Note 669 — Chapter XIII
Reading edition
The way in which the aborigines cut trees with their stone hatchets is remarkable: they make in the first place a great number of holes all around the trunk, then enlarge them till they touch, and so form a continuous incision. Similarly, in order to cut a thin piece of wood from a tree branch they make notches in the latter at equal distances, then they remove the portions of wood between the notches, making use of the same stone hatchet like a wedge. (Ehrenreich, “Mittheil.... Xingu Exped.,” Zeitschrift für Ethnol., 1890, p. 61.)