157 



Relieved, that the stock was split, and the head secured, after 

 insertion in the cleft, bj a fastening made from the sinew 

 of some animal. We must except the third class, which, prob- 

 ably, like those mentioned in Catlin's great AA'ork, were 

 secured by animal glue, at the end; so that, perhaps, it might 

 be set free bj the warmth of the blood, and left behind, already 

 poisoned, to rankle in the wounds of their enemies. 



ToMAiiAAVKS. Who has found a genuine stone tomahawk, 

 after the approved model of the picture books? After diligent 

 inquiry and an examination of thousands of relics, I have, thus 

 far. found less than half a dozen having anything approaching 

 to the form of a hatchet, or that, from their size, can reason- 

 ably be supposed to have been used single handed, or to have 

 been hurled from the hand. I am, therefore, driven to two 

 inferences, viz. : if the tomahawk was of the form and size 

 which is usually represented, hatchet-shaped, and capable of 

 being throAvn from the hand, and so common a weapon as his- 

 tory leads us to infer, its general introduction as a weapon must 

 have been coeval with, and the result of their intercourse with 

 the white men, from whom they must have obtained them made 

 from metal. My second inference is, that the ancient tomahawk, 

 considered as a weapon for inflicting blows, was not hatchet- 

 shaped, and, very possibly, not designed to be hurled from the 

 hand, being in the form of a club, having a large natural knob 

 on one end, in which was inserted a sharpened stone head, of 

 the shape, but of a larger size than the arrow head. If it be 

 asked, Why not then call these stone war-clubs ? Let us see. 



Wae,-cll'bs, Pestles, Bread-rollers. Thus, under these 

 three classes, I would include, (or rather tradition includes) 

 cylinders of stone, from one foot to two feet and a half in 

 length, sometimes growing gradually less in diameter towards 

 their ends. I incline to believe, that tradition is correct in 

 classing part of these as war-clubs, from the fact that the ends 

 of many of them give evidence of little or no wear, and sev- 

 eral of them are suddenly reduced in diameter towards one end, 

 as if to give the hand a firmer grasp ; and it appears exceed- 

 ingly improbable that the aborigines could have used them as 

 ■we use pestles, for striking vertical blows ; for. if so, why are 

 not the accompanying mortars found, without which, grain 

 would fly in all directions, when submitted to such careless 

 trituration. ]n the collection of the East India Marine 

 Museum, in this city, may be seen what was probably a stone 

 mortar ; but it is of small size, and the accompanying pestle is 



