A tuff implement of suggestively ax-like form is shown in plate XLVIII; it is firmer and less pulverulent but more vesicular than most implements of its class; it weighs but 7 ounces (0.20 kilogram). The specimen was picked up in a ruinous jacal, which had evidently been occupied temporarily within a fortnight, on the summit of the great shell-mound forming Punta Antigualla. The somewhat indefinite texture and color render it difficult to distinguish between natural and artificial features; but careful examination indicates that it is wholly natural in form and in nine-tenths of the surface, and that the ax-like shape expresses nothing more than accidents of structure and wave-work. This interpretation is practically established by the slight battering along the edges and about the smaller end, as illustrated in the edge view; for this wear of use, which has produced a distinctive surface, is practically absent from the notches which give the ax-like effect. Besides the battering, the only artificial marks are ancient fire-stains on one of the faces. On the whole it is clear that the artificial appearance catching the eye at first glance is purely fortuitous, and that the specimen is but a natural pebble very slightly modified by ordinary use.
A suggestive specimen is illustrated in plate XLIX; it is of purplish-gray granitoid rock, of decided toughness and considerable hardness, and weighs 12½ ounces (0.35 kilogram). The surface and general form indicate that it is a natural pebble entirely without marks of artificial use; but the regular curvature of the principal face (the shape is that of a segment of a cylinder rounded toward the ends) suggests artificial shaping, while it was found far in the interior, near Barranca Salina, whither it must have been carried from the coast. It may possibly be a fragment of a pestle subsequently wave-worn; but all the probabilities are that it is wholly natural, and that its suggestive features are fortuitous.
The constant search for chipped or flaked tools which was extended over nearly all Seriland seldom met the slightest reward; but the specimen shown in plate L was deemed of some interest in connection with the search. It is of hard and tough greenstone, showing obscure and irregular structure lines, though nearly homogeneous in texture; it weighs 10 ounces (0.28 kilogram). It is primarily a natural pebble with form and surface reflecting structure and texture in connection with wave-action. Its artificial features are limited to the usual slight battering of the smaller end, still less conspicuous battering or grinding of the margin about the larger end, slight but suggestive chipping of the thinner edge, inconspicuous hand-wear and polish on the principal face, and a few obscure scratches or striæ on the same face, as illustrated in the plate. The position and character of the flake-fractures, which are fairly shown in the edge view, indicate that they were made while the pebble was in use as a bruising or cutting tool, a use at once suggested to the Caucasian mind by the form of the pebble; yet it is noteworthy that its thin edge displays less battering than either end of the object and no more than the opposite and thicker edge, while it is still more significant that the specimen was apparently discarded immediately on the modification of form by the spalling—a modification greatly increasing its efficiency, as all habitual users of chipped stone tools would realize. The specimen is one of a large number of examples showing that whenever a hupf is broken in use it is regarded as ruined, and is immediately thrown away. This particular specimen is archaic; it was found in the cliff-face of the great shell-heap at Punta Antigualla, embedded in a tiny stratum of ashes and charcoal (some of which still adheres, as shown in the black flecking at the outer end of the striæ), associated with scorched clam-shells, typical Seri potsherds, etc., some 40 feet beneath the surface.
While the great majority of the hupfs are mere pebbles bearing slight trace of artificial wear, as illustrated by the foregoing examples, others bear traces of use so extended as to more or less completely artificialize the surface. A typical long-used hupf is depicted in plates LI and LII. It is a tough and hard quartzite, dark gray or brown in color, massive and homogeneous in texture; it weighs 2 pounds 4 ounces (1.02 kilograms). In general form it is a typical wave-worn pebble of its material, and might be duplicated in thousands along the shores of Bahia Kunkaak and El Infiernillo; but fully a third of its surface has been more or less modified by use. The flatter face (plate LI) is smeared with blood, grease, and charcoal, which have been ground into the stone by friction of the hand of the user in such manner as to form a kind of skin or veneer; portions of the face bear a subpolish, due probably to the hand-rubbing in use; near the center there is a rough pit about an eighth of an inch (3 mm.) deep, evidently produced by pecking or battering with metal, while three or four neighboring scratches penetrating the veneer appear to record ill-directed strokes of a rather sharp metal point. In the light of observed customs it may be inferred that this pitting was produced by use of the implement as an anvil or ahst in sharpening a harpoon-point and fitting it into its foreshaft. The thinner edge (shown in plate LI; that toward the right in the face view on the same plate) displays considerable battering of the kind characteristic of Seri hupfs in general; it is smoked and fire-stained, as shown, while the lower rounded corner is worn away by battering to a depth of probably one-fourth inch (5 mm.). The obverse face reveals more clearly the battering about both corners and edges, including the dislodgment of a flake toward the narrower end; but its most conspicuous feature is a broad subpolished facet (rounding slightly toward the thinner edge) produced by grinding on a flat-surface ahst. This face, too, exhibits fire-staining, while the surface beyond the facet—and to a slight extent the facet itself—is veneered like the other face. There are a few scratches on this side also, as well as a slight pitting due to contact with metal. The thicker edge (plate LII) displays considerable battering, especially a recent pitting near the middle evidently due to use as an anvil held between the knees for sharpening a harpoon point by rude hammering. The specimen was one of a score of implements lying about the interior of the principal jacal in the great rancheria at the base of Punta Tormenta (illustrated in plate VII).
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY
SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XLIII
THE HELIOTYPE PRINTING CO., BOSTON
LITTLE-WORN PEBBLE USED FOR ALL DOMESTIC PURPOSES
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY
SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XLIV
