54 Transactions.— Miscellaneous. 
Polynesia. I have before stated that the Eastern Polynesians make but little 
use of the weapon, while the Western Polynesians always use it as a weapon 
of war. This difference is readily accounted for if we turn to the various 
tribes inhabiting the Malay Islands, the original habitat of all the Poly- 
nesian islanders. There are four great races in Malaysia possessing various 
degrees of civilization and great difference of language, and three or four 
Savage races. The first are the Malay proper (inhabiting the Malay penin- 
sula, and the coast regions of Borneo and Sumatra); the Javanese; the 
Bugis; and the Talagese. The savage races comprise the Dyaks (wil 
tribes of Borneo), Battaks, Jakuns, and the aborigines of Northern Celebes, 
Sula Island, and part of Bouru. These various peoples have, at different 
times, migrated, or been driven to migrate, and naturally carried their dif- 
ferent customs with them. Some used the bow and arrow sacredly or in 
Sport, some as a weapon of war, and some the poisoned arrow. Western 
Polynesia has evidently been peopled by the wild Malay tribes, or Papuans, 
who use the war or poisoned arrow; while Eastern Polynesia has evidently 
been peopled by the long-haired, more civilized, Malayans, who were not so 
savage and warlike. 
With reference to the statement that archery was a sacred game :—Mr. 
Ellis, in his Polynesian Researches * gives the following aecount of the 
matter as observed in Tahiti :— 
** The te-a, or archery, was also a sacred game, more so perhaps than any 
other. The bows, arrows, quiver and cloth in which they were usually kept 
together with the dresses worn by the archers, were all sacred, and under 
the especial care of persons regularly appointed to keep them. It was 
usually practised as a most honourable recreation between the residents of a 
place and their guests. The sport was generally followed either at the foot 
of a mountain or on the sea-shore. My house in the valley of Haamene, at 
Huahine, stood very near an ancient rahi te-a—plaee of archery. Before 
commencing the game, the parties repaired to the marae, and performed 
several ceremonies; after which they put on the archer's dress, and proceeded 
to the place appointed. They did not shoot at a mark ; it was therefore only 
were made of the light, tough wood of the purau; and were, when unstrung, 
perfectly straight, about five feet long; an inch, or an inch and a quarter, in 
diameter in the centre, but smaller at the ends. They were neatly polished, 
and sometimes ornamented with finely braided human hair, or cinet of the 
fibres of the cocoanut husk, wound round the ends of the bow in alternate 
rings. The string was of romaha, or native flax; the arrows were made of 
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