120 INDIAN ANTIQUITIES. 



In icood are a few things: 



1. A prettily carved snuff or other mill for rubbing down dry leaves to powder. It resembles 

 the apparatus of Brazilian Indians for the same purpose, and is not larger than the jialra of 

 the hand. A blade of hard wood, with a recess scooped in it two and a half inches one way, a 

 little over an inch the other, and ^\ of an inch deep. The handle is the head and part of the 

 body of an Indian, well worked out. The value put on this implement is evinced by the 

 repairs it has undergone. The blade is cracked in three places, and each crack has been pre- 

 vented from spreading by drilling holes on each side, and binding the parts together by twine 

 or wire. 



2. A spindle for making thread. It consists of a round and tapered stick, eleven inches long, 

 and not exceeding a quarter of an inch at the thickest part. It is reduced to a point at both 

 extremities. A little stone weight, to keep up the momentum, is fixed within an inch of one 

 end. It is a truncated cone, the larger diameter 1^- inch, the smaller 1 inch, and the depth 

 J of an inch. A hole drilled through the centre receives the spindle. Some broken and 

 decayed threads remain on the rod. Altogether, the instrument might be taken for an Asiatic 

 or European one, so similar is it to such in dimensions and construction, with one exception: 

 there is no slit or notch at the upper end to hold the thread by. 



3. A flat and thin piece of hard wood, 3f inches long, 1|^ inch wide, ,^,5 thick at the centre, 

 and reduced thence to the sharp edges. A hole in the centre has received a small rod, like the 

 s])indle ; a portion remains in it. There were dust-marks of thread round the hole, as if the 

 rod had been charged with thread, like a spindle. The article was probably used in connexion 

 with spinning or weaving. 



4. In a little reed quiver are three red-colored sticks, six inches long, with conical ends, and 

 precisely like those figured at No. 12, on Plate X, whose use they serve to explain. They are 

 bolts of arrows. A quartz point was lashed to one, and those of the others had dropped ofl", 

 and were found in the quiver. Eudely formed as they are, it is difficult to perceive how they 

 were discharged, and for what purpose the conical ends served. Could they have been inserted 

 into the ends of rods applied to the bow, and designed to separate when they reached the 

 bird or beast shot at? Arrow-shafts composed of two pieces are not uncommon among tribes 

 of both North and South America : but they are commonly spliced and united by thread, so as 

 to present little or no swelling at the junction; whereas, from the enlarged ends of these, such 

 joints were out of the question. However these bolts were used, the custom is most likely still 

 kept up by native Indians of Peru. Captain Sitgreaves, in his report of an expedition down 

 the Zuiii and Colorado rivers in 1853, speaking of the Mohave Indians, observes that their arms 

 are the bow and arrow, the spear, and the club. The arrow is formed of two pieces : that to 

 which the barb is attached is of hard wood, seven inches long, or one fourth the entire length ; 

 the other is of a light reed that grows profusely along the banks of the river, and is feathered, 

 as usual, at the extremity. 



5. Another piece of light-colored wood, streaked with a red pigment, and between seven and 

 eight inches long. In form it resembles two long, pointed, and shallow spoon-mouths, united 

 by a short and thick rod at their wide ends. Very roughly and laboriously cut, it furnishes 

 evidence of the imperfection of the tools in vogue for working wood when it was formed. 



6. Another, rather less, but in all other respects the same. 



7. A thin tube of wood, or part of a natural reed, 64 inches long and f of an inch bore. 



8. A forked stick, the fork presenting an acute angle, like the letter V. This is manifestly 

 the remains of a primitive adze. One branch or stump formed the handle ; but it has been 

 broken or detached by decay, a few inches only being left. The other is complete, and shows 

 how a coj^per or bronze blade was secured to it ; a portion of the wood is cut away, leaving a 

 flat surface for the face of the blade, and an abutment for the head. Notches were cut in the 

 back to receive the lashings, whose marks remain. A film of green oxide remains attached to 



