After one has attempted to describe and illustrate most of the types of ancient artifacts occurring in America, one discovers that there are numerous objects which scarcely fall under any of the classifications. These I have placed under this chapter devoted to miscellaneous objects. At some future time I hope to consider these at greater length, for it will be quite possible to devote an entire chapter to the club and paddle-like implements of the Pacific Coast, another to the slate knives of New England, and additional ones to the arrow-shaft straighteners, or the cup-stones—all of which are illustrated in the ensuing pages.

In Figs. 702, 703, and 703 A are shown some of the curious stone club and paddle-like implements of the Pacific Coast. Reverend H. C. Meredith, a collector of some experience in California, called these “stone ceremonial swords,” and described those shown in Fig. 702 as follows:—

“This figure shows two rare ceremonial knives. No. 2 is of fine sandstone, about sixteen inches long, with a broad blade that is reduced to a sharp edge. It was found on a village-site near Vacaville, and would make a formidable weapon.

“No. 3 is a double-edged and beautiful specimen. The material is mottled green and white serpentine. It is finely polished, and not much less than eighteen inches long. It is in the collection of Mr. A. B. Carr, Etna Mills. Two specimens similar to this one, but not nearly so fine, are in the Jewett collection. All three specimens are from Siskiyou. Like the chipped ceremonials, these knives are of extreme age, if not prehistoric. Work of this class is not done by the Indians of to-day.”

Whether the paddle-shaped implements in the two following figures are to be considered as “ceremonial swords,” I am not sufficiently familiar with California archæology to state.

Fig. 703 presents three remarkable specimens from Oregon and Colorado; collection of E. D. Zimmerman, Kutztown, Pennsylvania. The purpose of these strange objects is unknown to me. They are wrought with considerable skill and evidently performed some function in ancient times.

Fig. 704 A illustrates four of the curious club-heads, or perforated stones, common in California and Arizona. Various theories have been advanced as to these; the most sensible of which appears to me to be the statement that they were made use of as weights, to facilitate the use of digging-tools or sticks. There is some reason for the acceptance of this theory, as the discs are found in regions where the raising of crops by means of irrigation was known to the natives.

Fig. 705 is an illustration of a singular tool-handle, somewhat common near the Columbia River and farther north along the Pacific Coast. A fine one is in the possession of Dr. John Fargo of Los Angeles, California, and it is identical with this one.

Slate was made use of by the New England Indians not only for arrow- and spear-points but knives as well. Fig. 707, reproduced from Dr. William Beauchamp’s article,^[31] shows nine slate knives from sites along the Seneca and Oneida rivers and Oneida Lake, western New York.

In Fig. 710 are figured two beautiful slate knives from the Peabody Museum collection, Salem, Massachusetts.

I was very fortunate in procuring for examination the remarkable specimen shown in Fig. 711. It presents a woman’s knife of black slate in the original handle. When Mr. B. W. Arnold of Albany went north to Alaska some years ago, he found this knife in the hands of a woman who was using it in cutting open fish. He purchased it from her and placed it in his collection. It illustrates the method of mounting.

The handle is crudely cut out of wood, and the only things modern about it are the strings which hold it in place, they being ordinary twine.

But perhaps as interesting as any other of the objects are the oval and flat stones with creases or depressions across them, which are supposed to be the result of straightening or reducing arrow-shafts, lance-handles, and other long, slender objects. All of those shown in Figs. 706, 708, and 709 exhibit differences. Those in Fig. 706, collected by Professor Montgomery, are neatly made and ornament-like in shape.

Mr. Bardwell’s specimen, Fig. 708, is an ordinary bit of sandstone on which there are two deep grooves at right angles. We have a number of them in our Andover collection, and I have shown five in Fig. 709.

Most archæologists agree that the stones were used for the purpose named. Near caverns, rock-shelters, and along bluffs we find that the surface of gritty stones or ledges exhibit such grooves. Fig. 712 is a sinew stone, or an oval stone much creased and worn, not by friction caused by arrow-shafts, but because sinews or cords have been drawn back and forth against the edge of it. There is another singular grooved stone in the State Museum of Iowa. The curator calls it a stone “corn-sheller,” and if one will draw an ear of corn back and forth over the surface of this stone, one is surprised at the ease with which the kernels are removed. Fig. 715 illustrates three unknown objects found in Pueblo Bonito. Fig. 716 is interesting in that it may or may not be a natural formation. It was found on the site of an old encampment and may have been considered by the Indians a medicine-stone. Figs. 717, to and including 721, I shall refer to in the Conclusions of “The Stone Age.”

I wish to speak at some length on Fig. 713. This specimen is one of the cup-stones about which there has been so much discussion. It is something over ten by seven and a half inches in diameter, and on the upper surface are fifteen distinct cup-shaped depressions. It is of sandstone and about two inches thick.

A great deal has been written about cup-stones, as reference to the Bibliography will attest. The pitted hammer-stone, the cup-stone, and the crude discoidal are more or less related. Cup-stones themselves have never been satisfactorily explained, and it is my opinion that such ones as are shown in Fig. 713 mean more than that they were ordinary depressions in which nuts were cracked. However, one must do justice to those who believe that they were used for that purpose. There is a suggestion along the lines of that theory which I would wish to make.

The Indians used large quantities of hickory-nuts, walnuts, and butternuts. The early historians tell us that they threw these into kettles of hot water; the oil rising to the top, they skimmed it off for future use.

On such a stone as is illustrated fifteen nuts could be placed at one time and crushed by a single blow of a heavy, flat slab. If they used cup-stones for this purpose, they would naturally employ stones in which there were many cups rather than the average stones containing one or two cups. If so used, the work proceeded rapidly; one person crushing and two others placing the nuts in position. As the stone weighs no more than six or seven pounds, it could be quickly raised and the contents dumped into a receptacle.

But while this may be true, it has always seemed to me that the pitted stones may be made use of in some way as controlling or regulating the apparatus used in drilling. While all the details of such an explanation were never clear, yet it seemed more plausible than the statement that the stone was used as a common nut-cracker. There is another observation to be made which, it seems to me; militates against the theory that it was necessary to work out circular depressions in order to make a nut-cracker. If one will select a flat, smooth slab and place a dozen walnuts upon it, and strike with another flat slab evenly upon these nuts, one finds that they are crushed quite as completely as if placed in the cup-stones proper. The Indians wished the oil rather than the kernels; and preferred the nuts completely crushed. And for all practical purposes in nut-cracking, two flat surfaces are fully as good as a surface which has been cupped. Again, stones having deep pits on their surfaces prevent the crushing of more than half of each nut. If one studies the cup-stones carefully, one will observe that some of the pitted stones are very smooth, others may be rough. In the exact centre of the pits is a small depression. In some instances this depression appears as if it was the result of a revolving object; in other words, a drill. I cannot believe that the cracking of nuts in these depressions would produce the effect just described.