158 



THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM MAGAZINE. 



A Food Hanger with Rat Disc from Fiji. 



By Thos. Steel, F.L.S. 



That the rat as a pest has been known 

 to primitive man, as well as to his civi- 

 lised brother, is shown by the food hanger 

 depicted in the accompanying illustration. 

 It is interesting to observe that the de- 

 vice, a disc, employed to frustrate the 

 predatory habits of this rodent, is similar 



At the feet is another block having four 

 upwardly pointing blunt pegs. 



The object of this arrangement is to 

 prevent the access of rats to baskets con- 

 taining food materials. The baskets hold- 

 ing yams, taro, and other food are hung 

 on the wooden pegs, the whole being sus- 



Fijian Food Hanger. 



riioto — G. 



Glutton. 



to that used as a guard upon the lines 

 connecting vessels to wharves or lighters 

 which was introduced here only at the 

 beginning of the present century, during 

 the first outbreak of bubonic plague. 



This interesting object I obtained whilst 

 residing in Fiji in 1885. It consists of a 

 piece of wood roughly carved in human 

 form. On top of the head there projects 

 a peg which is perforated for the sus- 

 pending cord. Beneath the hole is fitted 

 loosely a disc of wood which projects for 

 some distance all around over the figure. 



pended from the rafters. Any rats whicn 

 climb down the suspending cord in their 

 attempts to reach the food are unable to 

 do so, for when they endeavour to get 

 round the edge of the disc they imme- 

 diately fall to the floor. 



An old Fijian, to whom I showed it, by 

 signs indicated its use, adding tliat when 

 the rats saw the image they were so 

 startled as to cause them to fall off the 

 disc. 



I have seen only two hangers carved in 

 this way, they being usually quite plain. 



