THE sciENnsr. 
105 
have a written history which they claim 
reaches back over 9300 years. This history 
claims that the Pueblos descended from a sea- 
faring peoj le, who came on this continent 
from the south-east. It will be remembered 
that about twelve years ago Lieut. Frank 
Cusining took a band of Pueblos east and 
they were at Plymouth, Mass.,on''Forefather*'s 
Day." The visiting Pueblos improved the 
opportunity by performing a religious cere- 
mony that can only be performed at the sea- 
shore. They claim that the'r tribe was 
driven inland by a warlike race and that they 
had not had an opportunity of observing the 
rites and performing the sea shore ceremony 
for about 7000 years. They took a keg of 
sea- water home with them to perform anoth- 
er religious ceremony. I rode on the traiu 
with them from Emporia to Topeka. They 
and Lieut. Gushing occupied a car to them- 
s Ives a portion of the way, and were rehears- 
ing the seaside ceremony. They claimed 
to have explicit directions for the ceremony 
in the sacred books of the Pueblos. 
Most of the Mexican tribes have tradi- 
tions that point to a sea-faring origin. I 
have sometimes thought that these traditions 
are due to the antithetic faculties of the 
human mind. ^^^11 people, according to 
their traditions, have passed thtough a gold- 
en age, when the environments were just, the 
opposite of tho-e of the present. 
The habit of disfaraging the present is 
al iiost univtrs: 1. The people of the foggy 
north-east dream of a dry, sunshiney land, 
the opposite of their own. It is perfectly 
natural for the tribes that inhabit the dry, 
desert plains of the south-west to dream of a 
moist, oceanic climate — of green hills, pleas- 
ant isUi ds and cool beaches. Yet there 
seems to be some justice in the claim of these 
Pueblo tribes that they decended from a sea 
faring race. I showed an intelligent looking 
Zuni, who belonged to the priesthood of the 
tribe, one of these trident shaped articles. 
He said ''El Bey, senor." "The King, 
sir. •" I then made a drawing of the object 
so common on the shelving rocks of Kansas, 
described above. He looked at it and said 
"El Dio del agiia, s nor." "The god of the 
water, sir." It would seem from all the ob- 
servations that I have made on this subject 
that the trident is an emblem of authority, or 
an insignia of rank, and that many inland 
tribes have traditions of the sea and th3 sea- 
god, Neptune. 
If I am correct, these trident-shaped ar- 
ticles are very important and useful in ethno- 
logical investigations. 
The manner or m -thod employed by the 
prehistoric races to flake their flint, chert, 
or other stone implements has been widely 
discussed. Gushing made some important 
discoveries among the Pueblos, but the sub- 
ject may still be considered an open question. 
An old trapper who was once in the employ 
of the Ameircan Fur Gompany in the north 
west told me that the following is the finish- 
ing process: 
Put the airow head or implement to be fin- 
ished in boiling, suet, grease. After a short 
time has been given the material to temper, 
brirg one surface of the material above the 
upper surface of the grease. Now, take a straw, 
splint or something of like form and nature, 
and dip it into cold water. Draw the wet 
end of the straw along the exposed surface 
of the material in the hot grease, and im- 
mediately a flake, the exact size and shape 
of the moistened area will be thrown off. 
So far as tried by two or three friends to 
whom I made the suggestion, the experiments 
at finishing flints after this method have 
been a failure. Notwithstanding this, I am 
still inclined to this theory, and would for 
others to experiment. 
Prof. James Hall, State Geologist of 
New York, is making another western trip 
through Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan 
and Wisconsin, in persuit of more fossils to 
be used in completing the second part of his 
work on Brachiopoda. This work will be of 
great interest to palaeontologists. Prof. Hall 
should receive the desired aid from our 
western collectors. 
