knife to implements more especially intended and adapted for cutting purposes. Fig. 98 represents an Australian flake, and fig. 97, one from the Cape of Good Hope. Figs. 101 and 102 represent a New Caledonian javelin, with an obsidian flake (fig. 101) for a head.
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| Fig. 96.—North American two-bladed knife, made of two flakes. | Fig. 97.—Flake from the Cape of Good Hope, actual size. In my own collection. |
I give for comparison with the New Caledonian javelin a figure (fig. 99) of an Irish flake which I found some years ago on the shore of Loch Neagh, in Ireland. It will be seen that both are flat on one side, convex on the other, triangular in section, broad at the base, pointed at the tip, chipped up at the base so that they may be tied on to the shaft, and trimmed on one side near the tip, no doubt that they might fly straight.
Some of the old Spanish writers in Mexico gave us a description of the manner in which the Aztecs obtained their obsidian flakes. Torquemada,[1] who is confirmed by Hernandez, tells us—I quote from Mr Tylor's Anahuac—"they had, and still have, workmen who make knives of a certain block stone or flint (obsidian), in this manner: one of these Indian workmen sits down upon the ground, and takes a piece of this black stone, which is like jet, and as hard as flint.... The piece they take is
- ↑ Torquemada, Monarquia Indiana, Seville, 1615.
