METALLIC IMPLEMENTS OF NEW YORK INDIANS 19 
; blows producing a central ridge. Dr Thomas Wilson, of the 
' Smithsonian institution, told the writer of his experiments in 
- such forging, and gave a high rank to the aboriginal workman. 
: He found peculiar difficulties in bending over the lower edges 
‘ to form the socket. This feature appears in some European 
_ bronzes locally termed winged celts. Some New York articles 
: show greater skill than any copper celts in Washington. 
The Indians, however, soon learned to cast metals, if reports 
are true. Roger Williams said of those in New England: 
6 They have an excellent Art to cast our Pewter and Brasse into 
very neate and artificiall Pipes.” Such pipes were found in New 
- York, but melting brass has difficulties, and such a native art 
_ may be doubted. Metal was sometimes used for lining pipes, 
3 both of horn and stone, and there are other examples where 
stone and metals were otherwise combined. All these are 
recent. 
The distribution of early copper articles in New York is some- 
i what uniform on the whole, excluding the lower Hudson and 
Long Island. Cattaraugus and Chautauqua counties have some 
; reputation in this way but the rather indefinite reports seem 
| exaggerated. A good antiquarian says that in 50 years resi- 
dence he has seen but one native copper arrowhead there. 
4 Onondaga county and the drainage of the Genesee river have 
_ afforded many. Fine examples have come from Jefferson county 
and the islands of the St Lawrence. Lake Champlain and the 
upper waters of the Hudson are well represented by these early 
relics. Some have been found on the Susquehanna. 
It seems certain that the Iroquois had no metallic articles 
_ which they did not have from the whites. These they gladly 
_ adopted and the advent of the Dutch became a new era in their 
‘life. All Europeans were termed by them Aseronni, Makers of 
axes, but this was specifically the name of the Dutch. This 
was the definition of Father Bruyas, an excellent authority. 
_ Megapolensis interpreted it differently: “They call us Assyreoni, 
that is Cloth-Makers, or Charistooni, that is Iron-Workers, be- 
“cause our People first brought Cloth and Iron among them.”’— 
