dwellings. Excessively long hafts in which the blades are let into a socket are occasionally in use among the Chamacocos[1] of south-east Bolivia.
Many stone and metallic axes in use among other modern savages are hafted in much the same manner by insertion in a socket. In some instances it would appear as if the hole for receiving the stone did not extend through the haft, but was merely a shallow depression—even a notch. Such seems to be the case with a war-axe of the Gaveoë Indians of Brazil in the British Museum, figured in the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries,[2] and here, by permission, reproduced, as Fig. 95. Some of their axes have longer hafts. In the Over Yssel Museum is a Brazilian stone axe with a blade of this kind, which is said to have been used in an insurrection at Deventer[3] in 1787.
The "securis lapidea in sacrificiis Indorum usitata," engraved by Aldrovandus,[4] seems to have the blade inserted in a socket without being tied, but in most axes of the same kind the blade is secured in its place by a plaited binding artistically interlaced.
Fig. 96.—Axe of Montezuma II.
The stone axe said to be that of Montezuma II., preserved in the Ambras Museum at Vienna, is a good example of the kind.[5] I have engraved it as Fig. 96, from a sketch I made in 1866.
In some cases the whole handle is covered with the binding. Two such in the Dresden Historical Museum are engraved by Klemm.[6] Others have been figured by Prof. Giglioli.[7]
Some of the war-axes (called taawisch or tsuskiah) in use among the natives of Nootka Sound[8] are mounted in this manner, but the socket end of the shaft is carved into the form of a grotesque human head, in the mouth of which the stone blade is
- ↑ Intern. Arch. f. Eth., vol. ii. p. 272. Arch. per l'Ant. e la Etn., vol. xx. p. 65.
- ↑ 2nd S., vol. i. p. 102. See also Ratzel, "Völkerk.," vol. ii. p. 582.
- ↑ Int. Arch. f. Ethn., vol. iii. p. 195.
- ↑ "Musæum Metallicum," p. 158.
- ↑ It has also been figured by Klemm, "Cult.-Wiss.," vol. i. fig. 136.
- ↑ "Cult.-Gesch.," vol. ii. Taf. vi. a.b.
- ↑ See Int. Arch. f. Eth., Bd. ix., Supp. pl. iii.
- ↑ Klemm's "Allgemeine Cultur-Wiss.," vol. i. p. 71, whence I have copied the figure. See also "Cult.-Gesch.," vol. ii., p. 352.
