238 SAVAGE WEAPONS AT THE CENTENNIAL EXHIBITION. 



Brough Smith. 71 They are of granite, quartz, &c, one edge chipped 

 sharp, a poll Left relatively Hat; all adapted to be handled with withes, 

 unground, and secured by gum. 



In New South Wales the natives take for the handle the flowering 

 stem of the icaratah or native tulip, or the vine of pepperoma, or they 

 carefully split the small water gum of the streams, and, by the action 

 of fire, make the piece pliant and wrap it like a withe around the stone 

 axe-head. They next take the resinous and brittle gum of the grass- 

 tree (Xanthorhcea), which they knead and toughen by the fire process. 

 With the heated gum they cover the equator of the stone and take 

 around it one or two turns of the pliant withe, securing its junction 

 with a thong of the bark of the coorajong tree; they then fill that part 

 of the handle secured around the stone with the melted gum, and the 

 weapon is ready for duty in a few hours. By the aid of this instrument 

 the natives el iop notches for the toes in ascending high trees, cut out 

 the opossum, or tap the trees for honey ; with it they also fashion wad. 

 dies, boomerangs, and other wooden implements, and crack the bones of 

 animals for the marrow. In some portions of the island, sinews from 

 the tail of the kangaroo do duty as lashings. The sinews are steeped 

 in hot water, pounded between stones to separate them into filaments, 

 and, while yet pliable, they are wrapped around the stone and the 

 handle ; in drying they shrink and hold the objects together with great 

 firmness. The lashing is then covered with the " black-boy gum " of 

 the grass-tree. 



The celt or stone axe is one of the most common objects in museums, 

 and generally shows its adaptation to a withe handle. 72 In the excava- 

 tions at Hissarlik, at a depth of from 23 to 33 feet below the present sur- 

 face, Dr. Sckliemann recovered well-made axes of diorite and of hard and 

 semi-transparent greenstone. 73 One of these was fractured at the eye, 

 but they were generally adapted for withe handles. So common is the 

 celt that it has entered into the superstitious of various nations, and is 

 supposed to be a "thunder stone" 74 and to have fallen from the sky. 

 This idea is prevalent in China, England, India, Brittany, Finland, 

 Japan, Brazil, Madagascar, and elsewhere. 



Axes of the second class, lashed to a seat on the handle, had numer- 

 ous representations at the Exhibition. Fig.39 is a stone designed to be 

 mounted as an adze, and Fig. 40 shows a greenstone blade lashed to a 

 handle formed of a limb with a portion of the adjacent trunk. The 

 fastening is evidently but a substitute for the original elaborate lashing, 

 which had fallen off. Some of the Maori adzes are of green jade. 

 Ajaother stone, locally known as toTce, is also used, butismuch inferior to 

 the former in quality and appearance. Cf. black basalt adzes found in 



71 "Aborigines of Victoria," Melbourne, 1878, i, pp. 359-380. Figs. 175-198. 



Mr. Abbott, in (Smithsonian Report, 1875. Figs. 11, 19. 



-• Iili. tiKinn's "Troy and its Remains," p. 21, No. 2; p. 94, No. 5G. 

 74 Tyk>r\s " Earlj History of -Mankind," pp. 208, 210-211, 222-227. 



