FIGHTING WEAPONS

Evening Star, Issue 21219, 28 September 1932, Page 6

FIGHTING WEAPONS

PACIFIC AND FURTHER AFIELD GIFT TO MUSEUM BY DR RILEY'S FAMILY A valuable collection of 250 pieces of fighting weapons, mostly from the Pacific regions, and a few from further afield, have been presented to the Otago University Museum by the family of the late Dr F. 11. Riley. Among the gifts are pistols, swords, and daggers of Asiatic and European types. The pistols are flint-locks of the service type, used 100 years ago by the cavalry. The cutlasses are of about the same period. Some unusually fine pieces, principally clubs, are in the collection from the New Hebrides. The merit of the individual pieces is remarkably high, and the majority of the clubs will go into the permanent collection of the museum. The warriors of that group favoured a considerable variety of clubs. All are of wood, and some of them must have been particularly deadly. The New Hebrides are also well represented in spears, one group being composed of spears villianously barbed with human bone, the bones being directed forward and not backward, as with spear-heads from other islands.

From the Solomons the late Dr Riley obtained paddles, fighting clubs, and, notably, spears. The bone on the spear-jiead is the wing-bone of the notoriously destructive flying fox. There is also a. beautiful collection of old-time Maori clubs, carved and decorated with tassels. The majority of the weapons are stone-cut. Among the objects from Samoa is a many-legged kava bowl. A tappa, made from the bark of one species of the paper mulberry, is also in the collection, while there is included a bold Fiji mat in black-and-white.

Feather and shell work, and some striking specimens of daggers cut from volcanic glass comprise the representation in the gift of the Admiralty Islands. Two spears also have heads of volcanic glass. The skill of the Maori in fashioning implements by which to eke out an existence is illustrated by the splendid collection of stone tools, one or two beautiful specimens being of greenstone. The tools were intended for wood work, and were remarkably efficient. A beautiful series of Fijian clubs, many of them unusuallly large and wonderfully finished, has also been presented by the late Dr Riley’s family. The most interesting of the clubs is one with its handle decorated with a purely Maori design. This decoration was no doubt executed in Fiji by some early Maori visitor, who had, perhaps, shipped before the mast of a sandalwood ship or a whaler. There are records of Maoris having been shipped on these vessels from the Bay of Islands at the beginning of the nineteenth century, and it was doubtless one of those migrants who was responsible for this club’s pattern. Also from Fiji comes an exquisitely finished wooden sleeping pillow: New Britain and New Guinea are represented by a group of stone-headed clubs, decorated with finely-plaited rattan and feathers.

The finest piece in the whole collection is a splendidly carved and finished spear from the Austral Islands, lying south of Tahiti. This spear is not only of extreme rarity, but of unusual beauty in its finish. Altogether, the gift from the Riley family is a handsome accession to the museum.

An acquisition to the Tahitian section is a fish god, in the shape of & stone fish, the native name of which is puna. No doubt, anybody with knowledge of fish in Tahitian waters would recognise the species. The god is a fine piece of Tahitian sculpture, as the natives worked with stone impleriients. The god conveys the characteristics of the fish with striking realism. The pieces were set up in shrines on the coast opposite the fishing grounds. When an expedition was going to the grounds, offerings were made at the shrine and the head of the puna was turned towards the grounds. This remarkable example of Tahitian stone sculpture was purchased through the Fols fund from a dealer in Papeete.