210 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [N. s. t 22, 1920
of clams and the shells and bones of other creatures with convenient hard parts are specifically mentioned; such as deer scapulae, the carapace of the Turtle, or that of the horse-shoe crab, this latter naturally only close to the coast, where Champlain observed it. Hoes and spades of stone were also used. 1 William Wood, in New England's Prospect, 1634, gives preference to cultivation by clam shells over that by European tools, in spite of the fact that the plough will " teare up more ground in a day, than their Clamme shels could scrape up in a month." 2 But here again the superior tools of the whites appear often as compensation in land purchases, especially "howes." It is also very probable that in the majority of cases the original tools were mainly of wood, such as we now find among the more primitive aborigines still extant. 3
The pictures drawn from the earlier observers concerning the guarding against the two chief annoyances, crows and wolves, are very human. Is it possible that the "great many little houses scattered over the field" which Champlain saw in Boston were connected with scaring of the crows, and used perhaps as watch houses for the "biggest children" to lodge in during the critical time for this purpose, and also possibly to "keep the Wolues from the fish till it be rotten"?
2. ABORIGINAL CORN-FIELDS ON ASSONET NECK, NEAR TAUNTON There are no less than four different localities upon Assonet neck in the town of Berkley, where the ground is covered with rows of earth mounds, which traditionally are known locally as Indian corn-fields, and the appearance of which corresponds closely to all descriptions of such grounds.
These are (i) in woods, on the Phillips farm;
(2) in woods, on the Delabarre farm;
(3) in the Bennett pasture;
(4) in the Coombs pasture.
1 Cyrus Thomas, loc. cit.
2 Cited in a note by the editors of the above mentioned edition of Bradford, vol. i, p. 219.
3 For this see the recent article by Hough, " Corn cultivation among modern Hopi," Proceedings of the United States National Museum, vol. 54, pp. 235-296, especially the figures of Hopi agricultural implements of wood on pi. 19.
�� �
