The Meeker herald., 1904-02-13

grind away the marks OF the hammer
with a piece of gritty sandstone. Or
I'LL ments and pipes were usually fash
ioned entirely by rubbing. and 1t is
easy to Imagine what tedious task
this must have been.
When lie wanted to drill hole, as In
n pipe or ornament. he used smooth
straight stick or piece OF bone, and
revoived 1t by simply holding 1t be
tween his hands and rubbing them
back and forth. a slight depression be-
ing pecked where the perforntion was
to begin. In order to hold the drill in
place. DIR. Rau determined to find out
just how long 1t would take to drill
such ii hole. He worked at one hole
for two years. and then left 1t incom-
plete. OF course. the nboriglnes were
doubtless more skillful at such work
than DIR. Rau aud could complete a
hole In much less time. yet the process
must have been sufficiently tedious
Frequently, In opening a mound, great
quantities of little beads are fonnd.
all nicely perforated. Each of them
represents weeks of work, for the per-
foratIons were made by rolling u stem
OF grass along the thigh with the right
hand. and holding the bead against the
point of the drill with the left.
Mr. Fowke shows that this inAnite
patience still exists among sayages,
citing the case of the tribes of the
Amazon, which make beautiful tubes
OF rock crystal an inch in diameter
and sometimes eight inches long. by
rubbing down the outside with pieces
of stone, and then drilling them from
end to end with the flexible shoot of
the Wild plaintain. To finish the larger
ones requires the lifetime Of two men;
that is, man works all his life at 1t,
and leaves the unfinished ornament to
a youth, who sometimes dies of old age
before he gets 1t completed.
Such unwearying patience MS this
seems almost incredible. yet the nipple
ments of the ab0rigines Of this region.
scattered as they are In such numbers.
were fashioned in this very way. The
method still survives and flint is
worked to-day by certain savages just
as 1t was thousands of years ago. The
Indians of Mexico. Peru and California
strike OF fakes With stone hammers
or with little wedges of bone. Some
times the chips are faxed OF by pres
sure: but in every instance the imple-
ments were shaped bit by bit and with
infinite patience.
And how effective were the nipple
ments thus manufactured Mr.. FOwke
points out how difficult it 10 to convince
people that ar indian or anybody else
could have cut with or made any prac-
teal use of the rude tools made OF
stone by such primitive processes. Yet,
the ab0rigines could do many things
with stone which seem almost marvel
lous-even to shaving. The nan who
fumes and frets nowadays when his
razor is little dull will hear with
incredulity that any one could shave
with shell or sharpened stone. Not
that shaving was common. for the pre-
vailiug fashion was to use small
mussel shell as nippers and jerk each
hair out by the root-a lasting process,
however painful.
The great mystery about imple-
ments made by the mound builders ia
that, despite the tedious labor 1t took
to fashion them, they should be made
in such quantities and should seeming
iy be handled 30 carelessly. instead Of
being treasured, as one would natur-
ally expect them to be. Every mound
Yields up hundreds and hundreds Of
specimens; every field, every meadow.
every bit of woodland is rich with
them; every farmhouse for miles
around here has its collection. As one
thinks of all these, one gets a vision
of a great people working Satientiy
year after year fashioning these imp1e-
ments and trinkets. but why they
should have cared to do 30 is mys-
terry seemingly beyond solution. Be
side 1t, the labor of throwing up the
great mounds which dot this valley
seems almost insignihcant.-New York
Tribune.