HORN AND BONE IMPLEMENTS 311 



Europeans, may farther appear from accounts of early and recent 



Indian fishhooks. Sagard published his accounts of the Hurons in 



1636, and described their ways of fishing. 



We found in the bellies of several large fishes hooks made of a 

 piece of wood and a bone, so placed as to form a hook, and very 

 neatly bound together with hemp. Sagard, 3 : 588 



Mackenzie traveled in northern Canada In the latter part of the 

 18th century. He said that the Slave and Dogrib Indians " manu- 

 facture their hooks from wood, horn or bone." Mackenzie, p. 37. 

 The same writer said, in describing the Indians of the Peace river 

 district, " Their hooks are small bones, fixed in pieces of wood 

 split for that purpose, and tied round with fine watape." Mackenzie, 

 p. 206. This was a thread made of small spruce roots. The hook 

 itself is that of the early Hurons. 



John Ogilby wrote of the New England Indians in 1671 : "They 



then had English Hooks and Lines, for before they made them of 



Hemp, being most curiously wrought, of stronger Materials than 



ours, and hook'd with Bone-Hooks." Ogilby, p. 157. Kalm said of 



the Indians of New Jersey : 



The India/ns employ hooks made of bone, or bird's claws, instead 

 of fishing-hooks. Some of the oldest Swedes here told me, that 

 when they were young, a great number of Indians had been in that 

 part of the country, which was then called New Sweden, and 

 had caught fishes in the river Delaioare with their hooks. Kalm, 

 1 : 345 



This was in 1749. The assertions or inferences are that the 



native bone fishhook did not resemble that of Europeans. 



Needles 



The bone needles of Europe differ from those of the eastern 

 United States and Canada, being usually perforated at one end, and 

 quite sharp at the other. A few have a central eye, and some 

 California examples resemble these. Ours are flat and thin, often 

 rounded at the ends, and have one or two holes near the center. 

 They could have been used only in some coarse work, and might 

 well be called bodkins. It is probable that for finer stitching the 

 bone awl was used, as a shoemaker uses an awl in leather, and that 

 the hemp or sinew thread was carried through the hole as his is 

 now. His is the survival of an early art. 



