44 Director's Report for tcji6. 



viously illustrated." The rings would thus add a slightl}- greater 

 degree of refinement. Thej' have apparent!}' been made by peck- 

 ing, and have not been subsequently smoothed, as was the origi- 

 nal surface of the exterior. The stone is a basalt, of a degree of 

 fineness similar to that in the other cylindrical mortars. The speci- 

 men is 200 mm. high, 223 in diameter at the base. The cavity is 

 143 mm. deep, 123 in diameter at the mouth, and 127 a quarter of 

 the way down, and converges at the bottom. A cross section is 

 shown in Fig. 5. 



AN HAWAIIAN SLINC. . 



The sling was always considered an effective arm in Hawaiian 

 warfare, and the great care with which the sling-stones were 

 made- would seem to bear this out. Yet the only Hawaiian sling 

 ill our collections heretofore, No. 4812, has been a somewhat crude 

 contrivance of loosely braided bast fibre of the hau {Paritiiini tili- 

 aeeum) with the braiding broadened (like matting) in the middle 

 for a pocket. Fig. 6. On the handles, the braiding is three-ply, 

 each fold consisting of two or more flat, overlying strands of the 

 fibre, rounded and not twisted over the turn (thereby avoiding an 

 entirely flat braid). Toward the pocket, other strands were in- 

 serted, thickening the cord, but not increasing the number of 

 folds, until the pocket was reached. Here the technique changed 

 from cord-braiding to mat-plaiting, but the latter was less regular 

 than usual with matting. It has the appearance of a hasty and 

 untidy job, and is in strong contrast to the neat corded work in 

 which the Polynesians in general, and the Hawaiiaus in particu- 

 lar, were so adept. One of the handles is short, apparently broken. 



King's description^ might have been applied to similar speci- 

 men: "The slings have nothing singular about them; and in no re- 

 spect differ from our common slings, except that the stone is lodged 

 on a piece of matting instead of leather." 



Cook saw sling-stones on Kauai, as clearh' shown bj' his refer- 

 ence to "some oval pieces of whetstone well polished, but some- 

 what pointed towards each end,"+ but apparently not the slings. 

 His description, immediately preceding the above, of the pieces of 



'Op. cit.. Fig. 28. A spherical form, from Hawaii, was illustrated in Occa- 

 sional Papers, V, 43, Fig. 6. 



'W. T. Brighnm, B. P. B. M. Memoirs, I, 344-346. 



^Cook's Third Voyage, London, 1784, III, 152, relating to the island of 

 Hawaii. ■'Op. cit., II, 248. [236] 



