STONE HAMMERS. 7 



ashore. The presence of a canoe argues the possession of cutting tools and of con- 

 siderable skill in their use, but if any were brought with them these must in time have 

 worn out, and new ones were to be provided if the newcomers were not to fall back in 

 their civilization. Axes were perhaps the first tools needed for Ave may believe that 

 there were no hostile tribes to drive from most of the islands, and we know that there 

 were no dangerous animals to exterminate. Shelter and the simplest wants of camp 





FIG. 2. .VUSTRALIAN (1922) AND M.\ORI (1539) HAMMERS. 



life require the axe and hammer. To make an axe a hammer is needed and a frag- 

 ment of stone serves this purpose better than a more civilized man can understand 

 until he has seen a pebble in a deft hand shape an axe, a pestle or a dish. One frag- 

 ment is doubtless more convenient than another and a roimded form easily held in 

 the hand has been seleAed by most primitive people. The Maori of New Zealand 

 twisted a withe around the stone to make a handle (No. 1539, Fig. 2) and the Aus- 

 tralian fastened the stone to a simple handle by means of a ver}^ tenacious gum ( No. 

 1922, Fig. 2), but the Hawaiian did verj^ good work with the handle Nature has 

 provided in his strong right arm. Now as the aftual priority- of manj- of the simple 

 stone implements must be simply a matter of conjecture, I prefer to leave to everyone 

 including myself, full liberty to arrange their descriptions in the most convenient order 



without prejvidice to any theory of sequence. 



[339] 



