CANOE BREAKERS—STONE USED. 9 



successive loops or la^-ers must be hammered iuto place; the poi pounders were shaped 

 as we shall see when we come to this indispensable implement, and in fine the uses of 

 the simple pebbles with slightly flattened sides as shown in Fig. i (4468 and 4469) 

 were even more general than those of the beautiful but specialized hammer of a modern 

 tool chest. In the same figure No. 4482 represents a natural fragment of lava used as 

 a hammer for general purposes in an Hawaiian family for several generations: it is a 

 convenient tool and has the advantage of the shabby umbrella in being less in demand 

 bv the borrower. 



Canoe Breakers. — In general no handle was used on Hawaii as by the Aus- 

 tralians, Maori and so many primitive people, but in a certain modified form of hammer 

 a flexible cord of coconut fibre was substituted for a handle precisely as the rope handle 

 of the iron ball used at the present time in the athletic exercises of "throwing the 

 hammer". Hawaiians used these large and heavy hammers in war 

 to break canoes. They were also swung in the powerful grasp of the 

 Hawaiian chief much like the "morning stars" of mediaeval warfare. 

 In the specimen ( 7945 ) on the left of Fig. 3 the knobbed neck to which 

 the rope was plaited has been broken off, but in the Munich museum 

 there is a fine specimen. Fig. 4, with the rope attached. The right 

 hand specimen (2975) had a groove for the encircling cord and it has 

 also been used in later times as a pounder of roots both edible and 



FIG. 4. 



medicinal. And here let us remember that the simpler the tool the 

 more varied its uses. This grooved pebble can be an active hammer or a passive sinker 

 to a net ; a stone cup maj- be a lamp or a paint pot or even a chafing dish in which to 

 burn souls, as will be described later when Hawaiian religion is considered. While it 

 is certainly convenient to call or label a specimen by a definite name, another person 

 maj- prefer another designation for A\hat he considers the more important role the 

 article may play. 



Stone Used. — The materials used in fashioning the implements of the Pacific 

 islanders may be enumerated here. The list is not a long one, if we eliminate intro- 

 duced material, as for instance, granite brought as ballast from China and eagerly 

 sought bv the old Hawaiians for sinkers. Of simple minerals we have calcium car- 

 bonate in the form of corals and of stala6lite in the caves in raised coral reefs, and in a 

 more compact variety resembling marble where lava streams have run over the raised 

 and consolidated reef; Calcium sulphate or gypsum also found in caves or raised reefs 

 and used for the shanks of fish hooks: red ferric oxide or hematite is found in masses 

 of small size in Hawaiian lava flows and is used for clappers and sinkers. Of the rocks 

 composed of several minerals the most common and important is basaltic lava in all its 

 protean forms. From this are made the lamps, dishes, cups, balls, pestles, sinkers, 



[341] 



