34 
ANNALS OF THE QUEENSLAND MUSEUM, No. 6 
source. The Papuans do not worship utensils on account of their 
use to them in their labours. The stone in question is an object 
of awe to the people of Mekeo. As an implement, it is therefore 
unfamiliar to them, and any actual knowledge they have of its 
local manufacture or of its derivation must be more or less traditional. 
The probability of its having been recently brought amongst 
them is small. Without assuming that the stone implements 
of every tribe in British New Guinea are known, it may at least 
be said to be hardly probable that there will yet be discovered 
one of a type so distinct from those generally in use as the one 
before us. It is, of course, possible that it may have been introduced 
into the south-east of the island from a foreign source, and has been 
made a fetish or sorcery medium in forgetfulness or even in remem- 
brance of that source. The writer's knowledge of the stone weapons 
of Dutch and German New Guinea is not sufficient to assure him 
that it could not have come from one or the other, but so far as 
literary resources are open to him, he has failed to meet with a 
record of a similar one from New Guinea, Oceania, or elsewhere. 
Ringed stones and longitudinally grooved stones are to be found, 
but a combination of the two has been sought for without success. 
In Evan's " Ancient Stone Implements," we read of numerous ways 
of mounting stones for use, but find no mention of an implement 
grooved for the reception of a wedge on the one hand, and flanged 
for abutment against the haft on the other. Certainly such 
provisions for mounting may have been noticed elsewhere since 
1892, but till advised of this one cannot but suspect that however 
it is to be accounted for, the Mekeo stone points to a past state of 
Papuan art, and one more advanced along its particular path of 
development than is to be found at the present time in New Guinea. 
To revert to the occasion of the foregoing note. In the course of an 
expedition from the east coast into the interior, Captain Barton made 
acquaintance with mountain tribes on the head waters of the Musa, a 
river flowing into Dyke Acland Bay. One of the tribes is called by 
the coast people, who suffer from its raids, Domari, i.e., mountaineers. 
Observing a potsherd suspended from the neck of a man in each 
of two distinct tribes, he made inquiry, and found that they were 
worn as charms, and noticing moreover a peculiarity about the pots- 
herds themselves, he, on ethnology intent, effected a friendly 
transfer of them to his own possession, and subsequently with 
great kindness presented them to the Museum. The circumstance 
which chiefly attracted Captain Barton's attention to the shards 
was that they were suspended by handles. They are similar parts of 
the edge of two pots (Plate XII.). These, when entire, had thick 
flat lips slightly overhanging the inner surfaces, about 12 mm. 
broad, and expanded at opposite points, presumably into triangular 
projections, which at their apices, were continued outwards and 
downwards till they united with the body of the pot a little below the 
neck, the whole forming strong and well-shaped handles. In the 
