288 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



of the other four nations, not a single specimen has the writer seen 

 from an Oneida village, and but one broken specimen from the 

 Oneida territory, which is double as regards teeth. They must 

 have been used by the Oneidas with the other Iroquois, and probably 

 some have been found. It suggests the danger of rash conclusions 

 from negative testimony. What has not been reported or found, 

 may have existed and been used. 



Pipes 



It is barely possible, but hardly probable, that pipes of bone and 

 horn may sometimes have been used in prehistoric times. These 

 materials are combustible in a limited degree, and the burning 

 tobacco would certainly have had a new flavor in a bone pipe, while 

 the latter would soon have lost form and substance. This difficulty 

 was obviated, at a later day, by lining the bowl with a thin sheet of 

 metal. The question then arises whether any early article in the 

 form of a pipe bowl did not have some other use. But for this 

 action of the burning tobacco on the bone, there would be no hesita- 

 tion in calling fig. 204 the bowl of a pipe. It is hollow within, and 

 has a lateral perforation near the base, just as in pipes of which 

 there is no question. For these reasons it is temporarily placed here, 

 though its proper position may be with the bone whistles, which it 

 resembles in form. It is four-sided, nicely worked, and has a human 

 face scratched on one side. In fig. 203 the lateral perforation is 

 near the broad end, and the larger cavity goes through the bone. 

 No one will hesitate to call this a whistle or tube, though so near 

 the last in appearance. The one before described is from the 

 Atwell fort ; this is from the Christopher site. 



It has been suggested that fig. 154 may have been designed for a 

 pipe but not completed, and this would be the writer's opinion but 

 for this manifest difficulty in early use. In the state museum, how- 

 ever, is a bone pipe procured by Mrs H. M. Converse in Canada. 

 The Indians there considered it an antique, but it clearly is a modern 

 form. The metallic lining has disappeared, and it seems to have 

 been used after this. The spiral grooves which held the metal in 

 place still appear. On the top of the stem are nine crosses which 

 were made by one hand, and are not mnemonic. It is a rare 

 article, however, even in a modern form. 



