*

amount of the precious metal must ishing luxuriance. The forests are have been lost in their production. commonly ankle deep in water for They were taken from a mound in mile after mile. and. consequently. Florida, and the metal from which the animals found there mostly inhabthey were made, probably came from it the trees. Monkeys are exccedingly Georgia. The gold mines in that numerous. For killing these treestate are worked at the present time. dwelling creatures the blow gun is the best possible instrument. It is made from a peculiar kind of reed, and, although eleven or twelve feet in length. its weight is only a pound and a half. It is provided, like a rifle, with a fore sight and a back sight, the latter being made of the teeth of a small beast called the acouchi.

*

*

Brass Beads.

Still another interesting object is a quantity of brass beads. Their discovery can certainly be called unique. They were chopped, last summer from the trunk of a tree, by a wood cutter in the upper Delaware valley, and were procured for the museum by Mr. H. C. Mercer, one of our contributors.

Stone Axes Used as Currency. The editor quotes from The American Anthropologist", Vol. vi, No. 1. p. 84. the following interesting note:

"Although the native canoe builders in the Louisiade Archipelago, British New Guinea work with adzes made of hoop-iron. the payment for their work is made in stone axes: ten to fifty of these being the price of a canoe. The stone axe is still the accepted medium of exchange in large transactions-pigs for instance; and wives are valued in that currency. It is only fair, by the way. to mention that the purchase of a wife is stated by the natives not to be such in the ordinary sense; the articles paid are, they say, a present to the girl's father. In Mowatta, sisters are specially valued, as they can be inter-changed with other men's sisters as wives. Trotter in Proc. Roy. Geog. Soc., P. 795, Nov.,

1892.

*

Blow Guns.

The blow guns used by the savages of Guiana for shooting poisoned arrows are very wonderful weapons, indeed. The climate of this equatorial region being both very hot and very moist. produces a vegetation of aston

The natives are most careful respecting the straightness of their blow guns, and never allow them to lean against anything lest they should be warped. The arrows employed are made from the leaf ribs of a kind of palm. made to fit the bore of the gun by a wrapping of wild cotton fastened with a fibre of silk grass. Great art is required to put on the cotton properly. The arrow is about ten inches long, no thicker than a crow quill, and at one end is brought to a point as sharp as a needle by scraping it between the keenedged saw-like teeth of the parai fish. One-half of a parai jaw is always suspended to the quiver.

The vegetable poison used for envenoming the arrows is called "curari“. It is is extremely powerful and will kill a man within a few minutes when introduced into the circulation by an arrow point, though it is harmless when swallowed. It is very difficult to procure the strongest "curari" from the natives, who are most unwilling to part with it. The arrow heads are kept carefully separate from the shafts as a precaution against accidents. the savages themselves being very much afraid of the poisons which they employ. The secret of preparing the poison is handed down by the medicine men from generation to generation, and the common people are not per

mitted to know it.

worm.

being cut out before the animal is First must be sought the curari vine, cooked and eaten. In Java, Borneo, which is closely allied to the tree New Guinea, and other of the East which furnishes strychnine, and to India islands the same practice obthe upas tree, from which the Dyaks tains to a considerable extent. The of Borneo get the poison for their ar- poisoning of arrows prevails extensiverows. When the poison maker has ly in Africa, particularly on the west found the curari he looks for two bulb- coast, in the Gaboon, among the Somous plants, the stems of which yield a ali, and with the Bushmen. By the glutinous juice. Another vegetable Bushmen the juice of a plant is used, ingredient is the bitter root, common- mixed with the pulp of a venomous ly used by these savages in poisoning water for the purpose of catching fish. To the mixture of these elements the medicine man adds two kinds of venomous ants and the poison fangs of deadly species of snakes. The whole is allowed to simmer over a fire, the snakes' fangs and ants being pounded and thrown into the pot. The boiling is continued until the poison is reduced to a thick brown syrup. Finally a few arrows are dipped experimentally in the poison, and its effect is tried upon some animal or bird. If satisfactory the poison is poured into a spherical earthenware pot, in which it is kept. carefully covered over with leaves, to exclude air and moisture.

Poisoned Arrows.

The use of poisoned arrows is undoubtedly of very ancient origin," said Dr. W. J. Hoffman. "They are believed to have been employed in Europe in prehistoric times, and later on, according to Aristotle. Strabo, and Pliny, the Celts and Gauls envenomed their shafts with the juice of a plant of the genus hellebore. The Scythians prepared arrow poison by mixing serpent venom with the serum of putrid blood, and other instances are recorded in literature of peoples about the Black Sea in Asia Minor who practised similar arts.

"The best known and most active of poisons is the woorara or ‘urari' of So. America. It is chiefly used for the tips of darts blown from the blowgun, and the most important ingredient is the juice of the plant from which strychnine is obtained, to which is added certain other vegetable elements and serpent venom. In Central America poisons are also employed on arrows and blowgun darts. The Caribs employed similarly a poison made from the sap of a tree called the 'mancenilles. The antidote was the application to the wound of what we know as "arrowroot.'

The Seris of northwestern Mexico prepared poison by putting into the ground a cow's liver, rattlesnakes, scorpions, centipedes, and other unpleasant things, and beating them with a stick, into the mixtures the arrow points were dipped. The Apaches and neighboring tribe were until recently in the habit of smearing upon their arrows a composition said to consist of decomposed deer's liver and rattlesnake venom. In some instances crushed red ants are also reported to have been used. A microscopic examination of such a coating upon arrows obtained from Apaches in 1871 showed the presence of blood and a crystalline substance that was apparently rattle"The Ainos of Japan prepare a pois- snake venom. The venom of serpents on for spreading upon bamboo or met- retains its poisonous properties, when al arrow points to kill game with, a dried, indefinitely. One instance of small portion of flesh abont the wound poisoning by such an arrow mentioned

to me was that of a man whose wound and long black hair. One temple is was a mere scratch on the shoulder crushed in, showing how he met his blade. but previous to death, which ensued, the flesh of the man's back fell off, exposing the ribs and spine in several places.

death, though the hair is plastered down over the break in the skull. The box is roughly made and is covered with rude hieroglyphics representing a sacrifice to the gods, thus proving its antiquity and its having been the work of Aztecs.

That the head had been subjected to an embalming process is proven by the absence of the brains and its remarkable state of preservation. A. F. B.

"The Shoshone and Banncek Indians state that the proper way to poison arroWS. as formerly practised by them, is to secure a deer and cause to be bitten by a rattlesnake, immediately after which the victim is killed, and the meat removed and placed in a hole in the ground. When the mass has become putrid the arrow points are We take pleasure in announcing to dipped into it. The Clallams of Pu- our readers that a sufficient number get Sound used to make arrow points of subscribers have been secured to of copper, which were afterward dip- justify us in continuing the publicaped in sea water and permitted to co- tion of THE ARCILEOLOGIST indefinrode. I have never met an Indian itely. Therefore do not hesitate to who would admit the use of poisoned send in your subscription. arrows in warfare against man. In nearly all instances when poisons are prepared by Indians the operation is performed with more or less ceremony, chanting and incantation, for the purpose of invoking evil spirits or demons. In their belief the effects of poison are due wholly to the presence in them of malevolent spirits or demons, which enter the body of the victim and destroy life."

A few days ago Manuel Garrizo, a Mexican laborer on the Prairie Rose

EXCHANGE DEPARTMENT.

Exchange notices pertaining to archæology, not exceeding 3 words, wil te inserted free

for all regular subscribers

Wait and for sale notices from collectors, of 35 words or less, will be inserted in this de partment for 15 cents per month.

Dealers are r ferred to or regular advertising rates. Address all communications for this department to A. C. Gruhike, Wat rloo, Ind. WILL exchange fine sample of Wisconsin diaMitchell, chemist. 4.6 Milwaukee St.,

tomaceous earth for Inian relies A.N Milwau

kee, Wis.

A FLINT arrow point to exchange for each
Columbian stan p except the one and two
cent: a heavily cancelled or torn not wa: fed.
Go O Grene, Princeton, Ill.
SCIENTIFIC American papers, petrified and
jasporized wood, i on pyrites and gyp`,
to exchange for Indian rehes or micerals. Ad-
dress Chas Miller, jr., 212 Jefferson St., Grand
FOR exchange –Minerals, Natural History
Specimens of all kinds. FW. Shells and
two volumes of Smithsonian reports for fine.
perfect Indian relies of all kinds. G E. Wills,
Manhattan, Kan

Kapids, Mich.

Wil exena ge Ind an inplements of the and Narragansetts, for those of other locality. store age from the territory of the Pequots Send traengs. Byron J. Peekhan, 12 Meci anhic. Westerly, RI.

Ranch, near this town, found what is
thought to be a relic of the Aztecs. It
is the head of a man inclosed in a box
of virgin silver. It was found in a
mound at the foot of the Horsehead
Hills, a range running north of this
place. The mound, which is a small
one. had always been looked upon as
natural, but now it turns ont to be the
burial place of a vanished race. Gar-
rizo wanted dirt to fill a low place near
his door and took it from the mound,
He dug several feet into the mound
when he discovered a metal box, w'
he opened, and in it found a
iar round object. It appeared to be a
clay ball, but when he struck it he
found that the clay covered a cloth,
which was wrapped about a skull. It
was rather a mummied head, for the
skin and hair were there. Thinking
he had found the evidence of some
crime, he carried the whole to the
priest of the neighborhood. The priest
at once recognized that it was a relic
of antiquity. The head is that of an
elderly man of undoubted Indian ori-
gin, as shown by the high cheek bones

RA GRILER, Canajoharie, N. Y., is n aking

herns.

a colection of copies of decorated and historic powder horns: and is desirous of correspondence with anven who may possess any knowledge on the subject, or own one of the WANTED-A double barrelled, flnt-lock. will exchange breech loa ing flint-lock, U. S shot gun, in good repair: older the better. experimental rifle of 1831, Harper's Ferry, These guns are rare, Davis Bros.. Diamond, Portage Co, Chio,

WANTED. First class historic relies of all

kinds; also scientific books and pamphlets especially those relating to American Arel æology in exchange for minerals, relics, curiosi ties or cash. Only first class sp. cimers want d or given orresponderce solicited Hood, 1211 Broadway, Somerville, Mass.

Lewis b.

VOL. I.

WATERLOO, INDIANA, MARCH, 1893.

NO. 3.

DISTRIBUTION OF STONE IMPLEMENTS IN THE TIDEWATER COUNTRY.

[BY W. H. HOLMES.]

[Reprinted from The American Anthropologist, Vol. VI, No. 1, January, 1893]

The tide-water portions of Maryland and Virginia have an area nearly equal to that of the State of Maryland. About one-fourth of the area is occupied by broad arms of the sea, chiefly Chesapeake bay and its tributaries. and the land is a low but handsome plain broken by erosion into hills, valleys, and terraces. It extends inland from the Atlantic seaboard to the base of the highland or Piedmont plateau, which rises on the west to the Allegheny mountains. The curved line separating the two topographic divisions--the lowland and highland-is marked by falls in all the rivers and by the location of towns and cities through which pass the great highways of travel connecting the north with the south. Upon this line are located Philadelphia, Havre de Grace, Baltimore, Laurel, Washington, Fredericksburg, Richmond, and Petersburg. This was the shore-line of the Atlantic when the formations constituting the lowlands were laid down.

The separation of the lowland from the highland is not a topographic separation only, there are pronounced biologic and geologic distinctions, and these combined in archaic times to produce marked anthropologic distinctions. The tide-water region furnished a plentiful supply of game and fish, and in the brackish and salt water areas an abundance of oysters. The natives lived much upon the water and were perhaps more nearly a maritime people than any other group of tribes in the cast. Their peculiar biologic environment had a marked influence upon their art, giving it unique forms and exceptional distribution, but their unusual geologic surroundings had a still more pronounced effect upon their implements, utensils, and weapons, limiting the forms and sizes and determining to a considerable extent the kinds employed in the various districts independently of biologic and other conditions.

In early historic times the tide-water country was inhabited by numerous tribes of Indians, mainly of Algonquian stock, subject to the renowned Powhatan. A few other nations were located about the headwaters of Chesapeake bay, and others appeared at times along the western and southern borders. The period covered by this occupation practically closed before the middle of the last century. Its beginning is not determined, but cannot extend very many centuries back into the past. Of antecedent or prehistoric peoples, if such there were, we have no information, for the art remains are simple and homogeneous, giving no hint of the occupation of this region by other than the historic tribes. The region is nearly identical with that explored by that intrepid and illustrious adventurer and colonist, John Smith, whose accounts of the natives are among our most valuable contributions to the aboriginal history of the Atlantic States.

The geology of the tide-water country is wholly unlike that of the highland, and the rocks available to the aborigines in the two regions were not only different in distribution but peculiar in the shapes they took and in other features that affect the character of the utensils made and employed. In the highland, west of the dotted line on the map, the varieties of rock occur in missive forms and with indefinite independent distribution. The workable varieties, such as quartz, quartzite, rhyolite, jasper, and flint. were much sought by the aborigines of the lowland. Fragmental material was to be obtained almost everywhere upon the surface, but choice varieties were confined to limited areas and often to distant regions, and where the surface exposures were not sufficient to supply the demand, quarrying was resorted to and the work of securing, transporting, and trading or exchanging the stone must have become an important factor in the lives of the people. The masses of rock were uncovered, broken up, and tested, the choice pieces were selected and reduced to forms approximating the implements to be made, and in this shape were carried to the lowland.

In the lowland all varieties of hard stones are fragmental and the species are intermingled in varled ways. These fragments of rock are not merely broken angular pieces, such as characterize the surface of the highland, but are rounded masses and bits, known as bowlders, cobbles, and pebbles, and comprise chiefly such tough, flinty, homogeneous stones as are available in the arts of primitive men. Nature, in her own way, selected from the highland along the stream courses the very choicest bits of the crumbled rocks, reduced them in hundreds of cataract mills and in the breakers of the sea shore to rounded forms, and deposited them here in the lowlands in great heaps and beds ready to the hand of primitive man.

At first it would seem, to even the keenest observer, that a cobble-stone or ovoid bowlder or pebble would be a difficult form of stone to utilize in making knives, spear-points, arrow-points, drills, and scrapers. The smooth rounded mass had to be transformed into a thin blade, every contour of which is incisive or angular. So far apart are the two classes of forms that few people have thought of the bowlder as a prominent source of these objects, but when we look into the matter more carefully we find that nature has not provided any other form or conformation of the several tough varieties of stone so perfectly suited to the purposes of the stone-implement flaker as the bowlder or pebble.

Each river brought down from the highland only such varieties of stone as belonged to the drainage of that river, so that in one valley one set of materials prevails and in another a different set of materials appears, varying with the geologic formations of the region drained. Rivers having identical formations will have nearly identical bowlders. Long rivers crossing numerous formations will have many varieties, short rivers crossing but few will have but a limited number.

Near the base of

There is also a selection as to size by each drainage way. the highland, where the force of the current is reduced by meeting tide-water, the larger bowlders are dropped, the smaller ones are deposited farther down, and the pebbles and sand are carried far seaward. Small and weak streams transport fewer pieces and drop them sooner. This selection does not hold good with ice transportation, which agency has carried irregular masses of stone to many widely distributed points. Notwithstanding the fact that