i ; 4 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



hoe.' The Mohawks used wooden hoes. Corn, beans and squashes 

 were the staple products, and rude implements sufficed for these. 

 Some celts may have been adzes. 



Fig. 28 is a curved celt-like implement of polished sandstone, 

 from the east end of Oneida Lake. 



The sharp end is almost pointed, while the other is rounded some- 

 what like a ball. This may have been used as a pick or a hoe. It 

 is nine and one fourth inches long and one and three fourths thick, 

 being reduced in the illustration. 



Fig. 66 has been called an adze, spade or hoe and is a rare form 

 in New York. It is of polished black slate, somewhat triangular 

 in outline, and having a groove across the surface about a third of 

 the way from the top. Below this is a large circular perforation. 

 The size is four and one half by three and three quarters inches, and 

 it is said to have been found near Canoga, on Cayuga Lake. It is 

 a western form, and finely finished. 



STONE BALIiS 



Stone balls were often employed by the Iroquois in the heads of 

 war clubs, a hard knot sometimes serving the same purpose. Some 

 Onondagas still preserve such stones used by their ancestors. They 

 occur moderately on most Iroquois sites, whether early or recent, 

 and generally show irregular facets, though sometimes quite 

 globular. They are not usually large, but in one instance at least 

 the size is too great for a war club. They are occasionally grooved, 

 and many elliptical pebbles occur with this feature, which were 

 probably sinkers, and had no relation to warfare. These are abun- 

 dant on some lake shores, notably those of Cayuga and Seneca. In 

 the West stone balls have been used by the Indians somewhat like 

 slung shot, and they were well known as bolas in California and 

 elsewhere. In New York the more elaborate stone balls may be 

 considered recent. Although perforated stones have been said to 

 have been used as weights for fire drills by the Iroquois, there is no 

 proof of this in early days, as they do not occur on Iroquois sites; 

 and a mistaken impression has been gathered from Morgan, who 

 makes no mention of a stone in describing the fire drill. 



