3q6 Memoirs Bcniicc P. Bisliof^ Miiscitm 



lure of ]\Iarqucsan figures it is (|uito possible that the kn(il)S might be added to 

 a paddle form on which a face had been carved with the itlea of rendering the 

 human likeness more complete. The thickening of the end is more difficult to 

 account for, but this also may have arisen from the native artistic convention 

 which calls for wide curves over the eyes. It is but a slight step from the paddle 

 club to the ;/;/. Evidence of the priority of the paddle club is ofifered by the use 

 of small replicas as chiefs' insignia. 



The distribution of narrow-bladed staves is especially interesting. In Poly- 

 nesia their use appears to have been limited to two localities, the Mar(|uesas and 

 New Zealand, with a related form in Easter Island. The Marcjuesan staves are 

 as a rule longer than those from New Zealand, but the blade form is practically 

 identical, the differences between the two types lying in the treatment of the 

 upper end, or head, which in New Zealand was usually carved into a head with a 

 ])rojecting", pointed tongue, and in the Marquesas was finished with a jximpom of 

 human hair. In both, the shaft immediately below the head was covered with a 

 woven sleeve. The Easter Island implements are clearly related to these staves, 

 but dififer from them in having a broader blade, no sleeve, and an upper end 

 carved into two heails placed back to back. The Marquesan staves grade into 

 the paddle clubs, although thev alwavs retain the characteristic decoration of the 

 head. As paddle clubs appear to be lacking in both New Zealand and Easter 

 Island it seems improbable that the stave was developed from this weapon. Cer- 

 tain Melanesian digging sticks now in the Field Museum are identical in blade 

 form with the Maori and Marquesan staves, and there are even a few examples 

 in which the up])er ends are carved and decorated. A. B. Lewis of the 

 Field Museum says that he has frequently seen digging sticks employed as staves 

 by the older men in Melanesia, and it would appear not improbable that the staves 

 of the Maori and Marquesans have been derived from some such tool. The fact 

 that the Maori stave was an important weapon does not militate against this as- 

 sumption, as even among the Maori digging sticks were sometimes used as 

 wea])ons while many of the Melanesian examples are known to have been used 

 interchangeably as tools and clubs. The Fijian chiefs' staves lack the flattened 

 blade, just as do manv of the Fiiian digi^ing sticks. 



It is rather curious that large weapons edged with sharks' teeth appear 

 to have been entirely lacking in the Marquesas, although at least two forms were 

 in use in the Society Islands (Ellis, 71, p. 297, p. 413). 



\\'eapons resembling the Marquesan double ])ointed spike (akc Iicjiita), 

 were rather comnKin in Hawaii, while a related form was important in the 

 Society Islands. Their use in Samoa and Tonga seems doubtful, although the 

 data from those islands is still too incomplete to allow of a definite statement. 



[136] 



