No. 2. Charm Stones. 2 I 



rious times endeavored to ascertain from the aborigri- 

 nes the uses to which the so-called plummets or sink- 

 ers were originally put. 



Most of the investigations in this line have been 

 made in the central and northern portions of Califor- 

 nia, and the conclusions arrived at are that in those lo- 

 calities they were not used as sinkers or plummets. 



Mr. Henshawsays: "On calling the attention of an 

 Indian to the ring pecked near the extremity of one of 

 the medicine stones, he said he did not know its pur- 

 pose, but that the stones so encircled were considered 

 to be more potent than the others. In reply to my 

 question, 'Why such a stone could not be used as a 

 sinker to a fishing line ?' a Santa Barbara Indian re- 

 plied that he never saw one used in this way, and ad- 

 ded, of his own accord, 'Why should we make stones 

 like that, when the beach supplies sinkers in abund- 

 ance ? Our sinkers were beach stones and when we 

 lost one we picked up another.' " 



In "Ilios, City and Country of the Trojans," by Dr. 

 Henry Schliemann, 1880, which I have just been 

 reading, page 436, is figured a "perforated object of 

 green gabbro rock, probably a weight," which closely 

 resembles some of our perforated charm stones, and 

 on page 437 several ' sling-bullets of hematite or load- 

 stone," which the author remarks, "are all well polish- 

 ed, and with the rude implements which the Trojans 

 had at their disposal, it must have been tremendous 

 work to cut and smooth hard stone into the cylindroid 

 shape of the pellets before us." 



In fact, labor must have had very little or no value 

 at that time, for otherwise it is impossible to imagine 

 that whole months should have been wasted on the 

 manufacture of one bullet which was lost as soon as it 

 was slung. It will be seen that Dr. Schliemann uses 

 the same argument in relation to the uses of these im- 

 plements that the writer used in the first writing of this 

 article several years ago, relative to the use of charm 

 stones as , 'sling-shots or weights for fishing nets or 

 lines." 



