796 NOTES ON T\VO PAPUAN THUOWlNfi STICKS, 



mi'Mit have slowly disappeared through intermarriage, 3'et a 

 custom or weapon could have descended unchanged. On the other 

 hand, the throwing stick is not the exclusive heritage of the 

 Australians or their kin; indeed, it may ha\-e been independently 

 arrived at by various peoples. 



The Papuan implement is broadly distinguished from any of 

 the numerous aspects assumed by the womerah in Australia, in 

 the former case, the spear end is received into a socket; in tlie 

 latter the spear is cupped to receive the peg of the womerah.* 

 Again, the former is remarkable for the raised, ornately carved 

 crest against which Dr. Luschan states the spear rests, for which 

 no homologue occurs in the Australian type. 



The Micronesian form may l)e descril:)ed as like the Papuan, 

 but without the raised spear rest; in Micronesia Keatef long ago 

 described it from the Pelews, and Luschan figures it both from 

 that Archipelago and from tho Carolines.^ A mechanical 

 device for propelling spears from a loop of rope has been recorded 

 from New Caledonia. 5^ The Esquimaux possess a form of the 

 throwing stick which has been described at length by Otis T. 

 Mason; II mention of the use of this instrument by natives of 

 the Polar regions has also been made by NordenskjoldU and 

 Nansen.*"^' Lieutenant W. H. Hooper mentions them as being 

 used by the Esquimaux of Icy Reef, Humphreys Point, ff 



* Nevertheless, ^Ir. Harry Stockdale lias infoimed me that he has 

 observed an exception to this rule in the case of a Northern Territory 

 (Australia) tribe who used a socketed womerah. 



t Keate, "An Account ot tlie Pelew Islands/' 1788, p. 314. 

 J Lor. rit. pp. 133, 152, fig. 9. 

 § Edge Partington, lor. rit. Second Series, PI. 67, f. 11. Stevens " Flint 

 Chips," 1870, p. 304. 



II Smithsonian Institute, Ann. Rep. 1884, Part 2, pp. 279-289, Plates. 

 If " Voyage of the Vega," London, 1881, Vol. 2, p. 105, fig. 5. 

 ** " First Crossing of Greenland," Vol. 2, pp. 26.3, 340. 

 tt "The Tents of the Tuski," London, 1853 p. 259. 



