once a far more widespread and important weapon in Oceania than it is at present. [1]
In Polynesia it is only definitely known to have been used as a weapon in Tonga[2]and Samoa[3]. In Tahiti the use of the bow in war is doubtful[4]but it was used to shoot at a mark in sport and it is difficult to understand the existence of archery as a sport if the bow had not once had a more serious use. In other parts of Polynesia the bow is used in sport especially to kill rats, and also to shoot birds and fish for food. Here again there can be little doubt that these uses are only survivals of a time when it was employed as a weapon. What little doubt remains is dissipated when we find that the word for the how of Polynesia is often pana, fana, or ana, formss of a widespread word for the bow in Oceania and used in places where the bw is the chief weapon.
In Melanesia the conditions are much as in Polynesisa, the bow and arrow being used as a toy or to shoot birds and fish in places where there is evidence of its former use in war.
In New Britain the bow is only used in war by the Kilenge people of the north coast[5] and since they obtain it from the people of New guinea it might be thoughtful that it has only recently been introduced. The bow is used in war in the middle of New Ireland but the people at the southern
- ↑ This evidence has been recently fully set out and discussed by Friederici, op. cit., pp. 119—133.
- ↑ Mariner's Tonga, Vol. i, p. 283 and Vol. ii. p. 287.
- ↑ Wilkes, Narrative U. S. Exploring Expedition, 1845, p. 151.
- ↑ Sec Appendix A.
- ↑ Danks, Rep. Austral. Assoc., 1892, p. 619; Kleintitschen, Die Kusstenbewohner der Gazelle-Halbinsel, Hiltrup, (preface dated 1906), p. 212; Brown, Melanessians and Polynesians, p. 324; and Friederici, Op. cit., p. 119.
