Another method of hafting adopted by various savage tribes is that of winding a flexible branch of wood round the stone, and securing the two ends of the branch by binding them together in such a manner as tightly to embrace the blade. A stone axe from Northern Australia thus hafted, is figured in the _Archæologia_,[577] whence I have borrowed the cut, Fig. 105. Another used by natives on the Murray river[578] has been figured by the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. This method of hafting has been mentioned by White,[579] who describes the binding as being effected by strips |168| of bark, and in his figure shows the two ends of the stick more firmly bound together. [Illustration: Fig. 105.—Axe—Northern Australia.] Another example has been engraved by the Rev. J. G. Wood.[580] This mode is very similar to that in common use among blacksmiths for their chisels and swages, which are held by means of a withy twisted round them, and secured in its place by a ring. It seems extremely probable that so simple a method may have been in use in early times in this country, though we have no direct evidence as to the fact. A “fancy sketch” of a celt in a withy handle will be found in the _Archæologia_.[581] It resembles in a singular manner the actual implements employed by the Ojibway Indians,[582] of which there is a specimen in the Christy Collection, engraved by the Rev. J. G. Wood.[583] Some of the other North American tribes[584] mounted their hatchets in much the same manner. A hatchet thus hafted is engraved by Schoolcraft.[585] In some instances a groove of greater or less depth has been worked round the axes mounted in this manner, though undoubtedly British examples are scarce. An axe-hammer of diorite (13 inches), found near Newburgh,[586] Aberdeenshire, has a groove round it instead of the usual haft-hole. The blade engraved in the _Archæological Journal_[587] and found near Coldstream, Northumberland, is probably of Carib origin, like others which have also been supposed to have been British. Another from the Liverpool |169| Docks is mentioned by Mr. H. Ecroyd Smith.[588] In the British Museum are two such axes, and some other stone implements, found near Alexandria, but which probably are Carib, as would also seem to be those in the Museum of Douai,[589] on which are sculptured representations of the human face. Stone axe-heads with a groove round their middle, for receiving a handle, have been found in Denmark,[590] but are of rare occurrence. The form has been found in the salt-mines of Koulpe,[591] Caucasus, and in Russian Armenia. The large stone mauls found so commonly in the neighbourhood of ancient copper-mines, in this and many other countries in both hemispheres, were hafted much in the same manner as the Australian axe.