148 SOME PREHISTORIC ARTEFACTS FROM NEW GUINEA 
ceremonial purposes only. In New Zealand, a highly conven- 
tionalized greenstone hook (hei matau) was used in rites to 
ensure success in important fishing expeditions, and also as 
a personal ornament. The Jiei matau can probably be identi- 
fied as the hook of Maui, who in Polynesian legend pulled 
the land up out of the ocean with a hook. This legend, or 
variants of it, is found throughout Polynesia. As well as 
these stone hooks, ceremonial hooks of other materials (wood, 
bone and shell) are found at several places in the Pacific. 
As the Lilli r and Manus hooks are made from such com- 
paratively brittle material, it is probable that they were used 
only for ceremonial or ritual purposes. In their form, how- 
ever, there is nothing to suggest that they are types which 
have lost their utility and become. conventionalized. In this 
regard it should be remembered that many primitive hooks 
were not intended to be penetrative, like the modern hook, 
but were merely bait-holders. Those shown in Fig. 5 are in 
this class. 
Obsidian Blade Implement 
From the District of Talasea, New Britain. National 
Museum, Melbourne. Reg. No. 43304. Fig. 7a. 
The circumstances of the finding of this implement are not 
known, but it was collected in the District of Talasea by 
Father Schumm. 
It has been made from a long parallel-sided flake, of 
remarkable symmetry, struck from a prepared core. The 
flake has been fractured at one end and, as in the case of the 
Lihir hook, the sharp upturned edge of the fracture has been 
slightly trimmed do-wn. The “handle” end has been shaped 
by secondary chipping from both front and back. The func- 
tion or use of tlie implement is not known. 
Chipping from both front and back, so that the edge is in 
the mediai plane, is a specialized technique requiring con- 
siderable skill. Apart from the three implements described, 
only one other example of this technique is known from the 
Western Pacific ; a large obsidian axe from the Yodda Valley, 
Papua (10). The rarity of such artefacts clearly shows them 
to bo ancient, and their technique indicates that they all 
probably belong to the same culture. 
Selignian (11) has called attention to the similarity in form 
and material between the Yodda Valley axe and the obsidian 
spearheads of Easter Island, and has suggested that they may 
possibly be related. Metraux (12), however, has pointed out 
that the great distance separating the two localities and the 
