570 BURElAU OP AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY LBuix. 137 



found. The nocks of these were relatively large. This suggested that certain 

 curved and shapely clubs, or rather wooden sabres — for they were armed along 

 one edge with keen shark-teeth — might have been used not only for striking, 

 but also for flinging such nocked spears or throwing-arrows. Each of these 

 singular and superbly finished weapons was about three feet long. The handle 

 or grip was straight; thence the blade or shaft wes gen+]y curved downward 

 and upward again to the end, which was obliquely truncated below, but 

 terminated above in a creased or slightly bifurcated, spirally curved knob or 

 volute like the end of a violin, and still more like the lower articulation of 

 a human femur [referring at this point to his figure 5, plate 32], which the 

 whole weapon resembled in general outline so strikingly that I w^as inclined 

 to regard the type it represented as remotely derived from clubs originally 

 made in imitation of thigh-bones. The handle was broader at the back than 

 below, but neatly rounded, and the extreme end delicately flared to insure 

 grasp. At both shank and butt of this grip, oblong holes had been bored 

 obliquely through one side of the back for the attachment of a braided or 

 twisted hand-loop or guard-cord, to still further secure hold. The back of the 

 shaft, too, was wide, and sharp along the lateral edges, from both of which it 

 was hollowed obliquely to the middle, the shallow V-shaped trough or groove 

 thus formed reaching from the hilt to the turned-up enr', where it terminated 

 in a little semi-circular, sharp-edged cusp or spur in the central furrow at the 

 base of the knob. The converging sides of the shaft were likewise evenly and 

 sharply creased or fluted from the shank of the grip to the gracefully turned 

 volutes at the sides of the knob. The blade proper, or lower edge, was com- 

 paratively thin, like a continuous slightly grooved tongue or an old-fashioned 

 skate blade — save that it was obliquely square, not rounded, at the end. It 

 was transversely pierced at regular intervals by semicircular perforations — 

 twelve in all — beneath each of which the groove was deepened at two points 

 to accommodate the blunt bifurcate roots of the large hooked teeth of the 

 tiger- or "Man-Eater" — shark, with which the sabre was set; so that, like the 

 teeth of a saw, they would all turn one way, namely, toward the handle, as 

 can be seen by reference to the enlarged sketch of one at the end of the figure. 

 Finely twisted cords of sinew had been threaded regularly back and forth 

 through these perforations and alternately over the wings of the sharp teeth, 

 so as to neatly bind each in its socket ; and these lashings were reinforced with 

 abundant black rubber-gum — to which their preservation was due. 



Now the little cusp or sharp-edged spur at the end of the back-groove was so 

 deeply placed in the crease of the knob that it could have served no practical 

 purpose in a striking weapon. Yet, it was so shaped as to exactly fit the nock 

 of a spear, and since by means of the guard cord, the handle could be grasped 

 not only for striking, but, by shifting or reversing the hold, for hurling as 

 well, I inferred that possibly the instrument had been used in part as an 

 atlatl, in part as a kind of single-edged maquahuitl or blade-set sabre. It 

 was, at any rate, a most formidable weapon and a superb example of primitive 

 workmanship and ingenuity. There were other weapons somewhat like these. 

 But they were only eight or nine inches in length, and were neither knobbed 

 nor creased. They were, however, perforated at the backs for hand cords, 

 and socketed below for six, instead of twelve teeth — set somewhat more closely 

 together — and must have formed vicious slashers or rippers. Then there were 

 certain split bear- and wolf-jaws — neatly cut off so as to leave the canines 

 and two cuspids standing — which, from traces of cement on their bases apd 

 sides, appeared to have been similarly attached to curved clubs. (Gushing, 

 1896, pp. 372-373.) 



