tain resemblance to the ancient discus of the Greek
athlete. This, it will be remembered, fashioned of metal or stone,
circular, almost flat, was clasped by the fingers of one hand and held
in the bend of the forearm, extending almost to the elbow. The genuine
chungke stone is solid and discoidal in shape, beautifully polished,
wrought of quartz, or agate, the most distinctive being concave on both
sides, beveled toward the flat outer edge, and having a depression in
the centre of both surfaces for the convenience of holding it with the
second finger and thumb, the first finger clasping the periphery. Its
usual dimensions are about six or eight inches in diameter. There are
several varieties of these archaic relics, some flat, others lenticular
or of a wedge-shell shape, and others, still, concave on one side and
convex on the other. An absolutely spherical stone, bearing the
extraordinarily high polish that distinguishes these unique objects,
found in an ancient mound and supposed to have relation to the same or a
similar game, calls to mind the globular quoit of the classical athletes
and that "enormous round" described by Homer, "Aetion's quoit"--to hurl
which bowl they vie, "who teach the disk to sound along the sky."

The exquisite finish of the chungke stone was compassed without the aid
of a single tool, merely by the attrition of one stone upon another,
"from time immemorial rubbed smooth upon the rocks, with prodigious
labor," resulting in an object of such symmetrical beauty that even in
the museums of the present day, out of which it is rarely seen, it
challenges admiration. Antiquaries variously contend that it was hurled
through the air and that it was bowled on the edge along the ground, its
equilibrium being so perfect that on a level space it will roll a great
distance, falling only when its impetus is expended.

The chungke stone is often confounded with the Indian quoit, likewise
circular and fashioned of smoothly wrought stone, but with an orifice in
the centre, rendering it in effect a ring to be flung over a stake at a
distance, or to be caught on the point of a lance.

It has been inferred that Adair is mistaken in his assertion that by the
Indian law the chungke stones were exempt from burial with the effects
of the dead, since certain of the most perfect specimens known to modern
archaeological collections were found in the exploration of mounds in
the valley of the Tennessee River. By many thes