MACCURDY— CULT OF THE AX 



a zoomorphic unit, unless the knob and series of concentric circles at 

 the haft-end can be considered as the head and eye. This specimen, 

 and another similar to it, at one time belonged to Lieut. G. T. 

 Emmons, U.S.N. 



Saville reproduces two interesting monolithic axes from Nicaragua, 

 one of which was obtained from a chief. In both the blade is repre- 

 sented as set in a sheath or socket, which in turn was set in the handle 

 proper; the same effect would be produced if the original model was 

 of antler and in one piece. This method of hafting does not of course 

 require that the poll of the ax project through 

 the handle; in fact it precludes such a possi- 

 bility. The double-bladed monolithic axes (one 

 blade opposite the other), also from Nicaragua, 

 shown in plate vi of Saville's paper, might be 

 looked on as a variety of (and development from) 

 the Nicaraguan type just mentioned, rather than 

 as a distinct type. In all events they were evi- 

 dently derived from the same original. The 

 changes in the handle, in the blades themselves, 

 and the shortening of the sheath, would arise 

 quite naturally from the necessity of providing 

 for the additional opposite blade. Two of these 

 double-bladed axes are said to have been ob- 

 tained from a Mosquito chief in eastern Nica- 

 ragua. 



An ax from Honduras (likewise figured by 

 Saville), now in the Museum of the American 

 Indian, is not unlike the original Nicaraguan 

 type with single blade, except that the blade is 

 indicated as set directly into the handle (through 

 which it does not project), without the interme- 

 diary of a sheath. In the American Museum of 

 Natural History are two small monolithic axes from a grave near Rio 

 Don Diego, Province of Santa Marta, Colombia. In these, as well 

 as in all the monolithic axes from the West Indies, Central America, 

 and North America (i.e. from the New World entire), the blade is 

 always represented as set in the handle, never the reverse; and the 

 ax is always of the so-called celt-type, never the grooved type. This 

 method of hafting, while probably the first one to be employed in 

 the Old World, is not the only one to be found there; for before the 

 close of the neolithic period in Europe, as well as after the beginning 

 of the bronze age, the present method of setting the handle in the 



Fig. 8. — Monolithic ax; 

 Tlingit Indians, Alaska. 

 (After Niblack.) 



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