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[[underline]] Chapter XVIII. [[/underline]] 392-b.

evidence of the generally circumpolar aspect of the Neolithic culture of northern China.  For this characteristic form of household implement has, or rather had, a wide distribution over the northern parts of both hemispheres; among the Eskimo, for example, it is called the "woman's knife".

[[underline]] Balls. [[/underline]]
  Balls of various sizes, made both of stone and of baked clay, were very commonly found (pl. 65, fig. 2).  Possibly the smaller ones may have served as missiles for the pellet-bow, known in China from very early times; while the larger ones were pretty surely intended to be hurled from slings. [[superscript]] (347) [[/superscript]]
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[[superscript]] (347) [[/superscript]]  On the Chinese form of sling, ancient and recent, see page 202.
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[[underline]] Rings. [[/underline]]
    Much flattened rings of stone, baked clay, and even shell, almost always broken and varying widely in size though usually very slender in proportion to their total diameters (pl. 66, fig. 1), were exceedingly common at Wa Cha Hsieh, just as everywhere else on the northern Chinese Neolithic sites thus far studied.  Their very numbers showed, in fact, that they must have been objects of extreme importance among the "Painted Pottery" people.  Some of them may have served as pendants or pectorals---perhaps, it has been suggested, amulets to ward off evil influences.  Others were possibly votive offerings.  Still other rings may have been bracelets or armlets, or even anklets; for the size of some of them would not have precluded such uses.

[[underline]] Miscellaneous Objects. [[/underline]]
Among miscellaneous objects were picks of antler (pl. 66, fig. 2),