omposing shells could not be incised by a hand of to-day, as shale,
slate, schist, and sandstone can now be engraved upon, fraudulently.

But when, as Professor Boyd Dawkins writes, the finds include "two fresh
shells . . . unmistakable Blue Points," drilled with perforations, or
inscribed, from Dunbuie, then there are only two possible alternatives.

1. They were made by the faker, or

2. They were "interpolated" into the Dunbuie site by somebody.

The forger himself is, I think, far too knowing a man to fake
inscriptions on fresh shells, even if, not being a conchologist, he did
not know that the oysters were American blue points.

I have written in vain if the reader, while believing in the hypothesis
of a forger, thinks him such an egregious ass. For Blue Points as non-
existent save in America, 1 rely on Prof. Boyd Dawkins.

As the public were allowed to break off and steal the prow of the Dumbuck
canoe, it is plain that no guard was placed on the sites. They lay open
for months to the interpolations of wags, and I think, for my own part,
that one of them is likely to have introduced the famous blue points.

Dr. Munro tells us how a "large-worked stone," a grotesque head, was
foisted through a horizontal hole, into the relic bed of his kitchen
midden at Elie. "It lay under four inches of undisturbed black earth."
But it had been "interpolated" there by some "lousy tykes of Fife," as
the anti-covenanting song calls them. {139}

It was rather easier to interpolate Blue Point oyster shells at Dunbuie.
On the other hand, two splinters of stone, inserted into a bone and a
tyne of deer's horn, figured by Dr. Munro among Dumbuck and Dunbuie
finds, seem to me rather too stupid fakes for the regular forger, and a
trifle too clever for the Sunday holiday-maker. These two things I do
not apologise for, or defend; my knowledge of primitive implements is
that of a literary man, but for what it is worth, it does not incline me
to regard these things as primitive implements.

XXXIV--CONCLUSION

_EXPLICIT_! I have tried to show cause why we should not bluntly dismiss
the mass of disputed objects as forgeries, but should rest in a balance
of judgment, file the objects for reference, and await the results of
future excavations. If there be a faker, I hope he appreciates my
sympathetic estimate of his knowledge, assiduity, and skill in _leger de
main_.

I am the forger's only friend, and I ask him to come f