Similarities and coincidences in labour and implements of labour

Fishing float
from the Solomon Islands
length approx. 1260mm
(Christy Collection)

Owing to the larger number of land animals in Melanesia, increasing as it does westward, hunting still plays an important part. In New Guinea many villages subsist mainly upon it, and in districts where certain birds of paradise are found, the right of hunting them is reserved for the chiefs. Meanwhile, in the Polynesians we have a branch of mankind to whom not only all the influences of pastoral life, but also the bracing effects of the chase, have remained unknown. In Hilo, indeed, ducks are captured by means of floating sticks, fitted with baits, and weighted with stones, and small birds are caught in Tahiti; otherwise there is no hunting of any importance. Who can say whether the total impossibility of finding game to provide an outlet for the desire to slay and torture, for ambition and active impulses, has been as responsible for the incessant wars and the cruelty of man towards man as the lack of larger animals' flesh has been an incentive to cannibalism? The decay of projectile weapons must in any case be connected with this.

Fishing, on the other hand, is all over the region pursued with energy and diligence; it takes a distinct place in the weekly division of labour. In New Guinea the custom is to fish by detachments on fixed days, and to distribute the catch equally among all members of the tribe. The appearance of a shark puts whole villages into commotion; in time of peace distinguished persons take the command of fishing expeditions just as in time of war they lead troops. The most perfect implements that the Polynesians generally possess are employed in this work. The New Zealanders used to make nets 500 yards long, requiring hundreds of hands to handle them. Hooks of every size are manufactured from birds' bones, tortoiseshell, sea-shells, and hard wood, and fitted with artificial baits made of feathers or bright pieces of shell. Those used in the capture of sharks, a popular article of diet, are as much as 20 inches long. It is only in New Caledonia and some parts of Western Melanesia that the fishing is limited to what can be done with arrows, spears, and nets. In general the fish-hooks of the Melanesian isles are excellent; even white men prefer them to the European steel hooks.

Boat-builders, as we have mentioned, were sacred; but the manufacturers of ropes, fishing-lines, and fish-hooks were reckoned at least as important persons. Property in these articles was so abundant that in the early times they were frequently a medium of exchange against European goods. The strongest hooks were composed of three pieces: the body consisting of a semicircular finger-shaped piece of the bone of the cachalot or sperm-whale, the flat under side of which was inlaid with mother-of-pearl. On its upper side the tortoiseshell hook was fastened with string - the point in the larger specimens being pierced for a string to hold the bait. When these tortoiseshell hooks became blunt or broken they were able to do further service in necklaces. We may mention here the simple but ingenious Tahitian arrangement for carrying fish - a strong cord with a boar's tooth at each end. For the shark-fishing, large lumps of bait are used; for the flying fish, an obtuse-angled, sharp-pointed piece of bone.

Shark-trap with wooden float, from Fiji. (Berlin Museum.)

Floats, sinkers, baler, and war-spears,
from New Caledonia (Vienna Museum.)

In New Britain they employ also standing fish-traps made of plaited work, and hand-nets which are held from a moving boat with the hilt-like end dropped into the water. For the same purpose the Fijians make a kind of floating bow-net from the long stems of climbing plants, plaited through with coco-palm leaves. In Trobriand a kind of rattle of coco-nut shells half cut through serves to entice the sharks. Vegetable poisons, especially one from a climbing glycine, are used for stupefying the fish; sleepy fishes, such as sharks, are said to be taken in Fiji with nooses.

A great number of ceremonies and festivities are connected with the turtle-fishery. This is carried on by means of weighted nets, which are thrown into deep water close outside the reef, in such a way as to form a semicircular fence and block the way of the turtles returning from the land. The animals are driven into these nets by shouts, but the main work is to get them on board. For this purpose people are required of conspicuous dexterity and strength to dive at the critical moment and drive the animal to the surface; when it is fairly on its back in the boat, loud blasts of the shell trumpet announce the joyful intelligence. D'Albertis saw skulls of turtles hung up in the temple of Tawan as offerings. In stormy weather the Hawaiians put out in their little fishing boats to catch dolphins, and many a fisherman going too far in pursuit of the school - the position of which is indicated by the birds in the air - has been cast away and lost.

A New Zealand trawl-net. (Munich Ethnographical Museum.)
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In the matter of breeding animals, the first mention must be made of pigs. Wherever these occur they take a prominent position. They are pampered: in Tahiti and New Britain the little ones are suckled by women, and fed by old women; or, after the fashion of capons, literally stuffed with bread-fruit dough. They are slaughtered at high festivals, and reserved exclusively for the upper classes. Next to the pig, the dog is the only domestic animal of any size. The breed is a small one resembling the breed of the Negroes, with no bark. In New Guinea, New Zealand, Samoa, and the Society Islands they were bred for meat, being quite useless for hunting. The common fowl is the most widely distributed of all: in Tonga they ran about wild in flocks; while in Easter Island they were the only domestic animal. None of the native birds have been regularly domesticated, though in Easter Island the sea-swallows, sterna, were found so far tamed as to sit on men's shoulders. In Tongatabu the islanders carried pigeons or parrots on sticks, and on the south coast of New Guinea cockatoos were kept in almost every village. But these have naturally no economic importance.

Smoked fish from Massilia in East New Guinea - rack approx. 800mm long. (Berlin Museum).
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Cuttlefish baits from the Society Islands, larger approx 300mm long. (Christy Collection, Berlin Museum.)
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