328 Memoirs Bcrnicc P. BisJiop Miiscitiu 



chisels is much less satisfactory. It is certain that the Alarquesans, like the 

 Maori, did employ hafted chisels, but no old specimens are now extant. 



Adz Haftings 



Only three hafted adzes were seen and one of these was made by the in- 

 formant who made the chisels. The other two specimens were of considerable 

 age, and all three agreed closely in form. The blades in all three specimens were 

 of toki kuuina type. The use of other forms of blade may have necessitated 

 slight changes in the form of the haft. 



Adz handles were usually made of fau wood, care being taken to select old 

 trees as the young shoots are too soft and brittle for the purpose. In one chant 

 the use of noni roots is indicated and in another that of iiiio wood (Handy per- 

 sonal correspondence). A branch and a section of the trunk immediately above 

 it were detached, and the natural hook thus obtained was worked down into a 

 more or less smoothly rounded elbow having the two sides of unequal length. 

 The long arm served as the handle and was made from the branch, the short arm 

 to which the blade was attached, was made from the trunk. The entire haft was 

 thickest at the curve of the elbow, the diameter of the two arms gradually de- 

 creasing toward their ends. A socket for the blade was cut in the outer surface 

 of the short arm. The upper end of this socket was at about the level of the inside 

 of the curve at the elbow. The form of this socket naturally varied with that of 

 the blade it was intended to accommodate. In all the specimens seen, the socket 

 was flat, running the entire width of the handle and being cut squarely across, or 

 only slightly rounded at the upper end, but many of the blades collected must have 

 required a socket semicircular or triangular in cross section, and tapering toward 

 the upper end so as to fit the contour of the blade accurately. 



The tang was wrapped in two or three thicknesses of tapa, which were so 

 arranged that they intervened everywhere between the stone and the lashings, and 

 socket. The purpose of this wrapping was to increase the friction of the 

 lashings and keep them from loosening. The lashings themselves were made of 

 three plait coconut fiber cord of medium weight, and althotigh carefully laid on 

 were not ornamental in the specimens seen. According to informants ornamental 

 lashings of red and black sennit were used on at least some special adzes. 

 (Handy, personal correspondence.) 



The arrangement of the lashings in two specimens was very simple, con- 

 sisting of a single cord beginning at the lower end and passing round the blade 

 and haft. The loose lower end of the cord was carried back up the inner surface 

 of the haft and held in place by the subsequent turns of the lashing. The upper 

 end was thrust down under the two or three uppermost laps on the inner surface 



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