136 PEBFOEATED STONES. 



bulbous roots. The stone, which was 5 inches in diameter, had been cut 

 or ground very regularly to a round form, and perforated with a hole large 

 enough to receive the stick and a wedge by which it was fixed in its 

 place." The Rev. J. G. Wood also gives a figure of a digging-stick in his 

 account of the Hottentots,* of which he writes: "This is nothing more than 

 a stick of hard wood, sharpened .at one end, and weighted by means of a 

 perforated stone, through which it is passed, and which is held in its place 

 by a wedge. With this rude instrument the Hottentot can break up the 

 ground faster than might be imagined, but he oftener uses it for digging up 

 wild plants and unearthing sundry burrowing animals than for any agricul- 

 tural purposes." Mr. E. L. Layard, in his remarks on the Stone Imple- 

 ments of South Africa,! mentions that perforated round stones, of various 

 sizes, found all over the country, are said to have been used by Bushmen 

 of late days for the purpose of weighting their bulb-digging sticks In the 

 same journal are recorded the remarks by Mr. C. L. Griesbach, on the 

 weapons of the Kaffirs and Bushmen of South Africa, J as follows: "A 

 singularly-shaped tool is employed by the Bushmen, consisting of a rounded 

 stone perforated for the passage of a stick, which is used for digging up 

 roots, and may also be employed as a weapon." Prof. J. W. P. Jenks, of 

 Brown University, pointed out to me, among the specimens in the museum 

 of the University, a large perforated stone, weighing over three pounds, 

 which he had received from Southern Africa, with the statement that it was 

 used by the natives as a weight to their wooden spades — "the person dig- 

 ging letting the stone fall down the handle of the spade, the force thus 

 imparted to the blade driving the spade into the earth." I take this state- 

 ment, however, with some allowance, as Professor Jenks was not sure that 

 his informant had seen the stone used as he described. On Plate X, Fig. 

 18, is represented one of these African stones now in the Peabody Museum 

 (6761), which was received several years since from the South African 

 Museum, with the following description attached : " Stone perforated by 

 tribes of Bushmen, now extinct, and used as a weight to give greater force 

 to the blow of the wooden stick used in digging up roots and bulbs." 



* Natural History of Man, vol. i, p. 254. 



t Anthropological Journal, vol. i, p. c (Proceed. Ethn. Soc), 1871. \L. c, p. cliv. 



