70 PROBABLE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE TRIBE. 



domestic work. This is quite natural. Things used 

 about the dwellings would also be lost in theii- imme- 

 diate proximity. The scraper is particularly abundant. 

 It was a tool easily prepared (Fig. 27). Its manu- 

 facture required no particular skill. When lost it was 

 easily replaced. By far the greater number of the 

 scrapers are entire. They have not been thrown away. 

 They have been lost. With the knives it is different. 

 These were made with greater care and apparently also 

 selected from fortuitously well adapted flakes; such as 

 were thin and straight and had an even grain. There 

 are only two or three entire knives. The others are 

 broken and have evidently been thrown away only after 

 becoming useless. A flint knife was a precious article, 

 worth searching for if lost, and so we find a less 

 number of them now. The many potsherds testify that 

 these people took some pains in preparing their food 

 and perhaps their drink. It is difficult to estimate to 

 what extent they engaged in agricultural pursuits. The 

 small number of implements adapted for tilling the 

 ground seem out of proportion to the number of stones 

 used in grinding the crops. Possibly wooden implements 

 were used in this primitive farming. Or the cultivated 

 land may have been at some distance from the village 

 site and the hoes and spades may have been left and 

 lost out in the field. Or it may be that the natives 

 lived in the village only during the cold season 

 and took up their abode at some other place during 

 summer. The relative abundance of tools useful in 

 primitive handicraft, such as arrow-smootheners, awls, 

 flakers, and also scrapers, suggests that the inhabit- 



