ANOTHER TRIP TO THE SOLOMONS 141 



used for catching fish, as has been reported by one 

 traveller. That, I should say, is a fairy tale, unless it 

 were for prawns or very small fish. A native left 

 a very large net similar to what I have described 

 outside my camp one day. For a night it was 

 standing in the rain, and it was completely spoilt as 

 far as butterfly-catching went, for all the stickiness 

 had gone out of the web and it had become as though 

 it were glazed over. Water having that effect on 

 this spider web I cannot think of these web-nets as 

 possible for fish-catching. My own view is that the 

 spider-web nets were originally designed by the natives 

 as toys, or as snares for very small birds. I have seen 

 the same sort of thing in other parts of New Guinea, 

 especially in the Trobriand Islands. 



The ingenuity of the natives in making weapons 

 and toys is sometimes very remarkable. I recall in 

 particular a kind of Jew's harp that the children 

 make in the Solomon Group. They get one of the 

 big weevil beetles that infest the sago-palm roof- 

 thatching, break off one joint of the foreleg, and in 

 the hollow of the insect's bone put a thin twig stripped 

 from a coco-nut leaf. As the insect with its long 

 proboscis spins around it makes a vibrant humming 

 against this twig. 



The inland natives of New Guinea, by the way, 

 fully sympathised with my enterprise of butterfly 

 collecting. They put great value themselves on the 

 beautiful feathers of various birds, weaving them into 



