[Note: this transcription was produced by an automatic OCR engine]

WARFARE 215
Deacon describes only one
variety of ï¬Åghting spear, and
this, too, belongs to the South-
West Bay region. It is called
by the people of Seniang mamas
(which is probably the generic
term for all kinds of spear) and
is made from a single pole
of mm wood. Even to-day
apparently a steel knife is not
used for shaping it (perhaps
because the cuts made with
such an instrument might go
too deep and so weaken the
shaft), but it "is ï¬Årst scraped
with a talai meuriis shell (P a
variety of bivalve) and then_,
at 1ow'tide, it is pushed back
wards and forwards over the
limestone of the reef (nimbtir).
Having been shaped by these
means, the shaft is smoothed
further by being scraped with
a. piece of oyster shell j(netu
miong) and polished with‘-ai
variety of river weed called
noosin nimbetepll
That there are other kinds
of spear is certain from the
accounts and photographs given
by Speiser (1923, pls. 49, 50),
but unfortunately the exact
source of origin of his specimens
is not determined, nor can we
be sure as to whether they
were all used for ï¬Åghting or
whether some of them may
not have been employed on
1 Nimbmp = “ the bread fruit " ;
naosin wimbztep has, however, nothing
to do with the bread-fruit tree, but is
an unidentiï¬Åed variety of river weed.-
A. B. D.

FIG. 12. Three Malekulan arrow-heads,
showing method of attaching the
bone point and the characteristic
carving on the hard -wood fore-shaft.