AXES AND ADZES. 



75 



of the sides is not constant and in the larger specimens there is a wide departure, but all 

 the while there is a strong family resemblance among them all. To show the cutting 

 edges of these tools more clearly than the photographs can I have made tracings (Fig. 74) 

 of some of the more important examples illustrated in the plates and figures. The num- 

 bers will identify the specimens in both cases. The angle certainly seems too obtuse 

 to cut w^ell, at least on some examples, but the work done with them in the hands of an 

 old Hawaiian remains to this day to silence all doubts of their capabilities. 



L,et us climb to the workshop of the adze maker. All these were in high places, 

 and one on Manna Kea, Hawaii, was nearly 12,900 ft. above the sea. As good clink- 



FIG. 73. HAWAIIAN STONE AXE. 



stone was not found in many places the known quarries hardly' exceeded half-a-dozen. 

 On Hawaii was the most important of all, that on Manna Kea, where the workmen 

 could only w-ork in favorable seasons for the snow frequently covered the quarry, but 

 from the immense quantity of fragments and chips the work must have extended over 

 many generations; so far as known, this was the earliest quarry exploited, and it is 

 puzzling how the place was discovered when we consider the aversion the Hawaiians 

 had to even visiting those high, bleak and desert regions, the supposed abode of spirits 

 not always friendly. It is possible that the tradition which speaks of the survivor of 

 the deluge of Kahinalii grounding on Mauna Kea and following the receding waters 

 to the lower levels, discovering the koi pohakn on the way, may point to the consider- 

 able antiquity of adze-making in this place, but I am inclined to believe that all tradi- 

 tions of the Hawaiian deluge date after the coming of the Spanish discoverers. It has 



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