40 THK M.ANUKAITUUK ol" THK TKI!l)-\VAITA, 



gines chiefly obtained the material for the manufarlure of 

 the tero-watta in the shape of water-worn boulders and 

 pebbles from the gravel beds of the island remains undis- 

 putablc. It would be of the greatest interest to know 

 whether archseolithic man of Europe preferred in a similar 

 way flint pebbles found in gravel deposits, to ilint obtained 

 directly from the chalk. This question is, however, some- 

 what complicated, considering the nature of the flint no- 

 dules, and I refrain from expressing an opinion. 



Now, how were the tero-watta manufactured? The 

 answer to this question is more difhcult than it appears, 

 and we will first see whether the hi.storical accounts help 

 to solve the problem. I can only find two references bwir- 

 ing on this question. Scott (1). to whom we arc indebted 

 for a great number of important observations, states that 

 he watched an aborigine for over an hour "chipping one 

 flint with another, so as to give them the peculiar cutting 

 shan^ edges-" 



A further observation is contained in Walkers (2) ac- 

 count of the quarry at Plenty. One of the early colonists 

 by the name of Rayner met between 1813 and 1818 a 

 "mob" of aborigines who wei-e busily engaged breaking 

 stones at Walkers quarry. "They were breaking the 

 stones into fragments either bv dashing them on the rock 

 Of bv striking them with other stones, and picking up the 

 sharp-edged ones for use. ' One old fellow he describes as 

 dashing his stone upon another one on the gx'ound, and 

 leaping up and .spreading his legs out at the sani-^ time, 

 to avoid as much as possible being struck by the splinters. 



This is all I could find concerning the manufacture of 

 the tero-watta, and little enough it is. That a tei-o-watta 

 was wrought by striking the raw material with another 

 stone is a priori very probable, and tho only point of in- 

 terest in Scott "s statement is the length of time. For an 

 hour or so, Scott says, the aborigine was striking the flint, 

 and we may presume, one and the same specimen. Ravner's 

 statement, interesting as it is, does not contain much in- 

 formation either, larger pieces can probably be reduced in 

 size by dashing them against a rock, and if convenient 

 spalls came off they were picked up with the view of shap- 

 ing them afterwards. The breakage of larger blocks, by 

 dashing them against a hard surface is, therefore, not an 



(U Monthly Notes of Pnp. and Proi-f^d Kov. Soc. Tas., .lulv 1873. 

 page 24. 



<2) Ling Roth, aborigines of Trfinnnia, 2nd edition, pegp 119. 



