793 



NOTES ON TWO PAPUAN THROWING STICKS. 



Bv J. Jennings. 



(Communicated by C. Htidley, F.L.S.) 



(Plate LViii.) 



Preceding volumes of these Proceedings contain a series of 

 articles by Mr. R. Etheridge, junr., describing and figuring in 

 detail numerous varieties of the womerah or Australian throwing 

 .stick.* 



Only in recent j-ears has it been announced that a like imple- 

 ment is also employed by the Papuans of Northern New Guinea. 

 Finsch figured and described! a specimen which he collected at 

 Venushuk, New Guinea, and Edge Partington illustrates, appa- 

 rently by a copy of Finsch's figure, this throwing stick. 1 Ratzel 

 in the Natural History of Man also gives figures. § 



By far the fullest account of the Papuan form of the throwing 

 .stick, however, we owe to Dr. F. v. Luschan, who in " Das 

 Wurfholz in New Holland und in Oceanien," Bastian Festchrift, 

 Berlin, 1896, pp. 131-1.5.J, PI. ix., x., xi., has dealt exhaustively 

 with the sul^ject. Specimens of the Papuan type which have 

 lately been acquired by m}^ friend Mr. Norman Hardy do not 

 exactly coincide with any portrayed l)y Dr. v. Jjuschan. I have 

 therefore obtained permission to la}^ l)efore the Society the follow- 

 ing account and accompanying drawings of two specimens, the 



"• Series ii. Vol. vi. p. (399, fig.; Vol. vii. pp. 170, 899, Fls. iii. and xi. ; 

 Vol. viii. p. 300, PI. xiv.j Macleay Memorial Vol. p. 236. 



t Ann. K.K. Hofmus. Vol. iii. 188S, PI. xv. f. 5. 



X Ethnographical Album, 189, Ser. 1, Vol. ii. PI. 37, f. 1. 



§ Ratzel, " The History of Mankind," English Ed. I. 1896, p. 181. 



