472 IMPLEMENTS. 



When they first obtained nails, they mistook them for the 

 young shoots of some very hard wood, and, hoping that life 

 might not be quite extinct, planted a number of them care- 

 fully in their gardens.* 



In a very short time, however, the earlier weapons were 

 entirely replaced by those of iron ; and in his last voyage 

 Captain Cook tells us*f* that "a stone hatchet is, at present, 

 as rare a thing amongst them as an iron one was eight years 

 ago ; and a chisel of bone or stone is not to be seen." The 

 stone axes, or rather adzes, were of various sizes ; those in- 

 tended for cutting down trees weighed six or seven pounds, 

 the little ones, which were used for carving, only a few ounces. 

 All of them required continual sharpening, and a stone was 

 always kept in readiness for this purpose. The natives were 

 very skilful in the use of their adzes ; nevertheless, to fell a 

 tree was a work of several days. Some of the South Sea axes 

 have beautifully carved handles, as in fig. 212, representing 

 a specimen in my own collection. These were axes of state. 

 The chisels, or gouges, were of bone, generally that of a man's 

 arrn between the wrist and elbow. Pieces of coral were used 

 as rasps, and splinters of bamboo for knives. For cultivating 

 the ground they had instruments of hard wood, about five feet 

 long, narrow, with sharp edges and pointed. These they used 

 as spades or hoes.J They had fish-hooks made of mother-of- 

 pearl, and every fisherman made them for himself. They 

 generally served for the double purpose of hook and bait. 

 "The shell is first cut into square pieces by the edge of 

 another shell, and wrought into a form corresponding with the 

 outline of the hook by pieces of coral, which are sufficiently 

 rough to perform the office of a file ; a hole is then bored in 



Ellis, Polynesian Researches, J Wilson, Missionary Voyage to 



P. 298. the South Pacific, p. 245. 



t Voyage to the Pacific Ocean, Cook's Voyage round theWorld, 



.vol. ii. p. 137. vol. i. p. 483; vol. ii. p. 218. 



