s 
648 NOTES ON ABORIGINAL RELICS KNOWN AS PLUMMETS. 
I can imagine six different uses which might have been made of 
these implements. 
lst. They might have been used as sling shots, a string being 
attached to the weapon and to the wrist, while the implement 
itself was grasped in the hand. While it would make a very 
formidable weapon by the addition of weight to the fist, or by 
holding to the string and striking with it, after the manner of 
civilized roughs, a war-club would be much more formidable, and 
would be preferred where there was no motive for concealment; 
besides, it requires.a considerable degree of civilization to invent 
and fully appreciate the virtues of a sling shot! The Brown 
County implement (Fig. 134) is evidently too small for anything 
of this kind, unless, like the little flint arrow points, it was used 
by the small boys.* | 
2d. They might have been used as sinkers for fishing tackle. 
Schoolcraft seems to think that the Penacook implement (Fig. 135) 
was used by that tribe for this purpose. If this is correct, it does 
not prove that they were originally intended for that purpose. I 
myself, by casting, made of lead an exact counterpart of fig. 182, 
and used it for a sinker for a trout line, and it answered. the pur 
pose admirably. I did not try the original implement, becaus? 
of the danger of losing it, the smallness of the groove rendering 
it impossible for the fingers of a white man to attach it so firmy 
to the line as to remove the apprehension of its loss. The amouat 
of labor bestowed on the Marietta, Quincy and Woodbridge spe- ` 
imens, and the inability to fasten them securely to 4 line, a 
account of the smallness of the groove, would lead us to believe 
that they were not used for this purpose. but 
əd. They might have been used in playing some game, 
this is only a possibility. We have no account of any ars 
played by either savage or civilized men (so far as I know) 
which any instrument of this kind is, or could be, used. a 
4th. They might have been used as a sacred implement 12 
ve v wi ation of a sling st02% 
r ; ith the following description ; 
Ne = e writing the abo Iy Iha e met with e erbia 
eV LHe Weel 
th Sea, use in fight a war-like instrument that is very uncomme 
plenty of horses, they always attack their enemies on horsebac: iy wrought: 
selves with no other weapon than a stone of middling size, curions ie a little above 
they fasten by a string, about a yard and a half long, to their righi ei 
elbow. These stones they conveniently carry in their ide hi speed, rever 
enemies, and then swinging them with great dexterity, as they T 188 
fail of doing execution.”—Carvers’ Travels in North America. 1776, P 
ter te Diana ea SSS hs a a= Sa aa 
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