its edge parallel with the line of the handle was an impossibility, and an axe-like tool made by lashing the stone head to the side of the handle would be clumsy and ineffective.
Captain Cook remarking that “without the use of any metal tools they make everything,” mentions “the chisel and goudge of green serpent stone or jasper.” These were set in handles of hard wood to which they were attached with flax cord. The illustration (Figure 7) on page 28 shews at A. a chisel (purupuru) now in the British Museum. A greenstone drill with a facetted point, used for making the holes by which the top strakes of war canoes were lashed, is shewn at B. A gouge is represented at C. in the same drawing.
Figure 8Chisel work and extraordinary skill with it produced those masterpieces of wood carving of the Maori which are to be seen in their houses and gates, their war canoes and their monuments. Sir George Grey gave a remarkable instance of the pride of the native wood-carvers when he told how chiefs who had been late for an appointment with him, though he was the kawana, that is, the governor, excused themselves by explaining that they had been engrossed with their chisels.
Barbs made of greenstone and lashed to curved pieces of wood to serve as fish hooks are not common; two specimens, now in the British Museum, are illustrated in Figure 8. They were hard to make and easy to lose, and the material was too valuable to risk when bone, wood and shell answered as well for the purpose.
