FLOTSAM AND JETSAM

Hokitika Guardian, 7 December 1931, Page 7

FLOTSAM AND JETSAM

IN THE MUSEIUM STOREROOM Every house seems to have a lumberroom, a place where odds and ends may be kept until a use can be found for them. To this the War Memorial Museum, with its array of curosities, is no exception. Behind the scenes it has in its storeroom, and to the lover of orderly disorder perhaps this room is the most interesting part. Flotsam and jetsam representing various parts of the world are brought together and left. There is a queer old idol, of which the origin is uncertain, meeting the sombre gaze from across the wry of a medieval bishop. The mitred figure stands on the floor, near a mousetrap, while the idol is on a case full of New Guinea war clubs. Behind that again the stony eyes of the bishop hold the regard of the typical, grotesque, insistent stare of a Maori carved face. MEDLEY OF SPEARS AND WEAPONS. In one corner is a pile of Maori house carvings, some well preserved, some decayed and defaced. 11l front is stacked, like wood set to dry in a yard, MaOl’i paddles and agricultural implements, while on the ground lh front, most prominently, are two small cannon balls. One of these, touched with the foot, rolled until brought to rest by a great spear from •one of the Pacific Islands., The walls are lined with cases. There is more in the room than the cases can possibly hold. With their ends sticking out over the edges of the cases are all sorts of spears, used by all sorts of peoples, for all sorts of uses, at many different times. Yonder are the weapons of the black fellow crude vet e£ strangely delicate balance. Most of the South African “stuff,’’ as it is familiarly call'd by those who handle it, is in the show cases outside, but alongside the Australian collection is a Zulu stabbing assegai, that weapon without which T’chaka, the' king, made it death for his warriors to return after battle. GILBERT ISLAND SWORD. The majority of the spears of the Pacific Islands are of hardened barbed wood, rather than metal. But it seems that humanity has never needed to be shown how to make weapons cunningly cruel. There is a sword from the Gilbert Islands, cunningly carved and wrought of heart of palm wood; but the “blade” is made to do terrible injury. Jagged shark’s teeth have been shown in a spiral up the shaft from a barbed point, and when the thrust lias been made, the sword has turned, so that the weapon could sciU'cely he di'awll froth the wound. Nearby is a great pole Softie BO feet long, so balanced ahd pointed that it Would have tremendous driving force in a charge. These weapons arc stacked hi one corner, like clothes line props waiting for washing day, At their foot are queer little clubs, or “ulas”. A little further along the floor is a cardboard box, and in it is a strange collection. A headless Egyptian deity in alabaster, rubs shoulders with a preserved trap-door spider. Both are facing some Maori sinkers, while just over the edge of the box grin a couple of human skulls. A BOY’S DELIGHT. That room would delight a hoy—if boys still seek lancewood in the bush for bows and dried bracken for arrows. The bows are things of beauty. "When bent they sipg, just as did the great war bow of Ulysses long ago, when he returned to Ithaca, disguised as a beggar. These are utility bows, used in the jungles of New Guinea. Their strings are, some of them, made of sinews wound together, and the wood is borpd at either end to allow the passage of stringing. The arrows are of light wood, carefully carved and very deadly. As with the spears and the gworcls, they are also barbed and decorated. If they are less romantic than the bow of the "Wanderer, carelessly piled there cn a dusty case top, they yet , seem to tell a story of mysterious and sudden death. That the material in the _ cases has been catalogued and examined with care. In one there is a host of Maori curios, very many adazes, a great variety of sinkers- Curiously, all the fish-hooks are barbed, crude though the barbing may be. One wonders however they caught fish. Which of these might the mighty Maui have used, when his catch was Te Ika a Maui (the North Island?) GREAT TASK OF STAFF'. And so though the Polynesian section, one might pass, and wonder with idle curosity what each article was used for. Yonder is a drum and when the taunt lizard skin over one end was beaten the whole room was filled with sound. Into how mnnv savaxre hearts has suc-h music smitten terror? In the corners between the cases are more spears and shields, and on the floor beside a piece of whalebone vertebrae, still red f>' oai be ing used for ochre-mixine, there are two most delicately carved lime spa--ulae from Now Guinea. But though there is such apparent confusion in this room, the staff of the museum are busy sorting and cataloging, and creating order; hut it is a tremendous task, and there are a thousand and one jobs to be done.