Linton — The Marquesas Islands 395 



The Hawaiian and Micronesian slings are much cruder in construction than the 

 Marc|uesan sHngs, and have httle in common with them. The Marciuesan and 

 Society shngs, on the other hand, are practically identical, corresponding not only 

 in form, but even in such minor details as the occasional use of fau bark for the 

 release cord. It is rather curious that such close correspondence should be 

 coupled with the use of prepared stones in the Marquesas and their absence in 

 the Society Islands. 



The information on Marquesan spears is too incomplete to justify extensive 

 comparison, but it is suggestive that the practise of emitting or piercing the shafts 

 of javelines so that the head would break off in the wound appears to have been 

 limited to the Marc[uesas and New Zealand. The thrusting spear with long 

 easily broken barbs appears to have no Polynesian parallel, but is rather suggestive 

 of certain north Australian forms. 



A comparison of Polynesian club forms is especially interesting. The 

 Hawaiians seem to have made only secondary use of the club, and the Hawaiian 

 examples for the most part are short bludgeon-like weapons of rather inferior 

 workmanship. There are some indications that a longer bat-like type was also 

 in use, but it seems to have been numerically unimportant. The Marquesans 

 seem to have entirely lacked short clubs, both their types, the uu and paddle 

 club, being heavy and of unwieldy length. The natives of the Society Islands 

 used clubs of two types, one a short bludgeon, the other a long club with a sharp 

 edged lozenge shaped head. Examples of the long club examined strongly re- 

 semble the spears of the Cook Islands which in turn, appear to be copies of 

 metal prototypes. The Maoris used several types of club which seem to fall 

 into two classes, long staves and short, sharp edged weapons, such as the mere. 

 The Maori weapons are well known. In Samoa and Tonga we iind a great 

 variety of clubs, most of which are of types also found in Fiji. These weapons 

 have been fully described by Churchill (6g). As a whole they show 

 little resemblance to the forms found in marginal Polynesia. Even the nuclear 

 Polynesian paddle clubs bear much less resemblance to those of the Marquesas 

 than the Marquesan ones show to some Melanesian weapons, notably those from 

 the Solomon Islands. 



No clubs at all resembling the INIarquesan uu appear in other parts of 

 Oceania, and it seems certain that it is a local development. If we ignore its 

 decoration we find that the uu differs from the paddle club only in the thickening 

 of the end and the lateral knobs. The handles of the two types are identical, and 

 in both the head has a rounded outline, flat oval cross section, and sharp edges. 

 It is evident that the uu as a whole represents a highly conventionalized face to 

 which the knobs bear the relation of ears. As projecting ears are a common fea- 



[135] 



