252 



FUNAFUTI ATOLL. 



yield superior material inabundance, and it may fairly be assumed to 

 be restricted to the low coral islands of the Central Pacific. Edge- 

 Partington cites* these axes from Nukulailai, Nieue, the Gilberts, 

 and New Caledonia, the last I suspect to be erroneous. They were 

 observed by Whitmee (ante, p. 45) on Vaitupu. The Australian 

 Museum possess a series from Mortlock Island. A group of 

 these turtle axes is published by the former author under the 

 erroneous heading of "Bone War Axes."f As a matter of theory 

 these articles seem too light, weak, and clumsy, to serve a warrior; 

 the feel and balance of a real weapon, of however humble an 

 origin, is unmistakable and when gripped by even the hand of an 

 ethnological student can stir a man's blood with magic invitation. 

 As a matter of fact I have Mr. J. O'Brien's assurance that these 

 axes were kitchen utensils, used by the women to split coconuts 

 and chop the soft pandanus boughs. It answers, in fact, to the 

 wooden adze used in Tahiti for splitting breadfruit, f Turtle 

 axes from Matty Island differ from other known forms in having 

 the blade pinned instead of lashed to the handle. 



The model represented in fig. 17, has for handle 

 a round, fairly straight stick, sixteen inches long 

 and an inch thick. At the distal end a groove 

 three and a half inches long and a quarter of an 

 inch deep is cut to receive the head. This is a 

 trapezoid piece of turtle (Chelone midas) cara- 

 pace, six and a half inches long and, across the 

 blade, four broad, which is ground on its inner 

 surface to a chisel edge ; the proximal end is 

 pierced with two circular holes, through which 

 pass the strands of sinnet that firmly bind the 

 head to the handle. 



The ordinary form of adze, which every man 

 owns and reckons as his most useful possession, 

 is the plane-iron adze, the " toki " of Funafuti, 

 a word which reappears as " togi " in Tonga, 

 and " tosi " in Penrhyn Island, etc. The plane- 

 Fig. 17. iron adze is the direct descendant of the Tridacna 

 adze of ancient days, being used and mounted 



* Edge-Partington loc. cit., i.,pls. xiv., cxxxii. ; ii., pi. xciv. 



f Again (Journ. Anthrop. Inst., xxv.) a turtle-shell axe from Matty 

 Island is described as used in battle. The intrinsic evidence of the 

 description is not convincing, since an edge which would not slice cheese 

 is said to slice flesh. This Matty Island axe seems to me designed for 

 lopping pandanus fruit from the tree. In this paper the race inhabiting 

 Matty Island is not classified. A comparison of the articles described 

 there with those of Funafuti forcibly suggests to me a Polynesian source. 



J Ellis Polynesian Researches, i., 1832, p. 177, fig. 



Edge-Partington Journ. Anthrop. Inst., xxv., 1896, pi. xxiv., figs. 

 11, 12. 



