Stones evidently used for grinding and polishing need only to be mentioned, as they are of widespread occurrence. Implements used for the former purpose are made of any siliceous stone of convenient size and suitable texture, from a coarse quartzite to a very fine close-grained sandstone, according to the class of work to be done. The markings on them range from the narrow, sharp, incised lines due to shaping a small ornament, to the broad grooves resulting from grinding an ax or celt into form. Nearly all of those in museums are small specimens used for rubbing; but there are many large blocks in various localities, sometimes several feet square, marked and scored in every direction by grinding or sharpening the large implements on them.
Among the polishers may be included a number of small pebbles of very hard siliceous stone, generally some form of quartz, which by the high polish show long use. The larger ones may have been used for rubbing skins in tanning, as they can easily be grasped in the hand. Very few have changed from their primitive form to a greater degree than would naturally result from the wear upon them. A few very small ones, long-ovoid in shape, usually not over 2½ or 3 inches in length, were probably paint mullers, as they are well fitted for use in small paint cups. Many of the discoidal stones—which will be spoken of under the proper head—may have had these functions. The highly polished specimens are all from the southern states. There is one rubbing stone of pumice from Craighead county, Arkansas.
Fig. 91.—Muller, showing polished surface.
Hammerstones.
Hammers or hammerstones show every stage of work, from the ordinary pebble or fragment, with its surface scarcely altered, to the highly polished round or ovoid “ball.” They are usually of the hardest available material, and seem to be of more frequent occurrence in the northern districts than in the southern states, though found everywhere. Used in their earlier stages merely as tools with which to fashion other implements, they were assigned to specified purposes when brought to a better finish or form. A typical example, shown in [figure 92], is of granite, from Ross county, Ohio.
The Sioux used an oval stone, with a piece of rawhide covering all but the point and attaching it to a withe handle,[34] while the Shoshoni and Ojibwa made use of a round stone, wrapped in leather, attached by a string of 2 inches to a handle 22 inches long covered with leather; this was called a poggamoggan.[35] Rounded stones are said to have been used by the California Indians as bolas,[36] though it is more probable that they were slung-shots. The ancient Californians worked out a round stone for an acorn-sheller; the present Indians use any smooth stone.[37] Elaborately carved round stones, mounted in handles as clubs, are known to have been used by the Queen Charlotte Island Indians for killing fish,[38] and other northwestern Indians have been observed to use a round stone inclosed in a net and attached to a line as a sinker.[39]
Fig. 92.—Hammerstone.
It is not necessary to quote references to the well-known fact that the Eskimo and the Patagonians made use of round stones of various sizes as bolas. There is no evidence that our Indians ever used anything of the sort.