566 BURElAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 137 



shark skin, told the story of how the harder tools had been edged, and the 

 polished wood-, and bone-work finished, here. (Gushing, 1896, pp. 370-371.) 

 And besides these 



. . . dirks or stilettos, made from the foreleg bones of deer, the grip ends flat, 

 the blades conforming in curvature to the original lines of the bones from which 

 they were made. One of them was exquisitely and conventionally carved at the 

 hilt-end to represent the head of a buzzard or vulture, which was no doubt held 

 to be one of the gods of death by these primitive key-dwellers. There were also 

 striking- and thrusting-weapons of slender make and of wood, save that they 

 were sometimes tipped with deer horn or beautifully fashioned spurs of bone, 

 but they were so fragmentary that I have thus far been unable to determine 

 their exact natures. (Gushing, 1896, pp. 373-374.) 



CLUBS 



With the exception of the throwing club, transformed into a 

 tomahawk and purchased from complacent white traders, the war 

 clubs passed out of use even more rapidly than the bows and arrows, 

 and it is difficult to know how many styles were in use and their precise 

 nature. We get incidental references to war clubs in some places in 

 the De Soto narratives as, for instance, where we read of "clubs set 

 with very sharp fishbones" being found in the hands of Indians at the 

 mouth of the Mississippi (Bourne, 1904, vol. 1, p. 202 ; Robertson, 1933, 

 p. 285 ) , but nothing like a satisfactory description except in Garcilaso's 

 account of the temple of Talomeco, and there we have to be upon our 

 guard. As we have observed before, there were wooden giants sta- 

 tioned at the door of the temple of Talomeco in pairs, the first four 

 of which were provided with as many different kinds of clubs or axes, 

 specimens of each being preserved in the eight armories annexed to 

 the main building. 



[1] The first two [giants] on each side, which were the largest, each held a 

 club the last quarter of which was embellished with a diamond-shaped point and 

 bands made of that copper [already mentioned]. They were so exactly like those 

 clubs which are described as belonging to Hercules that it seemed that either 

 might have been copied from the other. 



[2] The second on either side .... had broadswords made of wood in the 

 same form that they make them in Spain of iron and steel. 



[3] The third had sticks different from the clubs which resembled the swingles 

 used to brake flax, a fathom and a half long, the first two-thirds being thick and 

 the last gradually becoming narrower and having a shovel-shaped end. 



[4] The fourth in order had large battle axes corresponding in size to the 

 stature of the giants. One of them had a brass head, the blade being large and 

 very well made and the other end having a four-sided point a handbreadth in 

 length. The other axe had a head exactly like this, with its blade and point, 

 but for greater variety and curiosity it was made of flint 



[5] The fifth held bows and arrows. 



[6] The sixth and last figures had very large and handsome pikes with 

 copi)er heads. 



[The first armory they happened to investigate] was full of pikes [like those 

 held by the last-mentioned figures], there being nothing else in it. All were very 



