Linton — The Marquesas Islands 389 



but as these could be captured by other and much easier methods its seems 

 probable that the shooting was a sport, and that the bow was only a toy. No 

 Marquesan bows seem to have survived, but according to information obtained 

 by Handy they were made of guava or toa wood while the arrows consisted of 

 shoots of bamboo, pointed at one end. The arrows, and the species of bamboo 

 from which they were made, were called kolic. The bow string was called alio. 

 The form of the musical bows now in use would suggest that Marquesan bows 

 were semi-circular in cross section, with a flat outer and rounded inner surface, 

 but this is purely surmise. 



Elaborately made slings were employed in warfare, while a smaller and 

 cruder form was used by boys as a toy. These toy slings were made from ti 

 leaves, which were braided together to form the cords, while the pocket was 

 formed by the natural width of the leaf. In use the long end of the cord was 

 wrapped around the hand and the short, or release end, held between the thumb 

 and fino-er. 



'fci^ 



WEAPONS 



Every Marquesan tribe was normally at war with its neighbors, but the 

 warfare does not appear to have been of a very deadly character, consisting for 

 the most part of desultory raids for heads or to capture victims for sacrifice. 

 The native armament was entirely offensive and consisted of slings, and 

 of various types of spears and clubs. The bow, although known, appears never 

 to have been used in war. 



In spite of their knowledge of the sling, stones thrown by hand played an 

 important part in Marquesan warfare, the shorter range of such missiles being 

 compensated for by their greater accuracy. Any Marquesan battlefield would 

 offer an abundance of ammunition, and, to judge from the modern natives, a 

 stone throwing warrior would be decidedly dangerous up to forty or fifty yards. 



SLINGS 



Slings, with specially prepared sling stones, were used for all long range 

 fighting. The stones were oval or double conical and sometimes weighed as 

 much as half a pound (PI. lxx, B). They were made of heavy close grained 

 rock and the specimens seen were symmetrically pecked, but unground. Porter 

 (49, pp. 86-87) says that they were highly polished by rubbing against the 

 bark of a tree. According to one informant, round sling stones were also used, 

 but the only specimen seen appeared to be unworked. In battle the stones were 

 carried in nets slung from the waist, or, in sea fights, were piled in the bottom 

 of the canoe. 



[129] 



