ii. I'iro TE EtENUA, Ofi i'.asilii tSLAND. 47. r ) 



lacking the metal-piercing medium, could never aspire to the fame of 

 the gladiator's l rid cut, the Homeric javelin, the I Join an pilum, the Turk- 

 ish jereed, the Landsknecht's halberd, the Polish lance, the Zulu assa- 

 gai, or even the knobkerry of the Amazuln. The formidable weapon of 

 the ancient Parthian, still wielded by the dexterous Turcoman, was mil 

 known to these islanders. Arrows might have been improvised, lint 

 there was no wood in their possession suitable for the manufacture of 

 hows. 



Unlike the, Fijians and other Polynesians to the westward, who did 

 great execution with their long war clubs, these natives used in fight- 

 ing only the patoopatoo, or the mere, like that of the, Maori, except thai 

 they were invariably made of wood. They possessed a long club, a lit- 

 tle expanded and flattened at one end,. and the other carved into a head 

 with a double face with eyes made of obsidian and bone; but this was 

 carried as a baton of oflice before the chiefs and used only for that pur- 

 pose. 



Stones were thrown with great precision and accuracy from the hand, 

 and the use of a sling, such as made David more than a match for the 

 gigantic Philistine, appears to have been unknown. Slings were com- 

 mon among the hie as and other races of South America from the earli- 

 est times, but no traces of such an appliance could be found on Easter 

 Island, either in the tombs or mentioned by the ancient traditions. 



A want of practice his probably made the natives of to-day less pro- 

 licient in stone-throwing than their forefathers, bnt if the stories may 

 he believed, the time was when their truculent address could only have 

 been surpassed by Runjeet Singh's Akalis in flinging the chuckkra. 



Several of the ancient traditions speak of a net being used in fight- 

 ing, and men were especially trained in its use, but whether they re- 

 sembled the old Roman retiarius can not be discovered, the custom 

 having long since died out. It is unknown to the natives of to-day. 



Two kinds of spears were used, one about <> feet long for throwing and 

 the other a shorter one; a heavier stabbing pike was only lit for use al 

 close quarters. In its original form the spear was essentially a missile, 

 ami the traditions speak of the adoption of the thrusting weapon in the 

 desperate engagements that resulted in the extermination of the "long- 

 eared race." The shafts were made of pouron Hibiscus sp. and hi Dracaena 

 terminalis, and the various forms of obsidian points were secured by a 

 lashing made from the indigenous hem]). The javelins were thrown 

 underhanded with the little finger foremost, but they did not have 

 that peculiar vibratory motion that distinguished the Zulu assagai. 



Nothing was known of a retrieving weapon, such as the boomerang of 

 the Australians, or even the throwing-sticks of the Eskimo tribes on 

 the const of Alaska. # 



There Was no class of professional fighters Or soldiers: every able- 

 bodied limn was supposed to be u warrior and compelled to do duly in 

 time of war. Fighting men were not trained or drilled, except that 



