148 PEEFOEATED STORES. 



of an inch in diameter in the centre, and widens towards each face. The 

 second stone is cut from a piece of colored lava of about the size of the 

 first, but has a slightly smaller hole, and the surface is so carved as to form 

 three rows of rounded knobs. The third specimen is nearly spherical, 

 about 2\ inches in diameter, with a small perforation widening to about an 

 inch in diameter at each end ; although the stone of which this is made is 

 very hard, its surface has been carved to represent a human head with the 

 eyes, nose, and mouth. The last of these interesting stones is of a white 

 marble-like material of about the size and shape of the last mentioned, and 

 has the surface very elaborately ornamented with deeply-cut and confusing 

 lines, so characteristic of Central American work, among which the profile 

 of a human face can be distinguished. 



It is evident that all these specimens have been made from blocks of 

 stone worked to the required size and shape. The elaborate ornamenta- 

 tion of several, their small size, and their small perforations, all point to 

 these stones having been used as weapons rather than as weights to dig- 

 ging-sticks or as net-sinkers, while, in size, they are rather large for spindle- 

 whorls, for which purpose they are also not adapted by the character of 

 their perforations. 



Mr. Darwin* states that near Santiago, Chili, he was " shown one 

 of the perforated stones which Molina mentions as being found in many 

 places in considerable numbers. They are of a circular, flattened form, 

 from 5 to 6 inches in diameter, with a hole passing quite through the cen- 

 tre. It lias generally been supposed that they were used as heads to clubs, 

 although their form does not appear at all well adapted for that purpose. 

 Burchell states that some of the tribes in Southern Africa dig up roots by the 

 aid of a stick pointed at one end, the force and weight of which is increased 

 by a round stone with a hole in it, into which the other end is firmly 

 wedged. It appears probable f that the Indians of Chili formerly used some 

 such rude agricultural instrument." 



* Voyage of a Naturalist, New York ed., 1846, vol. i, p. 345. 



tMr. Bollaert, in his volume on Antiquarian and Ethnological Researches, etc., in South America, 

 London, 1860, p. 178, in referring to the stone mentioned by Mr. Darwin, changes this supposition of Mr. 

 Darwhrs into the statement that these stones " were fixed on the ends of sticks, and formed a rude agri- 

 cultural instrument." Of this he seems to have had no evidence, and it does not appear that he even 

 knew of these stoues except through the statement of Darwin. 



