SAVAGE WEAPONS AT THE CENTENNIAL EXHIBITION. 



271 



The bird spear of the Greenland Eskimo has, besides its main point, 

 several supplementary points at some distance from the end of the spear. 

 It has an inflated bladder to prevent its sinking in the water. 



A number of dif- 

 ferent Polynesian 

 weapons are made 

 with shark's teeth 

 lashed to wooden 

 clubs or lances. 



Fiff. 107 is a Spear- Fig. 105. — Lance-head and sealbuoy, British Columbia. 



head exhibited in the Philippine Islands section of the Spanish department. 

 The Kingsmilland Marquesas Islanders also arm theedges of their spears 

 with sharks' teeth, binding them to the shaft with sinnet, the plaited fiber 

 (coir) of the cocoa-nut. One from the Kingsmill Islands has over 200 

 teeth in a row, the shaft being of light wood and 15 feet long. A spear 

 from the Philippines had 12 teeth in a row. A saw is made on the same 

 principle by the Australians ; flakes of obsidian or quartz, about the 

 size of a quarter-dollar, are inserted in a grooved stick of gum-tree wood 

 and fastened by gum from the grass-tree, commonly known as "black- 



Fig. 10G. — Seal and fish spear, Eodiak Eskimo, Alaska. 



boy" gum. 170 Javelins of bone or wood with longitudinal grooves, in 

 which are inserted flint Hakes, are shown by Nilson. in 



The spear of the Tonga Islands is barbed with the tail bone of the 

 sting-ray ; the same bone is used on the prongs of the Tahitian trident. 

 The barbs are not fastened, but are slipped into sockets just tight enough 

 to hold them until they are thrust into the body, when they become de- 

 tached and, from their barbed character, work deeper and deeper into 

 the wound. 



We have considered wooden spears, and those with stone and bone 

 beads, and incidentally some other materials. We now come to metal, 

 the material of all the best, and which, once adopted, is not again laid 

 aside. 



Spear-heads of copper were shown among the Indian implements 

 from Wisconsin. Copper preceded iron, being found native and mal- 

 leable. Copper and bronze implements are among the articles recov- 

 ered from the Egyptian tombs, the tumuli of Assyria, and the excava- 



170 Wood, vol. ii, p. 35. 



i" " Stone Age," pi. vi, Figs. 124, 5, G. 



