246 



G. A. T. VAN DER SANDE. 



Fig. 152. 3/ 4 . 



Painted ornament 



on the head of 



N°. 1047: Thaë 



because on a few arrow heads of the district of Sêkâ spécial figures (figs. 152 and 153) had 

 been made with this pigment. A similar shiny, dry, colouring matter, I saw on bamboo heads 

 of boar arrows, and therefore certainly not to be looked upon as poisonous. Indeed, as yet, 

 poisonous weapons hâve never been proved with certainty of N. G. The ornamental arrows, 

 specially collected by some visitors on account of the outward appearance, give numerically 

 a wrong représentation of the armamentarium. Nevertheless, their frequency in H. B. is a 

 proof that just hère bow and arrow hâve reached the highest development. 

 Towards the east (FlNSCH [1888 — 93, 214]), as well as towards Pt. D' Urville, 

 the bows and more especially the arrows are much more simple ; e. g. the 

 ringing of the nodes, although never omitted, is done much more carelessly. 

 Above a grave at Ibaiso an arrow was stuck into the ground, and 

 on inquiry it was understood, that with this arrow the treacherous murder 

 of the buried person had taken place. It is, however, nothing unusual that 

 bow and arrows used by the deceased, are deposited on the grave. In 

 the fence round a grave at Asé (fig. 166), the bow of the deceased is to 

 be seen, stuck straight into the soil. Moreover, weapons are often treasured as 

 m e m e n t o e s : in the collection several spécimens occur, and amongst them 

 very elaborate ones, which are covered with a laver of greasy soot, having 

 been kept for years in the smoke of the fire places, and in a house at Angâdi, 

 I saw, lying on the cross beams of the roof a long, wide, bamboo cylinder, 

 containing a bundle of arrows of a deceased inhabitant. They were never to 

 be used, but were preserved in this way. 



The material of the bows is palm wood or bamboo. In Papua 

 Tâlandjang, as well as on the adjacent German territory the palm wood bow 

 is solely used, towards the east it is met with exclusively as far as P l . 

 D' Urville; in Geelvink Bay the bamboo bow already appears together with 

 Painted' ornament it, and further towards the west the distribution of both kinds is apparently 

 on the head of in-esmlar, both kinds being collected in the villages on the south coast of the 



IS 3 . 1062: Thaë. b & & 



MacCluer Gulf by De CLERCQ (De CLERCQ and SCHMELTZ [1893, 136]). 

 I found at Wâri (N°. 1246) and on Mios Kôrwâr (N°. 1247) exclusively the bamboo bow, 

 also with the tribe of the Manîkion (N°. 124S). At Angâdi, however, so close to the South- 

 west coast, where both kinds are met with (VAN DER GOES [1858, 109, 121]), the palm wood 

 bow is used (N°. 1241). 



Composite bows, of palm wood with a strengthening of bamboo fastened alongside, 

 as reported by VON LUSCHAN (KRIEGER [1899, 456, fig. 6]) of Sekâr, I hâve not seen anywhere. 



According to DE CLERCQ Arenga s ac c /tarifer a and Arec a Nibung are used 

 for the palm wood bow, according to HaGEN [1899, 61], a wild species of the last-named 

 palm, characterised by a greyish brown bark. ERDWEG [1902, 325] speaks of a Betle species, 

 with a soft core and describes the cutting of the bowstaffs out of the outer layers of the 

 stem. The inside surface of the palm wood (the inner side of the bamboo with the bamboo 

 bows) forms the front of the bowstaff and proves, as with most spécimens of the collec- 

 tion, plainly to be concave, (ERDWEG [1902, 324, fig. 224] draws the transverse section 

 biconvex), whilst the hard, outside part forms the back of the bowstaff. In many spécimens 



