Scpi. 23, 1S80] 



NATURE 



491 



ment of implements, utensils, houses, ships, machines, and 

 strictly useful appliances of all kinds. Of course the two 

 latter series run into one another, and it is impossible to 

 draw a distinct line between them in the case of the 

 lower terms of the series. General Pitt Rivers has 

 especially drawn attention to the manner in which primi- 

 tive implements subserve many uses : how, for e.vample, a 

 spear-hcad may do duty as a knife, as is the case with 

 the obsidian-headed spears of the Admiralty Islanders. 

 The earliest Paleolithic stone implements made for 

 grasping in the hand were no doubt weapons of offence, 

 diggers, hammers, nut-crackers, choppers, all in one. 



We propose to give a slight sketch of some of the 

 series in the collection, taken at random from its several 

 departments, culling freely from the owner's published 

 catalogue, and his papers read before the Anthropological 

 Institute and elsewhere. We may state at the outset 

 that there exists as yet a catalogue of the weapons only. 

 General Pitt Rivers has not been able to complete a 

 catalogue of the remainder of his collection, since it has 

 been continuously in process of augmenta- 

 tion. The catalogue of the weapons contains i 

 so much valuable and curious information 

 that the appearance of the remainder may be 

 looked forward to with great interest. 



One of the marked features of the collec- 

 tion is that specimens are usually introduced 

 to show what natural objects may have first 

 suggested primitive contrivances to savage 

 man. Thus amongst the series of savage 

 stone hatchets and adzes we find specimens 

 of natural stone axes as it were (Fig- i, 1), 

 roots of trees which have grown round and 

 attached themselves firmly to stones which 

 have somewhat o ■ an axe-blade shape, so as 

 to appear like natural hatchets. It is cjuite 

 •conceivable that the first idea of the axe, the 

 fixing the stone blade at the end of a lever, 

 may have arisen from the observation by 

 primitive man, and his possible use of such 

 a natural hatchet. 



Amongst the series of specimens illus- 

 trating the origin of weaving are placed 

 specimens of bark cloth composed of natu- 

 rally-interlaced fibres, and we may suggest 

 that it would be well if there were added a 

 specimen of a weaver-bird's nest, which may 1) 



have given the first hint as to basket-work, 

 and thus led to weaving. In this series is " 



placed a collection of spindle-whorls from all Fic. i.— a, Natural stone : 

 parts of the world— Peru, Vancouver Island, E^uimaux comp" -' 

 Cyprus, Denmark, England, Ireland. It 2, frjm Peru ; 3, 1 

 is most remarkable how closely alike are 

 these implements, though from such widely separated 

 localities. The collection of primitive looms is very 

 interesting, though as yet one of the least complete in the 

 collection. In its primitive condition, as at the Caroline 

 Islands and Vancouver's Island, the loom is entirely 

 portable, consisting of a few sticks only, and only narrow 

 bands, to form belts or armlets, are woven with it. Some 

 years ago we saw such a portable loom in use in Britanny, 

 worked by a boy with his hands and feet, to make girth- 

 like bands with. The boy was working by the road-side 

 and playing about every now and then, with the whole 

 apparatus in his hand. In the bark cloth, made of bark 

 strips welded together by means of beating and the action 

 of water, the " tappa " of Polynesia, we probably see the 

 origin of paper, which in Japan is made from the bark of 

 the same tree as tappa. 



The collection of weapons commences with weapons 

 of offence, and begins with a series illustrating the de- 

 velopment of the shield out of the parrying-stick, such 

 as now used by Australian blacks, the idea of the 

 wide shield covering the whole body having apparently 



arisen as an improvement on the simple stick held in 

 the centre, which gradually expanded and grew into a 

 shield. The origin of the bow is a very interesting 

 question. General Pitt Rivers, as explained in a learned 

 disquisition on the subject in his catalogue, and also in 

 his published lecture on " Primitive Warfare," believes 

 that the first idea of the bow may have arisen from the 

 use of an elastic throwing-stick, with the spring-trap of the 

 Malay regions possibly as a stepping-stone. In several 

 places in the world, as, for example, in the Admiralty 

 Islands, the bow is a contrivance still unknown ; and Mr. 

 Brooke Low, whose fine collection of Bornean manufac- 

 tures and implements isnowonexhibition at the South Ken- 

 sington Museum, informs us that it is not in use throughout 

 Borneo, though the coast people necessarily know the 

 weapon. The primitive arrow is merely a spear thrown 

 with the bow. It is such in New Guinea, where the 

 arrows are far too long for the bow, and though they fly 

 for a dozen yards or so with great force, soon wobble and 

 turn over. The arrows have no notch and no feather ; 



: formed by the growing of the root of a tree round a blade-shaped 

 ,th broad flat suing and long arrow ivithout notch or feather: c, 



bow ; 1 to 5, stone spindle whorls, i, from the Island of Cyprus ; 



Denmark ; 4. from Neuchatel ; 5, from Ireland. 



the bow-string is wide and flat, made of split rattan cane 

 (Fig. I, b). The notch and feather are further improve- 

 ments not yet attained, at all events, in the greater part 

 of New Guinea. At the Aru Islands both notch and 

 feather are in use, but the string is still of rattan narrowed 

 to fit the notch. In some of the New Hebrides the arrows, 

 which are beautifully finished, have the notch, but still no 

 feather. The development of the composite bow made 

 up of several pieces of horn, bamboo, wood, ivory, &c., 

 and usually streri^thened by the sinews of animals at the 

 back, is illustrated by a special series (Fig. i, c). It is 

 concluded to have spread from a common centre in Central 

 or Northern Asia to Turkey, Persia, Greenland, California, 

 and elsewhere. 



To speak of more civilised weapons, the ongm of the 

 bayonet is peculiarly interesting. Its history is set forth 

 in a special small series, and thus explained in the 

 catalogue :— " In the early part of the seventeenth century 

 it was found necessary to retain the use of pikemen in 

 the infantr)-, on account of the defenceless position of 

 the firelock-men when the enemy approached to close 



