280 THE SPEAR-BECKET OF THE PACIFIC ISLANDS, 



of this statement is to be found in a paper* by Dr. von Luschan, 

 who quotes Professor Bastianf to the effect that a specimen of 

 the hurling implement of the Maoris was deposited in the South 

 Kensington Museum, London, It is, however, in a paper by Mr. 

 Coleman Phillips | and through the labours§ of Mr. A. Hamilton, 

 of Otago, that we gain a fuller knowledge of a spear-propelling 

 medium in New Zealand. T\ie Kotaha, as it was called, consisted 

 of a sling-stick " with a hole at one end, through which was 

 passed a dog-skin thong, knotted at both ends." The distal end 

 of the thong with its knot was passed round the arrow, or dart, 

 much in the same way as the New Caledonian Ounep was round 

 the spear. " The darts were stuck loosely in the ground . . . 

 at a proper inclination before the thong was attached"; this 

 attachment " was necessarily such as to give a strong strain, or 

 pull, during the throw, whilst admitting of instant release when 

 the arrow was ready to commence its free flight." It may be 

 likened to the Fustihalus or stafF-sling of olden times, "a common 

 sling attached to the end of a shaft and used for heavier stones." || 

 Mr. Phillips points out that the New Zealand implement has now 

 degenerated into a toy. 



Just as that sacred and venerated implement the " Bull-roarei-" 

 or " Whirler " of the Australian black is represented in the boy- 

 hood games of Britain, so, strange as it may appear, is the becket 

 of the South Pacific. Mr. E. R. Waite informs me that amongst 

 boys in Yorkshire a somewhat similar sling is used for the pro- 

 pulsion of sticks and reeds. A_ young friend of Mr. Waite's, 

 Master Allan McCulloch, has called my attention to a short 

 article on "Throwing Sticks" by Mr. S. Gibney in the "Boy's 

 Own Paper 'H in which this very child's amentum is described. 



* Das Wurfholz in Neu-Holland und ia Oceanien. Bastian- Festschrift, 

 1896, p. 131, note 1. 



+ Inselgruppen in Oceanien, p. 199. 



X Trans. N.Z. Inst, for 1877 (1878), x., p. 97. 



§ Illustrations of Maori Art, Pt. 3, 1898, p. 244, f. 2. 



II Mason, loc. cit., p. 381. 



U The Boy's Own Paper, 1892, xiv., p. 574. 



