. The history of mankind . he head to the handle the rudest of all are the hatchets of the Easter Islanders, resembling ratherknives, knapped from obsidian or lava, very broad in the blade and short inthe handle. The axes of New Guinea and the neighbouring islands are often notinferior to these in size, but are more rounded ; being fastened not on butinto the handle. The Hawaiian axes, 8 to 16 inches long in the blade, arein size and shape more like those of New Zealand, but are flattened off wherethey are laid against the helve. Long, narrow, chisel-like stone blades are alsofound
. The history of mankind . he head to the handle the rudest of all are the hatchets of the Easter Islanders, resembling ratherknives, knapped from obsidian or lava, very broad in the blade and short inthe handle. The axes of New Guinea and the neighbouring islands are often notinferior to these in size, but are more rounded ; being fastened not on butinto the handle. The Hawaiian axes, 8 to 16 inches long in the blade, arein size and shape more like those of New Zealand, but are flattened off wherethey are laid against the helve. Long, narrow, chisel-like stone blades are alsofound in this region ; while the large ornamental axes of the Hervey Islands havethin blades of basalt of a spade-shape, often somewhat curved. The fitting of theaxe was everywhere essentially similar. Those which Cook brought from Tahiti 2o8 THE HISTORY OF MANKIND consisted of a wooden handle with an appendage like a heel projecting behind ; thestone-axe, flat above and two-edged underneath, is attached to the front part, which. Polynesian implements : i. Axe from Hawaii—one-sixth real size. 2. Adze with carved helve, probably fromNew Zealand. 3, 4. Hatchets from the Marquesas and Society Islands—one-sixth real size. 5. Obsidianspear-head from Easter Island—one-third real size. 6. Pair of compasses from the Society Islands—one-fourth real size. (1, 3, 4, 6, Christy Collection ; 2, 5, British Museum.) falls away at a slant, by means of a string which is first wound round the handle,then crosswise over the blade and the projection. Much care is devoted to the THE POLYNESIANS AND MICRONESIANS 209 winding of this string, notably by theHervey Islanders ; though, except inthe case of ornamental axes, the handleis not much smoothed. Of Micro-nesian axes the greater number haveblades of shell, chiefly from Terebramaculata and Tridacna gigas; thebroad back-bones of tortoises are alsoused. Curiously enough the Micro-nesians, as on Ponape, overlookedtheir admirably adapted stone, never
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectethnology, bookyear18
