Gushing.] ^ ♦ ^ [Nov. 6, 



wood, the shafts iiuide either of a softer and lighter kind of wood or of 

 cane, were found. The nocks of these were relatively large. This sug- 

 gested that certain curved and shapely clubs, or rather wooden sabres 

 — for they were armed along one edge with keen shark-teeth — 

 might have been used not only for striking, but also for flinging 

 such nocked spears or throwing-arrows. Each of these singular and 

 superbly finished weapons was about three feet long. The handle or 

 grip was straight ; thence the blade or shaft was gently curved down- 

 ward and upward again to the end, which was obliquely truncated 

 below, but terminated above in a creased or slightly bifurcated, spir- 

 ally curved knob or volute like the end of a violin, and still more 

 like the lower articulation of a human femur, — as may be seen by refer- 

 ence to Fig. 5, PI. XXXII, — which the whole weapon resembled in gen- 

 eral outline so strikingly that I was inclined to regard the type it repre- 

 sented as remotely derived from clubs originally made in imitation of 

 thigh-bones. The handle was broader at the back than below, but neatly 

 rounded, and the extreme end delicatelj' flared to insure grasp. At 

 both shank and butt of this grip, oblong holes had been bored obliquely 

 through one side of the back for the attachment of a braided or twisted 

 hand-loop or guard-cord, to still further secure hold. The back of the 

 shaft, too, was wide, and sharp along the lateral edges, from both of 

 which it was hollowed obliquely to the middle, the shallow V-shaped 

 trough or groove thus formed I'eaching from the hilt to the turned-up 

 end, where it terminated in a little semi-circular, sharp-edged cusp or 

 spur in the central furrow at the base of the knob. The converging 

 sides of the shaft were likewise evenly and sharply creased or fluted 

 from the shank of the grip to the gracefully turned volutes at the 

 sides of the knob. The blade proper, or lower edge, was comparatively 

 thin, like a continuous slightly grooved tongue or an old-fashioned 

 skate blade — save that it was obliquely square, not rounded, at the end. 

 It was transversely pierced at regular intervals by semicircular perfora- 

 tions — twelve in all — beneath each of which the groove was deepened 

 at two points to accommodate the blunt bifurcate roots of the large 

 hooked teeth of the tiger- or "Man-Eater"- shark, with which the 

 sabre was set ; so that, like the teeth of a saw, they would all turn one 

 way, namely, toward the handle, as can be seen by reference to the en- 

 larged sketch of one at the end of the figure. Finely twisted cords of 

 sinew had been threaded regularly back and forth through these per- 

 forations and alternately over the wings of the shark teeth, so as to 

 neatly bind each in its socket; and these lashings were reinforced with 

 abundant black rubber-gum — to which their preservation was due. 



Now the little cusp or sharp-edged spur at the end of the back-groove 

 was so deeply placed in the crease of the knob that it could have served 

 no practical purpose in a striking weapon. Yet, it was .so shaped as to 

 exactly fit the nock of a spear, and since by means of the guard cord, 

 the handle could be grasped not only for striking, but, by sliifling or 



