"Lances with points of iron or hardened wood."—Scherzer, Cruise of the Novara, 1858; and see p. 281.
[174] Cf. "The large quadrangular nut is a 'common object of the sea-shore' in the Malay Islands, and is much used by the natives to catch fish. The fruit is pounded and thrown into the water, and the fish, rising to the surface in a stupefied condition, are easily secured."—P. 188, Cruise of the Marchesa, by F. H. H. Guillemard; London, John Murray, 1889.
Also used for the same purpose by natives of the Solomons.—Vide H. B. Guppy's Solomon Islands; London, Swan, Sonnenschein.
[175] Vide item 2 of plate facing p. 94.
[176] In some of the islands a pot-cover is made by sewing together a special kind of leaf with long slips of rattan, until a pad quite an inch in thickness is obtained.
[177] In many islands of the Pacific Ocean—Marshalls, Gilbert and Kingsmills, the Carolines, Union, and Ellice, and in New Guinea—the pandanus fruit is used as a food, especially in times of scarcity, but in general the kernel only is eaten, and the inner end of the drupes gnawed off.
[178] Referred to in these pages as kissát, neng, or T bandage, for want of a more accurate expression.
[179] For the dress used at various periods, refer to the authorities quoted in other chapters. The earliest clothing—apart from ornamental cords and string bracelets, etc., as are still used by the Andamanese—seems to have been, for the men a strip of bark cloth, and for the women a short petticoat of grass or coco-palm leaf (ngong).
[180] The idea being that the demon who caused the death may fail to recognise the survivors.
[181] M. V. Portman, Jour. Royal Asiatic Soc., 1888.