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Show ABOUT MOUN1) BUILDERS g$$8 Infinite Patience Required to Work tho Flint They Used. g$.is I aOK3Qini.MCOTnn, Ohlo.-Noi &-& other part of the United $ (. 5 States has proved such n L vjs treasure house of relics of SOK."aS mound builders nnd prehistoric pre-historic man as Southern Ohio, nnd for this urea the Scioto Vnlley Is probably the richest. One of the unanswerable questions about the aborigines Is, Why did the. make so many Implements of stone? And nfler they had made them at such a great expense of lime and la-bor, la-bor, why were they so careless with them? The great nbundaneo of these relics Is In many nrcheologlsts the greatesr mystery nbout them. Fields which have been carefully gleaned year after year still turn up fresh specimens spec-imens after every plowing, while every meadow put Into cultivation opens up a fresh source of supply. Gerard FowUe, one of the best au thorltles to-day, considers this aliun-dance aliun-dance of aboriginal stone Implements u most pcrpiexlng puzzle. Did tho aborigines have such a disregard of work and titne flint they preferred to make a new Implement rather than hunt for a lost ono? Or did they have a superstitious fear of using what had belonged to a previous generation? Does tlds abundance Imply a population popula-tion so numerous that the loss of even this great number of specimens was considered a trivial matter? Does It menu that the users were forced to mi grate so unexpectedly that they were unable to tnke their possessions nlong with them, or did they gradually become be-come extinct In tho neighborhood where these remains are found? And, in either event, what led to this rcsvlt? Was It famine? Was It plague? Was It tho sudden encroachment of an overwhelming ov-erwhelming force of Implacable enemies? ene-mies? These are questions which It Js thought may never be nnswered with any certainty and they certainly cannot can-not bo In the present stato of knowledge knowl-edge regarding the aborigines. Certain Cer-tain questions concerning them enn, however. be nnswered. It can bo told where they received their material, and most Interesting of all how they fashioned it Into the shape they desired. de-sired. This portion of the Scioto Valley was particularly rich In the stones most coveted. When a hard, tough, heavy stone was needed, the nearest gravel pit on the shores of the nearest stream would yield a piece of granite or din-nlte. din-nlte. The searcher had only to select n piece which npproached In shnde tho article he wished to make.. Slate for ornaments and pipes could be found In the glacial drifts; but for the great bulk of his Implements, especially especi-ally for his cutting ones, the early resident res-ident of this region required whnt Is commonly known as "Hint," nnd which, ns thus used, embraces n whole wide range of nlllcd rock agate, chalcedony, brownstone nnd chalk. The chalcedony chalce-dony varies from nlmost crystal clearness clear-ness to mottled black, through nil the sluides of red, blue, green, yellow and brown. The primeval man soon learned that It was difficult to work such flint ns was found on the surface, because when dry It would shatter into fragments frag-ments at a blow. Hence he quarried down after it. nnd the great excavations excava-tions he left behind him show what n tremendous amount of stone he used. Tho quarrying was necomnllshod by tho aid of lire, which caused the rock to shatter, water probably being thrown on to hasten the work. From the nppearnuce of the trenches It Is evident that this work was sometimes carried nlong continuously for several hundred years, nnd the vast quantities of chips, broken arrow points, knives, etc., found In tho vicinity of the Hint beds Indicate that most of tho material was worked up on the spot. Tho amount of labor Involved In this dressing down process is staggering. Oay after day tho workman must havo sat chipping off Hakes of stone with his hammer until tho implement npproached np-proached the desired shape. Lot ono try to-day, with tho best tools at command, com-mand, to get olT oven one Hake, nnd ono will nppreelato whnt n task it was. And yet, thousands nnd thousands thou-sands of such pieces were made and scattered carelessly over the countryside! country-side! Indeed, so difficult seems this work that ninny persons havo a fixed belief lhat tho finer relies, nt least, count have been made only with metal tools, nnd their abundance Is held to provo that primeval man knew of soino metal much harder and of better temper than anything known to-day. It ts argued that not even a file, tho hardest of modern mod-ern tools, will make any Impression on some of these Hints; therefore they must hnvo been made with something much linrder than the best steel. Some persons even assert that primeval man had discovered n way of hardening copper cop-per to the necessary degree, nnd say that tliey havo seen pieces of copper so treated. As ii matter of fact, ns Mr. Kowko himself points out, this is in direct opposition op-position to the evidence, for tho great abundance of stone Implements Is proof that tho mnkers of them know nothing whatever of the economic use of metals. met-als. If they could hnvo made ono mich tool, they would havo mndo more, and, having them, they would not waste time In mnklng nrtlcles much less serviceable ser-viceable than tho tools themselves. So It Is evident tlint In working stono primeval man must have used tools of tho same material. How did he do It? Doubtless his methods were pinch tho same as thoso of the modem Indian. In n.aklng n largo or heavy article, such as an nxo or pestle, ho used d hold, tough pebble to knock oil chips until ho had brought I tho Implement as nearly as possible to I the required shape. Then he would grind away the marks of the hammer j with n piece of gritty sandstone. Ornaments Or-naments and pipes were usually fash- J ioned entirely by rubbing, nnd it Is easy to Imagine what a tedious task this must hnvo been. When ho wanted to drill a hole, as In a pipe or ornament, ho used n smooth, straight stick or piece of bone, and revolved It by simply holding it between be-tween his hands and rubbing them back and forth, a slight depression being be-ing pecked where the perforation was to begin, in order to hold tho drill In place. Dr. Itau determined to find out Just how long it would take to drill such a hole. lie worked at one hole for two years, and then loft It Incomplete. Incom-plete. Of course, the nborlglnes were doubtless more skillful at such work than Dr. Itau nnd could complete n hole In much less time, yet the process must have been sufficiently tedious. Frequently, In opening n mound, great quantities of little beads nre found, all nicely perforated. F.ach of them represents weeks' of work, for the perforations per-forations were made by rolling a stem of grass along the thigh with the right hand, and holding the bend against the point of the drill with the left. Mr. Fowke shows Unit tills Infinite patience still exists among savages, citing the case of the tribes of the Amazon, which moke beautiful tubes of rock cryslal an Inch In diameter and sometimes eight inches long, by rubbing down the outside with p'eccs of stone, nnd then drilling them from end to end with tho flexible shoot of the wild plnlntaln. To finish the lnrger ones requires the lifetime of two men; that Is, a man works all his life at It, and leaves the unfinished ornament to a youth, who sometimes dies of old nge before ho gets It completed. Such unwearying patience as this seems nlmost Incredible, yet the linplo-incuts linplo-incuts of tho nborlglnes of this region, scattered as they are in such numbers, wero fashioned in tills very way. The method still survives nnd flint Is worked to-dny by certain savages Just ns It was thousands of years ago. The Indlnns of Mexico. Peru nnd California strike oft Hakes with stone hammers or with little wedges of bone. Sometimes Some-times the chips nre flaked off by pressure; pres-sure; but In every Instance the Implements Imple-ments were shnped bit by bit nnd with Infinite patience. And how effective were the Implements Imple-ments thus manufactured? Mr. Fowke points out how dlfllcult It Is to convince people that an ..udlnti or anybody else could have cut with or mnde any practical prac-tical use of the rude tools mnde of stone by such primitive processes. Yet, tlic nborlglnes could do many tilings with stone which seem nlmost marvel-louS-oven to shaving. Tho man who fumes and frets nowadays when his razor Is a little dull will hear with Incredulity that nny one could shave with a shell or sharpened stone. Not that sharing wns common, for the prevailing pre-vailing fashion was to use n small mussel shell as a nippers anil Jerk each hair out by tho root a lasting process, however painful. The grout mystery nbout Implements Imple-ments made by the mound builders Is that, despite tho tedious labor It took to fashion them, the." should bo made In such quantities nnd should seemingly seeming-ly be handled so carelessly. Instead of being treasured, ns one would nntur-ally nntur-ally expect them to lie. Every mound yields up hundreds and hundreds of specimens; every Held, every meadow, every bit of woodland Is rich with tlicin; every farmhouse for miles around hero has Its collection. As ope thinks of- all these, one gets a vision of a great people working patiently year after year fashioning these Implements Imple-ments nnd trinkets, but why they should have cared to do so is n mystery mys-tery seemingly beyond solution. He-side He-side It, tho labor of throwing up tho great mounds which dot this valley seems nlmost insignificant. New York Tribune. |