174 G. A. J. VAN DER SANDE. 



elsewhere the apparently primitive instrument continues to be used, even in those parts where 

 ironware lias penetrated; there is no reason to accept a priori PLEYTE's supposition [1887, 588], 

 that a religious reason is at the bottom of the partiality for the old instrument. 



The collection still contains two s a go strainers of Ingrâs (N os . 599 — 600, PI. XX, 

 fig. 2) made of string, with the simple '•figure eight" stitch (fig. 9), in a wooden ring. N°. 601, 

 (PI. XX, fig. 3) of Kwatisoré, lias the shape of a basket, as illustrated by De CLERCQ and 

 SCHMELTZ [1893, PI. XVI, figs. 1, 3 and 22] of Geelvink Bay and the western islands. The 

 material for this strainer consists of strips of the sago leaf stalk (N°. 602). 



Next to the sago club the stone hatchet is the most important agricultural instru- 

 ment. The hatchet of Papua Tâlandjang, however, has 110 thin, flat blade, as seen in eastern 

 parts (Seligmann [1906, 353]), the stone is more chisel-like, having near the edge a biconvex, 

 transverse section (trans verse to the edge). As a rule the instrument is used to knock off 

 superficial scales, whereby the convex shape prevents the edge of the hatchet going deeply 

 into the wood, being driven again to the surface. The fastening of the stone in the stone- 

 holder, is done by rattan rings, which, by being forced along the conically shaped wood, 

 cause the highest degree of tightness. This is necessary because the strokes with the hatchet 

 are so much heavier than those of the sago club. Such tightening rings are also applied to 

 the handle, generally at both sides of the socket. Hère it should again be noticed that the 

 handle is conical towards the socket, and that the rattan rings, plaited on the thinner part, 

 are only afterwards forced down towards the thicker part, by knocking on them with small 

 hammers, like N os . 705 — 709, thus stretching the rings to the utmost and making the tighten- 

 ing as strong as possible. Besides, as in the case of the sago club, a rattan string is gene- 

 rally strained in the sharp angle between the holder of the hatchet and the handle, as already 

 illustrated by MOSELY [1879, 445]. Notwithstanding ail thèse précautions, some of the 13 

 hatchets (X os . 603 — 615), which ail corne from Lake Sentàni, are cracked near the socket. 



I must still remark that the handle is always more or less ornamented by carvings; 

 those most constantly occurring are the circular carvings, which prevent the string from slip- 

 ping, but a pointed ornament, of which the meaning is unknown to me, and which shows in 

 N°. 610 a splitting like a fish tail, also often occurs, mostly on the back part, but sometimes 

 along the whole circumference as well. 



On the handles of small hatchets like X os . 616 and 617 there are no tightening rings, 

 and the great number of indents do not occur either; (See Meyer [1883, PI. 6, fig. 7]). 

 Finally N°. 618, PI. XX, fig. 8, of Kaptiau, which also lacks the indents and the tightening 

 string, is distinguished by a button-shaped thickening at the end of the handle, which reminds 

 one of a glans pénis. 



The material of the hatchet consists of chloromelanite, amphibolite or gabbro. 

 The expédition was lucky enough to find a deposit of chloromelanite in the Torâre 

 River, near Sàgeisârà, on the northern slopes of the Cyclops Mountains. On the tree, lying 

 across the river (fig. ni), several pièces of différent sizes, dug out of the river sand are to 

 be seen. The people of Asé also fetched the material from the Cyclops Mountains, in pièces 

 of ± 30 Kilos, fastened with rattan to the middle of a carrying pôle for two men. Such an 

 excursion, there and back, they could make in one day, from which I présume that the place 

 where this material was found is situated on the southern slopes and is not the Torâre River. 



