NOTES AND EXHIBITS. 



443 



however, inclined to i-egard this sporadic occurrence of a feathered 

 arrow as an indigenous production, not a foreign suggestion. 

 Archery is not a sport in which European visitors or residents in 

 these islands indulge, and it is unlikely that an}'' European bow 

 or arrow was ever taken to Espiritu Santo. Secondly, the mode 

 of attaching the feather in the instance before us differs so widely 

 from the European style as to disprove the imputation of being 

 copied therefrom. The arrow, of which the feathered end is shown 

 in the accompanying figures, is four feet four inches in total length; 

 the shaft being a sti^aight reed (Phrag- 

 Diites communis ) three feet four inches 

 long. Into this a hard-wood head, 

 eight inches long, a third of an inch 

 in diameter, and distally armed on one 

 side only by four barbs, is fitted and 

 neatly whipped at the joint by a fine, 

 narrow, smooth fi))re, probably from 

 the stem of the banana plant. The 

 opposite end is deeply notched for 

 the bow string. Immediately in front 

 of the notch the feathers are secured 

 by a whipping of banana (?) fibre like 

 that just described, and at a distance 

 of four and a half inches the other, or 

 quill, ends of the feathers are similarly 

 secured. The feathers are pronounced 

 by Mr. A. J. North, F.Z.S., Ornitho- 

 logist to the Australian Museum, to be 

 the primary wing feathers of the 

 domestic fowl. The feathers preserve 

 both inner and outer web, the broad 

 web of one set opposite the narrow 

 web of its fellow. Nearly half the broad web has been cut away. 

 Instead of being closely applied and set vertically as in the 

 European mode, the feathers are set parallel and slightly bowed 

 from the shaft. In the instance figured the tip of the feather 



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