Often found associated with atlatls are curved sticks two to three feet long, marked by longitudinal grooves, extending from the handle to the top and usually with one or more interruptions in the lines. These are sometimes referred to as rabbit-sticks and it was first thought that they represented a form of non-returning boomerang such as is used in hunting rabbits by the Hopi Indians. Now, however, they are believed to be “fending sticks” such as were used by the Maya for defense against the atlatl.[95] A dart or spear thrown with an atlatl moves fairly slowly and could be deflected by the skillful use of such a club. They could also serve as weapons in close fighting. There is not much evidence of violent death among the Basketmakers, but there is some and the atlatl must have been used to kill men as well as animals. Although the Basketmakers did not use the bow and arrow, they apparently were in contact with people who did. In Canyon del Muerto in Arizona evidence of a massacre of Basketmakers was found. Among the bodies which had been allowed to decay before burial was that of an old woman with an arrow foreshaft between the ribs and skin of her left side.[92] Once the Basketmakers had acquired their food, there naturally arose the question of cooking it. Meat presented no real problem, for it could be baked or roasted without culinary vessels or could even be eaten raw. Dried corn, however, which comprised so important a part of the Basketmaker diet, was something else again. From the grinding stones found in Basketmaker sites we know that corn was ground, as it is by Indians even today. To grind corn only simple implements are needed. The dry corn is placed on a flat stone, known as a _metate_. The kernels are then pounded and rubbed with a stone, of a size which can be held easily, called a mano. Once the corn is made into meal it can be moistened and formed into little cakes to be baked on hot stones.