GRINDING STONES. 77 



learn from Dr. Tylor,^ is an interesting one. It originated with the 

 " fire-drill," which is simply a pointed piece of wood that is twirled 

 between the hands. This vA^as then made more efficacious by wind- 

 ing a cord around it, when it became a " cord-drill." By substituting 

 for the cord a bow with a loose string, a still more useful tool 

 was obtained : and from this simple form of " bow-drill" the Pacific 

 islanders have obtained the improved boring-tool they now employ. 



I should here allude to the round stones, rather larger than a 

 cricket-ball, which are employed as " cooking-stones" and for crack- 

 ing the hard kanary-nuts. They are to be seen in the majority of 

 the dwellings in the eastern islands ; and they often mark the sites 

 of old villages and the temporary homes of fishing-parties. 



The o;rindinsr slabs and blocks of rock, which were used for 

 rubbing down the stone axes, are still to be seen in the coast villages, 

 their surfaces being sometimes worn into a hollow. At present 

 these blocks are used for grinding down the shell bead-money and 

 for sharpening the iron tools. I have sometimes come upon them 

 marking the position of an old village, the site of which had been 

 long concealed by the growth of trees and scrub. In some islands 

 where it is not possible to obtain stones of a sufficient hardness, these 

 blocks have been transported from considerable distances. A large 

 block of a crystalline trap-rock, more than a third of a ton in weight, 

 which now lies on the reef-flat in the vicinity of the village of 

 Vanatoga on the east side of Santa Anna, was originally brought 

 down from the summit of the island to be used as a grinding block. 

 Slabs of a quartz-diorite, which is found in the north-west part of 

 Alu, and which is much valued for its hardness, have been transported 

 in canoes to Treasury Island more than twenty miles away and to 

 the other islands of the Straits. From their size, they would weigh 

 usually five or six hundredweight. 



Amono-st the interesting discoveries which I have made in the 

 Solomon Group, I should refer to that of the occurrence of worked 

 flints, which are commonly found in the soil when it is disturbed 

 for purposes of cultivation, and are frequently exposed after heavy 

 rains. My attention was first directed to this matter on noticing a 

 specimen of flint in the possession of Mr, Howard at Ugi, and I 

 soon obtained a number of specimens from this island, and from the 

 adjacent large island of St, Christoval. The majority of them were 

 of common flint, but fragments of chalcedony and cornelian were 



i "Early History of Mankind : " pp. 237-246. 



