Awls or spicuke of flint for piercing skins and bark served the earlier men. In later ages great skill was displayed in chipping these spicuke into a narrow shaft with a fine point and a broad base (figs. 17, 18). This might either be held in the fingers or attached to a handle.
Serapers.—An instrument the reverse in form of the perforator is the scraper (fig. 19). This has a broad rounded edge with a narrow base; one side is flat, the other more or less convex; sometimes the base is prolonged into a short handle, forming an instrument which somewhat resembles a spoon. As its name indicates, it was employed in scraping wood, skin, bone, etc. to bring these substances into some desired form. Specimens are common in most of the Eastern United States, and present a great variety of size and finish.
are smooth, polished stones intended to be held in the hand, and were used in rubbing and dressing skins. Many of them are natural pebbles more or less ground, but others are symmetrical in shape and are evidently the product of careful labor.
Mortars and stone with a natural depression was the earliest corn-mill. Soon the depression was artificially enlarged and the external surface of the stone dressed into a symmetrical form; the natural pebble at first in use to break the grain was supplanted by the elongated stone pestle, and the compound implement was at hand which has under gone little alteration since. Numbers of these mills are found throughout the United States, some of the finest coining from California. A neat specimen is shown on Plate 6 (fig. 24).
Stone pots, or platters of stone were in use among numerous tribes at the epoch of the Discovery. Soft stones, such as steatite and slate, were most in vogue. The most elaborate specimens (Jig. 27) are from California.
Spades.—Large and broad flint implements have been disinterred in considerable numbers on the Atlantic coast and in the Mississippi Valley, with peculiar traces of wear which indicate that they had been used as agricultural implements, probably in planting corn and cultivating the soil. They are called "hoe-blades," or, more properly, "spades" (fig. 21).
Plummets, or common and peculiar type of imple ment (figs. 14, 15) is known by these names, both of which are certainly erroneous. The shape is indeed that of the weight which masons attach to their " plumb-line," but this device was totally unknown in America; and it is not likely that articles costing so much labor would be used as net-sinkers. Their true use was doubtless as badges of rank, as personal ornaments, or as amulets.
Discoidal discs four or five inches in diameter, some times with biconcave sides, highly polished and symmetrical, are frequent in the Gulf States, and more rare in the Ohio Valley and on the Atlantic slope. They are believed to have been used in playing a game popular among the Southern tribes, and are hence also called "chunky-stones." An example, with a cross-section showing the concavity, is given on our Plate (figs. 25, 26).
Ornaments, Bclgcs, and Ceremonial Objects. of the finest specimens of work in stone in the United States represent objects of which the uses are quite uncertain. Their frequent delicacy of structure leads to the supposition that they were merely symbolic or ornamental, employed in the ceremonies of religious or civil life or for purposes of decoration or personal distinction. Very delicate stone axes drilled and polished are not rare. One such is shown in Figure 35. It is of slate, and finished with the highest skill. Such forms are sometimes called "banner-stones." Fiat stones with one or more perforations and of symmetrical shapes are known as "gorp,-ets," "totems," or " pendants" (figs. 23, 31). They are believed to have been insignia of rank. Sometimes they have rude figures or scratches upon their surfaces. "Bird-shaped stones" (fig. 20, apparently representing a bird brooding upon its nest, are frequent in the Ohio Valley, and are said to have been worn on the head by married women. Stone tubes, six to eight inches in length, are seen in many collections. Some suppose they were employed by the medi cine-men in their conjuring acts; others, that they were ornaments for the hair.