TUBES AND WEDGES. 



229 



been hollowed and somewhat worked on the exterior surfaces; but it 

 offers no evidence in its present condition of having had any particular 

 use. It is introduced here as a fig. 105. 



bone tube. Dr. Rau* has re- 

 marked of a somewhat similar 

 specimen, that it " may have been 

 a receptacle or a part of a tool, 

 an unfinished whistle, or, perhaps, 

 an appendage to the dress. There Tube of boue - 



is a possibility, too, that it was the sucking instrument of a medicine- 

 man, made to replace one of the stone tubes which are known to have 

 been employed among the Californians in curing the sick." 



Figs. 106, 107, and 108 rep- 

 resent a form of massive bone 

 implements of a wedge - like 

 shape, varying in length from 

 3 to 6 or more inches, and com- 

 mon in the graves and On the Wedge-shaped implement of bono, J. 



shellheaps of the islands and mainland. They appear to be made from 



portions of the ribs of large cetaceans. They are all bluntly pointed, 



but many have smooth cutting edges, and 



the rounded portion is often very smooth. 



A few have their thick or blunt ends much 



battered, as if they had been used as wedges; 



but in most, the thick ends are square and 



even, and as some of these latter are slightly Wedge-shaped implement of bone, *. 



curved from end to point, it is possible that they were fastened to handles 



of wood and used as knife-Wades Other implements, somewhat similar 



in shape, but much larger, may 

 have been used as clubs or 

 blunt-edged swords. Of the 

 latter form is one 15 inches 

 long, which was obtained by 



Fig. 107. 



Fig. 108. 



Wedge-shaped implement of bone, J. 



•Smithsonian Contribution to Knowledge, No. 289, p. Cf». 



