158 BULLETIN OF THE ESSEX INSTITUTE. 



object remotely resembling this implement. If it had 

 been used as a curb in the way suggested it would have 

 been, of all objects, the most conspicuous in those exam- 

 ples in which men are represented as leading or holding a 

 rearing horse, and there are many representations of this 

 character. Had it been worn inside the mouth as a bit 

 the elaborate ornamentation seen on some of them would 

 have been useless. The ponderous weight of some com- 

 pared to the light weight of others would also be against 

 this supposition. For these reasons we cannot accept this 

 interpretation of its use. 



Knowing the ingenuity of Mr. Frank Hamilton Cushing, 

 the distinguished ethnologist, in puzzling out enigmas of 

 this nature, I placed in his hands one of these objects for 

 study ; he also had access to a very beautiful long-spined 

 specimen in the collections of the Museum of Archaeology 

 of the University of Pennsylvania, a figure of which I 

 am permitted to publish through the courtesy of the offi- 

 cers of the museum. In an exceedingly instructive paper 

 on the origin of the bow published in the proceedings of 

 the Anthropological Society of Washington (the same be- 

 ing Mr. Cushing's address as presiding officer of the An- 

 thropological Section of the American Association for the 

 Advancement of Science), Mr. Cushing has advanced a 

 most ingenious idea of the use of the bow-puller by con- 

 ceiving that it was originally developed from a spear- 

 thrower. Indeed he goes so far as to assert his belief that 

 it was really used functionally for that purpose, and, to 

 support this contention, he gives a graphic figure of an 

 ancient Roman soldier in the attitude of throwing a spear 

 with the aid of this implement. Were all the bow-pullers 

 similar to the two he had in his possession one might be 

 inclined to regard his surmise as having the same degree 

 of probability as the various guesses that have already 



