, 1890). Mr. Francis Parry has advanced a
view concerning the meaning of these curious "sacred stones."(9) This is
somewhat corroborated, as will be shown, by my recent studies, which seem
to indicate pretty clearly that these symbolical objects pertained to the
cult of the earth-mother. A fact of unquestionable importance, cited by
Mr. Parry, is the certified existence and use, amongst southern
Californian Indians of the present day, of a rudely worked stone of the
same shape, in a native religious rite. The owner of one of these stones,
Mr. Horatio Rust, a pioneer resident of Pasadena, southern California,
exhibited it in the Anthropological Section of the World's Columbian
Exposition, at Chicago, 1893, and informed me how he had observed that,
occasionally, a native assembly took place at a certain spot on a mountain
side, during which invocations and offerings were made. He ascertained
that the ceremony on one occasion was the equivalent of the puberty-dances
of similar California tribes. Having visited and examined the spot after
one of these celebrations, in which six young girls, decorated with
garlands of flowers, were the chief participants, he found the "sacred
stone," concealed and surrounded by offerings of corn, meal and pieces of
money. The version published by Mr. Parry is slightly different to this
account, which was given me by Mr. Rust himself.

In order fully to appreciate the close analogy between the Californian
ceremonial offering of maize and meal to the emblematic stone and the
ancient Mexican ritual offerings of seeds to an idol, holding a bowl or
vase, it is necessary to read the following data. At the same time I would
like to mention here that amongst the Hupa Indians of California, who have
been termed "the Romans of Northern California by reason of their valour
and far reaching dominions," we find that "flakes or knives of obsidian or
jasper, sometimes measuring 15 inches or more in length, are employed for
sacred purposes and are carried aloft in the hand in certain ceremonial
dances, wrapped with skin or cloth. Such knives are esteemed so sacred
that the Indians would on no account part with them, and Mr. Stephen
Powers found that they could not be purchased at any price."(10)

It is scarcely necessary to recall here that the flint-knife was a
well-known ancient Mexican emblem, nor to point out the importance of the
conclusion that two well-defined symbols which played an important role in