File:Handbook to the ethnographical collections (1910) (14596818477).jpg

Identifier: handbooktoethnog00brit (find matches)
Title: Handbook to the ethnographical collections
Year: 1910 (1910s)
Authors: British Museum. Dept. of British and Mediaeval Antiquities and Ethnography Joyce, Thomas Athol, 1878-1942 Dalton, O. M. (Ormonde Maddock), 1866-1945
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Publisher: (London) : Printed by order of the Trustees
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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Fig 102—Ceremonial axe with jade blade, the handle bound withflying-fox fur braid. New Caledonia. THE PAPUASIANS 125 where except in pari of the Solomon Ishands ; here fineh-madeplank-built canoes are found, often ornamented with shell inlay.Large double canoes are built in Fiji, New Caledonia, and NewGuinea ; these are furnished with sails, and are capable of perform-ing considerable voyages. Thus pottery is traded along the coastof New Guinea ; drums, arrows, and clubs from New Guinea toTorres Straits, &c. Various forms of currency are in use in different islands, butstrings of small shell discs are universal; other forms are whalesteeth (Fiji); flying-fox-fur braid (New Caledonia); mats (NewHebrides) ; arrows (Torres Island); feathers (Santa Cruz); por-poise-teeth and shields (Solomon Islands); stone axes (NewGuinea).
Text Appearing After Image:
Fig. 103.—Pottery vessels from Fiji. The inhabitants of all the islands were living, at the time oftheir discovery, in the stone age; the implements of the Tasmaniansconsisted mainly of rudely chipped stone flakes of palaeolithictype. Elsewhere in this area the chief tool is the adze or axe,with polished blade of stone or shell (figs. 10 and 101); the latterin the New Hebrides (fig. 121), Banks Islands, Santa Cruz, andlocally in New Guinea. Of the stone blades the best are thejade ceremonial axes of New Caledonia (fig. 102), and the fineadzes manufactured on Murua and traded thence to New Guinea.Stone pestles and mortars are found in the ground in south-eastNew Guinea, but the natives do not know their use and regardthem as charms ; in fact the food of the present-day native doesnot require sucli implements in its preparation. Obsidian, whereit occurs, and sharks teeth are used in carving, and shells andbamboo splinters as knives. The best pottery is made in Fiji (fig. 103) and New

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