SLTNG CONTRIVANCES FOR PRO.T KCTIT.K WEAPONS. 625 



lar^f wooden (oot!i oi' :i luin|i of <2;iiin which ends in a sharp j)<)int 



(pi. I, liji-. 11). 



I.uschaii " liixt's (cii or twelve sharply deliiied (ypos of Australian 

 spear slinofs, whicii are chai'acterist ic of the localities where found. 

 These tyi)es have been discarded here, and a new division made 

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

 Aecordinii' to its \arious modes of attachment, spear slings are 

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

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

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

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

 on the edge. 



Tn 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 diti'erent fastenings of the 

 hook, the [)rincipal i)iece on the male s]:)ear sling. All these slight 

 ditl'erences must be regarded as local modifications of the present 

 main type. 



The second area in Avhich spear slings appear is northeast from 

 Australia, in Melanesia, or, rather New Guinea and Micronesui, in 

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

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

 thi'ough INIelanesia and IMicronesia, but is knoAvn only from New 

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

 cording to type, only female spear slings occur here. 



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

 a piece and those without a piece attached. The former occurs in 

 New Guinea onl}', 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,*^ Ilansa Inlet, '^ Hatzfeldhafen,'^ 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 ()0 to 80 centimeters long, cut off 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 



f V. Luschan : Das Wurfholz in Nea-Holland uud Oceanien. 

 '' Keiite : Pelew Islands (1789), p. 414 et seq. Schnieltz : Intern. Anli., I, 

 p. G7. 



cUhle: intern. Arch.. 1. p. 196. 



d Sc'hmeit/. : Intern. Arch., I, p. 136. Note 7. 



e Tappenbeck : Deutsch New Guinea, p. 73. 



f According to statements on specimens in the Leipzig Museum. 



9 Finsch : P^rfabrunsen und P.elegstiicko aus der Siidsee, p. 212. 



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



SM 1904 40 



