SKINNER, INDIANS OF MANHATTAN ISLAND 11 



(7) is devoted to the False Face Society of the Iroquois, while the table 

 case (8A) immediately following contains objects from "Westchester County 

 and Staten Island. In these sections an interesting feature of aboriginal 

 life is shown. Although most of the Indians of the vicinity of Greater New 

 York did not place objects in the graves with their dead, some graves at 

 Burial Ridge, Tottenville, Staten Island, when opened for the Museum in 

 1895, were found to contain a great many interesting and valuable remains. 

 With the skeleton of a child there was a great deposit of utensils, both fin- 

 ished and unfinished ornaments, such as beads, pendants, and the like, a 

 stone pipe and a number of other objects, while not far away the skeletons 

 of three Indian warriors were exhumed (Fig. 6), in and among whose 

 bones there were found, as shown in this section, twenty-three arrow points 

 of stone, antler and bone (Fig. 7). 



This is an excellent exhibit indicating the use of the bow in Indian war- 

 fare. The skeletons lay side by side with the legs flexed as shown in the 

 illustration (Fig. 6). In the first skeleton, it was found that two points of 

 antler and one of bone had pierced the body and lodged near the spinal col- 

 umn. Another point of argillite had been driven between two ribs, forming 

 a notch in each. A bone arrow point had struck the shoulder and was resting 

 against the scapula. Among the bones of the right hand, an arrow point 

 of antler was discovered, and there was a similar one near the left hand. 

 Another antler point was lying in the sand just beneath the body and had, 

 no doubt, dropped from it when the flesh wasted away. The most inter- 

 esting wound of all was one where an antler-tipped arrow had ploughed 

 through one side of the body and fully one-third of the point had passed 

 through one of the ribs, making a hole, where it remained, as smoothly as if 

 drilled. The second body was also terribly injured. The left femur showed 

 an elongated puncture near the lower end, probably made by an arrow 

 point. Among the ribs was the tip of an antler point, and a yellow jasper 

 one was among the ribs on the left side of the body. Three other points 

 were among the bones. The third skeleton was likewise an example of old- 

 time bow play. There was an antler point among the ribs on the left side. 

 The end of one of the fibulae was shattered by a stone arrow point, and a 

 second point had lodged between two ribs. Beneath the sternum was a 

 flint point, and the right shoulder blade showed a fracture near the end, 

 caused by a blow of some hand implement or an arrow. Xear the base of 

 the skull, the end of an antler arrow point was discovered, broken perhaps by 

 its impact with the occiput. Two bone points were near the lower bones of 

 the left leg. A second point was found upon search among the left ribs; 

 under the vertebrae was the base of another antler point, and two broken 

 points were found beneath the body. 



