46 BULLETIN 137;, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Distribution., classifjcatioyi^ and function of curved war cJuhs. — 

 Wooden clubs are classified according to their shapes, or according 

 to the nature of the striking end and the method of its employment. 

 They may be straight with plain or ornamented sides; knobbed or 

 bulbous at the striking end ; root ended or curved near the striking 

 end ; or they may be expanded into a disklike section at the terminal 

 end. The form into Avhich the club is shaped is probably most 

 often arrived at extemporaneously or independently, so that there 

 is not the same sequence of development from a comparatively 

 simple clubbed weapon to the highly efficient and ornamental tj^pes 

 as is the case with metallic cutting weapons or missile weapons. 

 Thus, the w^ar club " waddy " of the Australian aborigines is more 

 like a straight unformed stick than are the clubs of any other people. 

 On the other hand, the flat curved hunting club, the boomerang, is 

 a highly specialized form of missile club. 



In the islands of the Pacific the wooden club has ranked highest 

 as a war weapon and has retained its position longest. In Melanesia 

 and Polynesia the variety of types, also the degree of skill exercised 

 in ornamental carvings and wrappings have reached their greatest 

 development. 



The wooden war clubs of the Philippines were of two kinds, the 

 ■)YiQ: probably more ancient than the other. The older type and 

 at the same time the more widely disseminated is the curved or 

 root-ended club. It is usually somewhat bulbous at the striking 

 end and tapers gradually to a grip handle at the base end. The 

 clubs of this type are highly polislied and are formed from a hard- 

 Avood of the molave type. The greatest diameter in section is at 

 the bulbous striking end, from whicli point a tapered curve of the 

 club is effected so that the terminal end lies nearly at right angles 

 to the body of the club. The club is nearly always octagonal in 

 section, either throughout its entire length or mereh^ at the bulbous 

 striking end. 



One example collected by the Philippine Island Commission for 

 the Louisiana Purchase Exposition (Cat. No. 235239, U.S.N.M.) 

 was obtained from tlie Subanun, of western Mindanao. This club 

 is circular in section except at the striking end, where it, too, is octag- 

 onal in outline. A similar club from Luzon collected by Miss 

 Isobel H. Lenman (Cat. No. 31G028, U.S.N.M.) is octagonal in sec- 

 tion throughout its entire course. A bud-shape tip at the handle 

 end constitutes the pommel. Another club of the curved, root-ended 

 type was presented by James M. Sheridan, who obtained it in a 

 Moro settlement on Dumanquilas Bay, south coast of Mindanao, in 

 1902. This club, of beautifully polished molave wood, is oval in 

 section except at the bulbous end, where the original octagonal out- 

 line lias been all but obliterated. A unique feature of the club is 



