plaited network. A water vessel in my possession is ornamented thus.—(Fig. 55.)
|
| FIG. 55. |
The people of New Caledonia, it appears, do not decorate their clubs or other weapons. Only one of the specimens in my possession is marked in any way. They are good artists, however, and scratch figures on wood with neatness and skill. A stick in my collection, about five feet in length and two inches in diameter, is entirely covered with drawings, and many of the forms are very cleverly executed.
It is to be regretted that it is not possible to show here all the various forms of ornamentation in use in the islands of the Pacific. Better perhaps than language—better perhaps than the physical aspect or color of the peoples—they would suggest affinities which by research might be established. It is worthy of note that the spears of the North Australians are ornamented nearly in the same manner as the arrows of the South Sea Islanders. They carve on them bands, filled in with longitudinal lines, which alternate with blank spaces, and the lines are colored—in the arrows usually with a black pigment, and in the spears with red or yellow ochre.
