SOME ABORIGINAL SITES. 435 
Our attention has been called to a description! with diagrams and illustrations, 
by Mr. William Churchill, authority on Polynesia, of a woman of New Britain, 
Papua, who, in making a net, worked only with a sizer and a ball of cord 
held in the hand. In the knot employed by her (the reef-knot, or ordinary 
square knot) the ball was not passed through the mesh. 
Making use of a knot of this kind, which presumably the inhabitants of the 
Knoll are as likely to have devised as the Papuans, and using the cord wrapped 
around the base of a hooked implement, thus forming a kind of bobbin, a net 
can be made with ease and without undue delay, as we have determined by 
experiment, the presence of the hook being a decided aid in catching up the cord 
to form the knot as made by the Papuan, the bobbin end of the implement 
taking the place of the ball. 
Moreover, the use of a combination bobbin and hooked implement probably 
would necessitate the attachment of something to the base of the implement to 
prevent the slipping off of the cord, and this would account for the presence of 
the hollowed space found there and hitherto not satisfactorily explained. 
It may be added that a hooked implement not used as a bobbin but in con- 
junetion with the ball of cord described as used by the Papuans would hardly 
be of any benefit, there not being sufficient space in the hand to accommodate 
both, and to lay down the ball in order to take up the hook would cause delay. 
Although it would greatly support our original contention that the hooked 
implements found by us were netting needles, and consequently the objeets of 
stone and of antler found with them were sizers, we have been unable positively 
to learn that a hooked needle has been used in place of a shuttle? or as a bobbin 
or in place of one, by aboriginal people, ancient or modern, in net-making where 
a knot is tied, although we have consulted a number of authorities, through 
their works or in person. 
Lieutenant Emmons describes and figures netting needles resembling crochet 
needles, and consequently of the same class as ours, as in use among modern 
Indians of the Northwest coast.* | 
In a personal letter, however, Lieutenant Emmons writes: “Native tribes 
of the coast of Alaska used a netting needle just like those figured in my Tahltan 
writing, but in all instances I have observed these needles were used in the fine 
snowshoe filling. It is possible that their use might also have been applied to 
net-making in earlier days." ý 
Mr. Charles C. Willoughby, whose valued assistance in our work we 50 
greatly appreciate, aided by his thorough acquaintance with aboriginal life 
and his intimate familiarity with the rich collections of Peabody Museum of 
! William Churchill, op. cit., p. 83. HE ME 
? As the reader probably is aware, cord is wound longitudinally on the shuttle, or is wrappe 
around the bobbin and thus is passed through the meshes with celerity. — 
3G. T. Emmons, “The Tahltan Indians," University of Pennsylvania, The Museum Anthro- 
eU. : 
pological Publications, vol. IV, No. 1, p. 56 et seq. 
