Page:The Ancient Stone Implements (1897).djvu/446

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424
SLING-STONES AND BALLS.
[CHAP. XVIII.

similar weapon was lately in use, and is thus described by Lewis and Clarke, as quoted by Squier and Davies:[1]—"The Shoshonee Indians use an instrument which was formerly employed among the Chippeways, and called by them pogamoggon.[2] It consists of a handle 22 inches long, made of wood covered with leather, about the size of a whip-handle. At one end is a thong 2 inches in length, which is tied to a stone weighing two pounds, enclosed in a cover of leather; at the other end is a loop of the same material, which is passed around the wrist to secure the implement, with which they strike a powerful blow." Another form of club in use among the Algonquins consisted of a round boulder sewn in a piece of fresh skin and attached to the end of a long handle, to which, by the drying of the skin, it becomes firmly attached. Examples of both of these kinds are in the British Museum. An engraving of a drumstick-like club of this character is given by Schoolcraft.[3] Unfortunately, however, the existence of such a weapon in early times is not susceptible of proof. Whatever the purpose of these British balls of stone, they seem to belong to a recent period as compared with that to which many other stone antiquities may be assigned.

  1. "Anc. Mon. Mississ. Valley," p. 219.
  2. The same name, pogamagan, is applied by the Indians of the Mackenzie River to a different form. See "Reliq. Aquit.," p. 52.
  3. "Ind. Tribes," vol. i. pl. xv.