Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1912-05-10


from the daily life of the aborigines.
These groups form part of a COM
plete series of exhibits showing the
general character OF the various peo-
pies of the world. One, known as the
quarry group, is interesting to Wash
ingtonians on account of the fact that
1t represents scene in the present
District of Columbia before the COM
ing of the white man. 1t shows a group
of six Indians mining or quarrying
rocks for utensils, weapons and other
articles and shaping them for future
use.
This group is intended to illustrate
the work carried on in the great quar-
ries on Piny branch and in the asSo-
ciated workshops not long before the
arrival of the English, some 800 years
ago, near the point where Eighteenth
street would cross that stream. The
broken powders and f1akage left on
the shop sites are, in places, ten feet
or more in depth.
The man at the left is represented
as employing heavy wooden pike in
prying up the larger powders, while
the second breaks them up prepare
tory to selecting fragments of suitable
size and shape for implement making.
The third man roughs out the forms
of the implements by means of quick,
sharp blows with bowlder hammer,
using either the selected fragments
h0
pose.
The fourth workman trims the edges
and shapes up the thin blades with an
implement of bone or antler set in a
wooden shaft. The taking is accom-
plished by setting the point of this
implement against the edge of the
roughed-out blade, and pressing it
downward with quick, strong move
ment, REINFORCED by the weight of
the body. Flakes are thus removed
from the under side, and the folded
buckskin pad serves to prevent break
age OF the blade under treatment.
This work, however, was not COM
pleted at the quarry, the blades being
usually carried away to be finished as
the implements were needed
The finishing touches are given, as
indicated by the fifth workman, who
chips out the notches and shapes the
points by means of q small fiaker OF
bone or like material, which is pressed
down on the sharp edge of the blade
until 1t takes hold" Then. by
quick push, the fake is driven of.
John Smith of the Jamestown colony,
about 1908, says, speaking of Pow
hatan hunter, that His arrowhead he
quickly maketh with a little bone
which he ever weareth at his brasert
(belt)."
The shaping processes here illus
trated were formerly in general use
among the tribes. The women doubt
less aided in the work of transporta-
ton and in preparing food for the
quarrymen. The costumes shown are
modelled after the garments of the
Virginia Indians at the period of dis
ccvery, as illustrated in the drawings
of John White, artist of the Roanoke
colony.
That the quarries of the region were
worked by the Powhatans and ada
cent tribes is amply proved by the dis
covery, on their deserted village sites
and In their shell heaps throughout
the Potomac-Chesapeake region, of
countless numbers of implements iden-
tical with those produced in the local
quarries.
This group was designed by w. II.
Holmes, head curator of anthropology;
the figures were modelled by U. S. J.
Dunbar, the sculptor, and the whole
was installed by H. w. Hendley, the
chronological preparation.
Chess Playinu Led to Tax EXEMPTION.