ARCHEOLOGY. 51 



war; those barbed and tanged for secure attachment, which must be 

 pushed on through the body, or lacerate the flesh when withdrawn, may 

 also have been for this purpose. Arrows for hunting would be of' the 

 latter shape, to remain fast in the game and be recovered when it was 

 captured or killed. Spears for slaying large animals were unbarbed that 

 they could be easily withdrawn for repeated thrusts. The twist or curve 

 noticed in so many flints is due altogether to the conchoidal fracture of 

 the stone. The so-called rotary arrow-heads are almost invariably too 

 large for such use, and are intended for skinning knives, the flat faces and 

 chisel edges permitting them to pass readily between the hide and flesh 

 without cutting either. The bevel is produced by pressing off flakes 

 along the edge from only one side instead of equally from both. Undue 

 importance has been attached to serrated flints as being the result of a 

 definite intention. The only difference between them and others of the 

 same general pattern is that wider space was left between the points at 

 which the flaking tool was applied. 



The relative scarcity of symmetrical, highly finished, and really 

 artistic specimens of any class, as compared with the abundance of ruder, 

 rougher ones, signifies that a few persons in a community or tribe were 

 more skillful, or had greater aptitude for such work than the majority. 

 It may be that any given form of superior work, as the manufacture of 

 pipes, large, finely shaped flints, certain kinds of ornaments, etc., attained 

 its highest development at the hands of one person whose efforts were 

 confined to this particular forte. Another evidence of this is the occur- 

 rence within a limited district of many specimens of a type very rarely 

 found outside of this area; for example, a peculiar flint knife in two or 

 three counties of central Ohio — which, oddly, is also abundant in the 

 Kanawha Valley — , or spear-head along both sides of the Ohio. Many 

 s uch instances could be cited. 



What sort of work the prehistoric people may have done in wood, 

 textile fabrics, feathers, fur, robes, skins, or other perishable material, can 

 never be known; but judging from the few scraps remaining, and from 

 such other specimens as have been preserved, it was probably on a par 

 with that of the present day among tribes but little changed from their 

 condition when first known to the whites. 



There are few things of value, beauty, or interest among relics that 

 have not been counterfeited by unscrupulous tricksters eager to profit by 

 the credulity of collectors. To such an extent has this been carried that 

 anything out of the ordinary line is to be viewed with suspicion. Much 

 ingenuity has been displayed in hiding tablets, carvings, and pottery in 

 places where they will afterward be discovered by one unconscious of the 

 deception who will thus be deluded into the belief that he has a genuine 

 alphabetic inscription, effigy of a mastodon or other animal, Mexican 

 idol, paleolithic implement, statue of a Mound Builder, or some other 



