hammers " are made of the hardest jade that can be procured, 

 and are wrought into shape by the slow drudgery of striking 

 them with a smaller fragment, which knocks off a little bit at 

 each blow. Months are consumed in the process, and it is one 

 of their superstitions that from first to last no woman must 

 touch the materials, nor the work be done except at night, 

 when the maker can toil in solitude unnoticed by others. If 

 a woman should handle the pestle, it would break, or if other 

 persons should look on while the work was in progress, the 

 stone would split or clip off. The night is preferred, because 

 they imagine the stone is softer then than during the day. 

 Any one can form an idea of the nature of this manufacture 

 and its tedious labor by taking two nodules of flint or a couple 

 of paving stones and attempting to reduce one of them to a 

 required shape by striking them together. Yet these Indians 

 not only fashion their hammers in this manner, but they make 

 very nice jobs, and some that I have seen had quite a smooth 

 surface, with a degree of polish. They are valued, according 

 to the hardness of the stone, at from one to three blankets." — 

 (Indians of Cape Flattery. J. G. Swan.) 



Withes. 



Withes made from the long tapering limbs of cedar (Thuja gigantea) 

 used in building and repairing canoes and for fastening the 

 ends of the stretchers (thwarts). As the projecting stems and 

 sterns cannot be cut from a log in one and the same piece 

 with the canoe, they are carved separately and fastened on by 

 means of withes. The end pieces being adjusted, holes are 

 bored ; the withes are soaked in water, and used in scarfing 

 the two pieces of wood, the tapering ends acting upon the 

 principle of a bristle or waxed end of a cobbler's thread. 

 Wooden pegs are driven in to fasten the ends, and the work is 

 strong and durable. Length, 18 inches. Makah Indians, Neah 

 Bay, Washington Territory. 72,667. James G. Swan. 



