The other specimen (50-3110 a, b, c) is a quill-flattener, made of antler (Fig. 122). It was obtained by Dr. Clark Wissler from the Dakota at Pine Ridge, South Dakota, who also made reference to other objects of the same sort among the tribe. Porcupine quills were flattened on it with the thumb nail until after it had been broken, when the lower or pointed end had been used as a brush in applying color to form designs on various articles made of buckskin. This end is stained a deep red and the point is much worn. The object, in general, resembles in shape and size the specimen from Tampico. Its sides are somewhat thinner and sharper. The slight indications of hair or headdress, the deeply cut eyes and mouth in the concave side, the holes or ears at the sides of the head, and the method of indicating the arms by slits, setting them off, from the body, are all details which emphasize this general resemblance. The technical work is about as good as that of the Tampico specimen, but the art work is inferior. One edge of the convex or outer surface of the bone has twenty-five notches, and in each tooth left between them, as well as above the top one, is a small drilled dot. Some of the notches on the other side are broken away with the arm, which is missing. On the same surface are twenty-six horizontal incisions, which were interpreted as year counts. The general shape of the body and the rows of dots are similar to those of the figure pecked on the cliff at Sentinal Bluffs (Plate XI, Fig. 2). The Tampico specimen may have developed from a quill-flattener, which implement was probably of common and characteristic use among Indian mothers, not only of the Plains but also as far west as Tampico. If the result of such a development, it had probably lost its domestic use and become entirely symbolic. Mr. Teit has heard the Thompson Indians speak of figures carved by some men in their spare time, and valued highly as curiosities and works of art. They had no practical value, and were generally used as ornaments inside the house. They were in wood, bark, stone and antler, more generally in the last three, and usually represented the human figure. Although the Indians aver that they were sometimes very elaborately and truthfully carved, it is impossible to say, in the absence of a good specimen from the Thompson Indians whether there was any resemblance in style to that of this figure. The Thompson sometimes, placed such figures on the tops of houses, but the great majority were shown inside the houses. The Indian who made the one illustrated[390] told Mr. Teit that he had seen some of larger size which had taken a carver's spare time for many months. [390] Teit, (a), p. 376. Fig. 297.