WEAPONS. 73 



Although most of the arrows have simple pointed foreshafts, desti- 

 tute of barbs, a few terminate in arrow-heads carved out of the hard 

 wood. A kind of dart, much shorter than the arrow and armed with 

 points of bone, is also used. About nine out of every ten arrows are 

 notched for the bowstring. Feathers are not used ; but the hinder 

 shaft of each arrow is decorated with etchings as if in imitation of 

 ]ilumes. These arrows are essentially Melanesian in character, and 

 much resemble those in the British Museum Collection from New 

 Guinea and the New Hebrides.^ At short distances of 25 or 30 

 yards, the natives make good shooting with the bow and arrow; but 

 on account of the length of the arrow it is not to be depended on at 

 greater ranges. For shooting fish and pigeons, the natives of these 

 Straits sometimes employ small arrows fashioned out of the large 

 leaf of a kind of reed. The midrib serves as the shaft, and a narrow 

 strip of the blade of the leaf, which is left attached on each side of 

 the shaft, serves the purpose of the plume. The end is pointed and 

 hardened by fire. Such arrows are easily made, and are not generally 

 sought for after they have been shot away.- On one occasion I ob- 

 served a boy of Alu shooting a pigeon with an arrow terminating in 

 fine points like a miniature fish-spear. 



Poisoned spears and arrows are rarely employed by the natives 

 of the Solomon Group. They did not come under our observation 

 in any of the islands that we visited. In the island of Savo, how- 

 ever, the natives are said to poison their spears and arrows by 

 thrusting them into a decomposing corpse, where they are allowed 

 to remain for some days. 



The clubs vary in form in difi'erent parts of the group. In St. 

 Christoval, they have flat recurved blades cut out of the flange-like 

 buttresses of a tree having very hard wood which bears a polish like 

 that of mahogany. In other islands, as in those of Florida, they 



1 To those who have never had their interest specially engaged in the subject of savage 

 weapons, the above detailed description of these arrows may seem unnecessary; but, as 

 Colonel Lane Fox originally pointed out, it is in the absence or presence of the feather and 

 notch, in the length and formation of the shaft and its point, and in other characters, that 

 the arrows of different races are distinguished from each other. Thus, in many parts of Xew 

 Guinea in Melanesia agenerally, and throughout the Pacific, the arrows are destitute of 

 feathers; while those from Europe and Asia are always feathered, (nde "Catalogue of 

 the original Lane Fox Collection," pp. 87-95 ; also, paper on " Primitive Warfare." " Journ. 

 Unit. Ser. Inst.," 1SG7-68, for a general treatment of the subject.) Prof. Morse has shown 

 that in the different methods of releasing the arrow from the bow, imjjortant race-distinctions 

 are to be found. An abstract of his interesting paper is given in " Xature," Nov. 4th, 1886. 

 -Mr. Mosely in his " Xotes by a Xaturalist," p. 381, describes and figures very similar 

 arrows which are used by the Ke Islanders for the same purposes. 



