32 ANNALS OF THE QUEENSLAND MUSEUM, No. 6 
PAPUAN CHARMS. 
A recent gift of this kind, received from Captain F. R. Barton, 
has led to a renewal of the interest felt in the charms previously 
collected in the Island, and brought from it hither. One, at least, 
of these, a shaped stone (Plate XIV), appears to merit some con- 
sideration on account of its unusual and possibly exotic form. The 
only information supplied with it is given by the attached label, 
which reads, " Sorcery charm, Mekeo,' 1 Mekeo being a village inland 
from Hall Sound, a little to the north of Port Moresby. The 
charm is biconical in shape, circular in section, 210 mm. in length, 
and 58 in maximum thickness ; its material a coarse but very 
hard sandstone, shewing a few small enclosures of black shale. 
One of its conical portions is the longer, 125 mm., and tapers 
rapidly with an outline of increasing curvature to a rather sharp 
point. The shorter one contracts similarly, but to a much broader 
extremity. Over the line of junction of the two rises a strong 
annular ridge or flange, and the shorter one is on one of its sides 
channelled throughout its length by a broad shallow groove, which 
cuts through the flange and passes a little beyond it. It is highly 
improbable that a stone so carefully wrought should have been 
made expressly for magical purposes. Savage mummery does not 
call for the aid of art, but of artfulness. Still less likely is it that 
a stone prepared for sorcery usage should have accidentally received 
a form which eminently fitted it for a practical use. We have 
only to fit the butt end as far up as the flange will allow into a 
suitable perforation in a straight haft, insert a wooden wedge 
into the further end of the groove, drive it home, and we may 
go forth with a very effectively mounted club for hostile or pick 
for peaceful purposes — as, for example, sago extraction. Still 
another use appears to have been found, if not intended, for the 
implement. The surface of the extremity of its broad butt end 
has evidently been subjected to so much attrition that it has 
been worn down on one side to a smooth convex facette, with edges 
very obvious to the touch. It is plain that if this acquired surface 
be not an effect of natural causes, the stone has at one time been 
employed as a grinding instrument, in fact, as a pestle. Considered 
from this point of view, it has a remarkable resemblance to a 
pestle figured by Mr. S. Powers, in the United States Geographical 
and Geological Survey of the Rocky Mountains, Vol. 3, opposite 
p. 432, where, speaking of the Californian tribe of the Yokuts, 
on the slopes of the Sierra Nevada, in the vicinity of King's River 
and Lake Tulare, he has the following : " The few and simple 
