312 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



In accordance with general usage, this slender and fragile imple- 

 ment will receive its common name here, bearing in mind the fact 

 that all our own needles are not alike. We have those for knitting, 

 netting and sewing, and even a needle which is true to the pole. 

 Originally and practically the name meant something slender and 

 pointed. The Onondagas now term the common needle Tcine-wah 

 a-ne-hong-wah, nail or iron that you sew with. 



Of needles and their uses Mr Morgan said : 



A small bone near the ankle joint of the deer, has furnished the 

 moccasin needle from time immemorial ; and the sinews of the 

 animal the thread. These bone needles are found in the mounds 

 of the west, and beside the skeletons of the Iroquois, where they 

 were deposited with religious care. This isolated fact would seem 

 to indicate an affinity, in one article at least, between the Iroquois 

 and the mound builders, whose name, and era of occupation and 

 destiny are entirely lost. Morgan, p. 360 



The mere use of bone needles would here prove nothing, for that 

 is world-wide. It must be shown that others used the peculiar 

 Iroquois form, which thus far seems doubtful. 



Mr Morgan mentioned other needles. In making the Iroquois 

 burden strap, he said, " the braiding or knitting of the bark threads 

 is effected with a single needle of hickory." Morgan, p. 365. The 

 stitching of canoes with bark twine or tough splints was of a ruder 

 nature. 



Mr Tooker has not found bone needles plentiful on Long Island, 

 yet he had some from a Hogonock site near Sag Harbor, and says : 

 "'In a space 10 feet square, I found five bone needles," accompanied 

 by articles of stone. In his Brooklyn address he used this name. In 

 Rau's Prehistoric fishing he called them perforators. They occur 

 on the site of Hochelaga, at Montreal, as might have been expected,. 

 and in Canada north of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. They are 

 found on the Madisonville site in Ohio, if the name is applied to* 

 the Iroquois type, but how frequent they are elsewhere in that 

 direction is uncertain. Dr Kau figured none in the collections of 

 the national museum. However they may have been used by 

 others, they w*ere still an Iroquois implement far within the his- 

 toric period. This would argue a use for which the steel needle 

 was not required. The perforations show that the thread used was 

 not of a large size, and Indian women were expert in making fine 



