234 G - A - J- VAN DER; SANDE. 



erroneous. The Utrecht collection contains one (N°. 478), brought by BlNK under the name 

 t'kat'l from H. B. and indicated as a driver; the real use was not known until now. Made 

 ehtirely of heavy palmwood, this small instrument belongs to the stone period in as far as 

 it serves exclusively, or principally, in manufacturing the two principal instruments of this 

 period, viz. the stone sago club and the stone hatchet. It has to be used in driving the 

 plaited or twisted lashings along the conical handle and stone-holder, from the thinner to 

 the thicker part, until ail the stretching has disappeared and the requisite degree of jamming 

 has been obtained. By this use it has become an important, yea, indispensable tool, and in 

 accordance with this is the beautiful manner in which ail thèse objects are carved, the snake- 

 like line and also the fish-ornament often occurring. 



The préparation of bark is in Papua Tâlandjang a very common work, as hère 

 the bark forms almost exclusively the dress of the married women. Like elsewhere, this 

 préparation is done by the women. At Asé a pièce of a sapling of ± 2 m. in length and 

 12 — 14 cm. in diameter, eut off transversely at both ends, probably brought by the women 

 themselves from the forest or the garden in a boat, was lying on the ground. Evidently it 

 had been taken entirely out of the stem part, for I saw no traces of newly cut-off branches, 

 and knots were very rare. With a shell [C y rend) (N°. 710, PI. XXV, fig. 9), obtained, it 

 was said, from H. B., the top layer of greyish green bark was scraped off. A previous 

 heating or even a slight superficial charring of the stem, as described by SCHELLONG [1888, 

 221] of Finsch Harbour, had not taken place hère. After the scraping, the tree, as it was 

 lying, was beaten on the outside with a short pièce of wood, hère called, fèrnâ, always taking 

 care to beat neither transversely, nor lengthways, but in an angle of ±45°. Small drops of 

 moisture were issuing from the bark at each blow, and gradually this was beginning to lie 

 loosely round the stem, as it became too wide for it. Near and round the knots, the con- 

 nection between the wood and the bark hère so much closer, was relieved by slight blows. Con- 

 stantly turning the tree over, the whole surface was so treated, and after this the spot where 

 most knots occurred in the same longitudinal line was carefully selected for cutting the bark 

 open lengthways, in order to obtain a minimum of holes in the middle of the pièce. The 

 bark then dropped easily from the stem (fig. 144), except where, with a few knots, the connection 

 had still to be severed with a knife. From the inside of the flatly outstretched bark, a thin, 

 but tough, white fleece was now removed by lengthwise scraping with the shell, and after 

 this the beating proper began. 



By this beating the bark obtains a darker colour. Ail the time one or more large, 

 flat, round stones (N°. 711, PI. XXV, fig. 3), designated as gabbro, were lying under the spots 

 where the beating occurred. As long as the bark was still hard, it was lying extended, 

 after it had become more pliable under the beating, care was taken that the bark by a trans- 

 verse folding was lying ail the time in a four fold layer on the stone, carefully avoiding to 

 beat on the folds themselves, by which the fibres might break transversely (figs. 145 and 146). 

 During this préparation the bark lost plenty of moisture, it became thinner, broader and a 

 little shorter, but also looser; the fibres were hère and there so much parted from each 

 other in a transverse direction, that it became possible to look through the pièce. After 

 this, the article was placed for a longer or shorter period in the water, wrung, marâ pnjè 

 nugadidi, hard by two women, standing opposite each other, holding it lengthwise and 



