Ethnography o£ 3Iicronesia. 



157 



spear-heads are made of areca palm wood and the shafts, of 

 bamboo. These weapons are usually some 2*50 m. long, with the 

 liead and a portion of the shaft painted black, or 

 with the shaft decorated with black parallel lines 

 (Fig. 70). Now-a-days weapons are scarcely met 

 with in Palau, and these are seldom actually used. 

 But we learn from Captain Wilson^ and Kubary^ 

 that the islanders formerly had barbed spears, the 

 shafts of which were made of areca palm wood, the 

 13ointed ends of which were often armed with sting- 

 ray spines. 



2. Darts. — According to Captain Wilson,-^ the 

 islanders of Palau formerly used bamboo darts, 

 which, inserted into the socket of a wooden sling, 

 were discharged by the spring of the darts them- 

 selves. So it will be seen that this shooting con- 

 trivance is quite different from the spear-thrower 

 employed by the natives of Australia, which is 

 stick-like or board-like in shape. It may also be 

 noted that, though Captain Wilson calls the shooting 

 apparatus of the Palau Islanders a sling, it is entire- Fig. 70.— Spears 

 ly different from the sling as found in Truk. In- 

 cidentally it may be mentioned that stone- tlu'o wing seems to be 

 practised among the islanders of Yap. 



3. Wooden Swords and Daggers. — We learn from Captain 

 Wilson* that some chiefs carried a kind of sword some 2 feet 10 



1 G. Keate, "The Pelew Islands," p. '314. 



- J. S. Kubary, " Ethnographische Beitrage zur Kenntnis des Karolinen Archii)els," p. 155 ; 

 Taf. XXII, fig. 1-6. 



■5 G. Keate, ibid., p. 31i. 



* G. Keate, ibid., p. 315 ; PI. II, fig. 1 ; PI. V, figs. 1 and 2. 



