404 THE ADMIRALTV ISLANDS. 



consisting of a natural crook of wood with a Terebra maculata 

 shell bound on to it, the shell being ground down until only 

 one lateral half of it remains. Such small shell adzes were 

 abundant enough still, but in most cases the shell had been 

 replaced on the handle by a piece of hoop-iron. Every man 

 almost carried one of these small adzes hung on his left 

 shoulder. From the houses large adze blades made of 

 Tridacna and Hippopus shell were obtained. They resemble 

 somewhat those of the Carolines, but are very roughly made 

 indeed, only the actual edge being ground. None were seen 

 mounted, and they appeared to have gone out of use. Axes 

 made of hard volcanic rock were also obtained from the 

 houses. They have ground surfaces and are triangular in 

 form, and resemble the stone adzes of the Solomons, but are 

 mounted in an entirely different and very primitive way, as 

 axes, being merely jammed in a slot cut in a club-like billet 

 of hard wood near its end. Only one specimen was obtained 

 mounted. These stone implements did not seem plentiful, 

 and the natives valued them highly and required a high price 

 for them ; and when I at first showed them a Humboldt Bay 

 stone axe, to try and explain that I wished to buy such from 

 them, they were immediately anxious to purchase it them- 

 selves. The chief had a very fine large one, with which he 

 would not part. 



The heads of the obsidian-headed lances serve as knives, 

 being cut off just below the ornamented mounting which acts 

 as a handle.* Long flakes of obsidian are, however, also 

 mounted specially as knives in short handles. They are exces- 

 sively sharp, and used to shave with even, but are of course 

 very brittle. Pieces of pearl oyster shell, usually semi-circular 

 in shape, ground down thin to an edge on the rounded border, 

 are used constantly as knives to cut cordage, and for similar 

 purposes. Knives made of the spine of a Sting-ray {Trygon) 

 are also used. Large ground pearl oyster shells are used to 

 dig with. 



The Admiralty Islanders have no bows, slings, or throwing 

 sticks, ulas (Fiji), nor clubs. Their only weapons are lances 

 of several kinds, which are thrown with the unaided hand, not 

 even with a cord, as in New Caledonia. They have no spears, 

 like the Humboldt Bay men, Fijians, and others, to be used at 

 close quarters, and no shields, though Jacobs mentions shields 

 as in use at other parts of the group. 



* This is an interesting instance of the same instruments serving 

 different purposes in a rude condition of the arts, other cases of which 

 have been dwelt on by Colonel Lane-Fox, F.R.S., Lecture " On Primitive 

 Warfare," Journal of the Royal United Service Institution, 1867-9. 



