192 



MISCELLANEOUS OBJECTS MADE OF STONE. 



Fig. 64. 



While this description calls particular attention to the contracted bore 

 at the middle of the tube — a feature that is scarcely noticeable in the speci- 

 men here figured — it is certain that the specimen from Dos Pueblos is 

 equally available for the purposes mentioned in the above quotation.* 



Stone tubes, and allied articles made of clay, are not characteristic of 

 any one locality in North America, although the most elaborately wrought 

 and largest specimens have been found in or near the mounds of the 

 Ohio Valley and throughout the known, or supposed, range of the so-called 

 Moundbuilders. As is the case with very many forms of stone implements, 

 the size largely determines the probable use ; and we here find that these 

 tubes of several inches in length, and with a tapering bore, are undoubt- 

 edly simply smoking - pipes ; while other short 

 tubes with a uniform bore were merely orna- 

 ments. Indeed, a regular unbroken series can 

 be made, from the diminutive bead to the beauti- 

 fully drilled and polished tube a foot or more in 

 length. 



It has been suggested that inasmuch as cer- 

 tain Indian conjurers and medicine-men pretend 

 that disease is caused by the presence of cer- 

 tain foreign substances in the body or affected 

 part, such as small animals, birds, bones, peb- 

 bles, feathers, worms, etc., which they withdraw 

 by sucking, these tubes would afford a ready 

 means of concealment for such things. 



Figs. 64, 65, 66, and 67 represent four speci- 

 mens of probably one class of implements, to 

 which various names have been given, and which, 

 considering the slight variations in their shapes, may have been put to sev- 

 eral and widely different uses. It is quite impracticable to determine the 

 one particular purpose for which any one of these specimens may have 

 been made, especially as nothing connected with their discovery throws 

 any light upon their history. Fig. 64 (S. I. 21875) is made of serpentine, 



* In this connection see a quotation from Venegas on page 25 in relation to the use of medicine- 

 tubes by the Californian Indians. — F. W. P. 



Plummet-shaped implement of 

 stone. 



