Page:The Ancient Stone Implements (1897).djvu/240

218 as hammers. I have an Irish specimen, 3$3⁄4$ inches long, with the perforation tapering from about 1$3⁄4$ inch diameter on either side, to less than $1⁄2$ an inch in the middle, and yet each end of the stone is worn away by use, to the extent of $1⁄4$ inch below the original oval contour. It is possible that these deep cavities may have been intended to assist in keeping a firm hold of the stone when used in the hand as a hammer without any shaft, in the same manner as did the shallow indentations, which occasionally occur on the faces of pebbles which thus served; but this is hardly probable when the cavities meet in the centre to form a hole exactly like the ordinary shaft-holes, except in its disproportionately small size. It is worthy of notice, that even in axe-hammers the shaft-hole appears to be sometimes absurdly small for the size of the implement. I have a Danish specimen of greenstone, carefully finished, 6$3⁄4$ inches long, and weighing 1 lb. 15 ozs. avoirdupois, and yet the shaft-hole is only $3⁄4$ inch in diameter on either side, and but $1⁄2$ an inch in the centre. The axe from Felixstowe, already mentioned, presents the same peculiarity.

It has been suggested that one of the methods of hafting these implements with the double bell-mouthed perforations, was by placing them over a branch of a tree, and leaving them there until secured in their position by the natural growth of the wood, the branch being then cut off at the proper places, and serving as a handle. I have, however, found by experience that even with a fast-growing tree, such a process requires two or three years at the least, and that when removed, the shrinkage of the branch in drying, leaves the hammer-head loose on its haft. Such a system of hafting would, moreover, imply a fixity of residence on the part of the savage owners of the tools, which appears hardly compatible with the stage of civilization to which such instruments are probably to be referred.

At the same time, it must be remembered that the Caribs of Guadaloupe and the Hurons are, as has been mentioned at page 155, credited with an analogous system of hafting imperforate hatchets.

It has also been suggested that some of these pierced stones were offensive weapons, having been attached by a thong of leather to a handle, and used as "flail-stones," after the manner of the "morning-stars" of the middle ages. Such a method of mounting, though possible, appears to me by no means probable in the