72 WEAPONS. 



ure habitually carried. In islands where the men go unarmed, the 

 white man, from the absence of intertribal conflicts, has an additional 

 guarantee for his own safety. On the other hand, amongst natives 

 who never leave the vicinity of their villages without a spear or a 

 club, he will require to be very cautious in all that concerns his 

 safety. 



The spears are usually 8 to 9 feet in length, with no foreshaft, 

 and are made of a hard palm wood. Those of the natives of Bougain- 

 ville Straits are very formidable weapons. They are armed with 

 long points or barbs of bone, some of them 4 or 5 inches in length, 

 and they are coloured white and red, are curiously carved, and are 

 ornamented with bands of the same plaited material of which the 

 armlets are made. The barbs and bands are imitated in the colour- 

 ing of the head of the spear. These spears are made by the natives 

 of Bougainville, and are exchanged with the people of the Straits for 

 European articles of ti'ade. I have seen them in the hands of the 

 men of Simbo. In St. Christoval and the adjacent islands at the 

 other end of the group, the spears are of dark wood, with carved 

 heads and blunt wooden points and are uncoloured. As compared 

 with those of Bougainville Straits, they are not very formidable 

 weapons. They are only armed with blunt barbs cut out of the 

 wood, which are rather more ornamental than useful. 



In throwing a spear, the men of Bougainville Straits, whilst 

 poising the weapon, extend the left arm in the direction of the object 

 and often point the forefinger as well. None of the contrivances for 

 assisting the flight of the spear, such as the throwing-stick or the 

 amentum, were employed by the natives of the islands we visited. 

 These weapons are used both as hand-weapons and as missiles. The 

 natives of St. Christoval spear their victims through the abdomen, 

 and as a mark of their prowess they often aliow the gore to dry on 

 the point of the weapon. A man in this island usually keeps his 

 spears slung in a bundle under the projecting eaves of the roof in 

 front of the entrance to his house. 



Bows and arrows are much more commonly employed by the 

 natives of Bougainville Straits than bv the St. Christoval natives. 

 The bows are stoutly made, and are from 6 to 7 feet in length. The 

 string is of a strong cord. The arrows used in the first-mentioned 

 locality are usually 4^ to 4| feet in length. They have a long reed 

 shaft, with a pointed foreshaft of a hard heavy palm wood inserted 

 into the end. and measuring about one-fourth the lencrth of the arrow 



