206 MISCELLANEOUS OBJECTS MADE OF STONE. 



pounds, upon opposite fares of which " thumb-and-finger" cavities have 

 been pecked out, and, to still further aid in holding- this large stone, por- 

 tions have been broken out into which the ball of the thumb and the lower 

 joint of the second finger nicely fit when the stone is held in the right hand. 

 One of the two smaller of these hammer-stones (P. M. 13517) has evi- 

 dentlv been carefully worked into its present cylindrical shape, while 

 the other was used as found. They both show the marks of long-continued 

 service in their battered ends. Several specimens of hammer-stones of 

 different sizes, with the thumb-and-finger pits similar to those so com- 

 mon all over the country, are also in the later collections received from 

 California. 



In relation to the different uses to which grooved pebbles may have been 

 put, it is of interest to note in particular three specimens now in the Peabody 

 Museum. Two of these were obtained by Mr. J. A. Allen, of Cambridge, 

 while among the Sioux Indians on the Yellowstone several years ago One is 

 a large oval pebble weighing three pounds and nine ounces, with a groove 

 cut across it a little nearer to one end than to the other. Around the groove 

 extend two pieces of some easily bent wood, tightly lashed together by 

 sinews, and with their ends lashed, by a cord made of twisted and braided 

 sinews, to two pieces of tough wood, which are flattened on their inner sur- 

 face and rounded on the outer, forming the substance of a handle I. '5 inches 

 long. Over this wooden frame, and also covering the stone except about 

 its lower third, was stretched a piece of raw-hide, which was firmly sewed, 

 with a strip of the same, along the back of the handle and over the top and 

 front of the stone, and further tightened by several stitches on the under 

 side, where the stone came nearly in contact with the ends of the wood that 

 forms the handle. By this method this large stone was held firmly in its 

 place, and as the handle was simply lashed to the portion that passed 

 over the stone and held in place by the elastic hide, a heavy blow could be 

 given with the stone without causing much of a jar to the arm that wielded 

 the implement The stone itself, while much battered on the exposed end, 

 is perfectly smooth over the rest of its surface, and as many of the grooved 

 circular stones found throughout the country show the same effects of use 

 on one end only, it is very likely that they were mounted in a similar way 



