SLING CONTRIVANCES FOR PROJECTILE WEAPONS. 625 



large wooden (ooth or a lump of gum which ends in a sharp point 

 (phi, fig. 11). , ■ 



Luschan " gives ten or tweh'e sharply defined types of Australian 

 spear slings, which are characteristic of the localities where found. 

 These types have been discarded here, and a new division made 

 as follows: The chief characteristic on the spear sling is the hook. 

 According to its various modes of attachment, spear slings are 

 divided into those having hook and shaft in one piece, and those in 

 which the hook is attached independently. The latter, according to 

 shape, have broad shafts, board-shaped, or round shafts, with two 

 smaller groups of those with hook on the face and those with hook 

 on the edge. 



In the greater or less breadth of the shafts, in the variety of grips, 

 in the straight or twisted forms of shafts, there are not such varieties 

 for characterizing a main division as in the ditferent fastenings of the 

 hook, the principal piece on the male spear sling. All these slight 

 differences must l)e regarded as local modifications of the present 

 main type. 



The second area in which spear slings appear is northeast from 

 Australia, in iMehuiesia, or, rather New (Juinea and Micronesia, in 

 which area spear slings are chiefly used as weapons of war,'' whether 

 also of the chase there are no accounts. It projjably earlier spread 

 through jNlelanesia and Micronesia, but is known only from New 

 Guinea, the Fiji Islands, the Carolines, Pelew, and Marianas. Ac- 

 cording to type, only female spear slings occur her(\ 



We can further distinguish two groups of spear slings— those with 

 a piece and those Avithout a piece attached. The former occurs in 

 New Guinea only, and the spear sling is here on the German north 

 coast as far as Astrolabe Bay, covering Empress Augusta River,'' 

 Cape della Torre,'' Venus Hook,'- Hansa Inlet,' Ilatzfeldhafen,^ Cape 

 Gourdon,'^ Hammaker River,'' Astrolabe Bay,^ where they are very 

 numerous and always beautifully worked.'* This spear sling is made 

 of a shaft of bamboo (iO to SO centimeters long, cut oft' so that one 

 end (the upper) terminates at a knot. About two-fifths of its length 

 (measured from grip) the shaft is split off in such manner that at one 

 end one-fourth and at the other three-fourths of its thickness is cut 



« V. Luschan : Das AVurfliolz in Xeu-Holland mid Oceanien. 

 6Keate: Pelew Islands (178!)), p. 414 et seq. Scbnieltz : Intern. Arch., I, 

 p. G7. 



cUhle: Intern. Arch., 1. p. lOG. 



<^ Schmeltz : Intern. Areh., I, p. 136. Note 7. 



eTappenbeck: Deutsch New Guinea, p. 73. 



/■According to statements on specimens in the Leipzig Museum. 



.'' Finsch : Erfahrungen nnd Belegstiicke aus der Siidsee, p. 212. 



'' Krieger : Neu Guinea, p. 43 et seq. 



SM 190 1 • 1 



