ETHNOLOGY HEDLEY. 



253 



similarly. This tool plays the part in Polynesia which the toma- 

 hawk takes in Australia ; in a native's hand it does duty for half 

 the tools in a carpenter's kit, a keen edge is always kept on the 

 blade, which is used with skill, speed and accuracy. The Funafuti 

 natives when carrying, an adze usually prefer rather to hook it over 

 the shoulder than to grasp it in the hand. I observed the same trick 

 in British New Guinea and in the Dentrecasteaux Archipelago. 

 Keate figures a native of the Pelew Islands in this posture,* and 

 Moseley another from the Admiralty Islands, f 



The original of fig. 18 was a parting gift from 

 my Polynesian friend its owner, whose name 

 is carved upon the handle. In weight it is 

 fourteen ounces, and in length seventeen and 

 a half inches. The handle, the shape of the 

 Arabic numeral 7, is highly polished by hand 

 friction, it differs from that of the Tridacna 

 adze only in the blade being let in for a greater 

 length, but a quarter of the length of the iron 

 projecting beyond the wood. This is an ordinary 

 European plane-iron sunk in a bevel, 'and is 

 attached by interlaced sinnet as described in the 

 case of the Tridacna axe. From the Admiralty 

 Islands an almost identical specimen was pro- 

 cured by the " Challenger " Expedition. J 



The Rotatory Adze is constructed with such 

 mechanical ingenuity that it is difficult to 

 believe it to be an indigenous possession of a 

 people so low in the state of civilisation as the 

 subject of our study. From negative evidence 

 I judge that the Rotatory Adze formed no part of the Polynesian 

 heritage, but that its presence in Funafuti is due to that inter- 

 course with the Gilberts which conferred so many benefits upon 

 the southern archipelago. [| 



For a contrivance of so much interest the Rotatory Adze 

 appears to have attracted scanty notice in ethnological literature. 

 The mechanical principle of this tool has in the Pacific developed 

 three expressions. 



* Keate op. cit., plate facing p. 55. 



t Moseley Journ. Anthrop. Inst., vi., 1877, pi. xxiii., fig. 2.' 



I Moseley Challenger Beports Narrative, i.,pt. ii.,1885, p.716, fig. 247. 



In Java a reversible axe-adze Was used, the liead being bound on with 

 raw hide, and in Central Africa another reversible axe-adze was employed. 



|| But the following sentence in a description of Hawaiian tools indicates 

 apparently that the Kotatory Adze existed there. " In a form much used 

 for the interior work of a canoe, the stone is so mounted as to turn to 

 one side or the other, thus becoming, as needed, a right or left-hand 

 adze." Cat. Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum," pt. i., 1892, p. 43. 



Fig. 18. 



