was blunted a fresh edge could be made by tearing off a strip from the blade. These knives are still used on the mainland of New Guinea, but in the islands they have been entirely superseded by iron knives of European manufacture. The well-known beheading knife is made of bamboo, and Dr. MacFarlane, the pioneer missionary, has informed me that he has seen dugong cut up with a bamboo knife. (6) An old coco-nut, in which one ‘eye’ is perforated, is the water-bottle of the district; these are carried in pairs by means of a string, the knotted ends of which are inserted into the hole in the nut, and this is then plugged by a rolled-up fragment of a pandanus leaf. The water is sucked through the latter.
This legend and the following are star myths. This one is associated with two constellations, one (Dorgai kukilaig) consisting of three stars in a row; the central one is called ga, and the other two get (‘hand’); the other, bu, is the Pleiades. These constellations belong to the north-west monsoon, and “when Dorgai come up (from the east) that time make kap”—or the dance.
(1) The ‘wild-fowl’ or mound-bird (Megapodius) heaps up a large mound of earth and decaying leaves, within which it places its egg, to be hatched by the heat engendered by the decaying vegetable matter. These eggs are a favourite article of food with the natives. (2) The egg-cowries (Amphiperas [Ovulum] ovum) are sometimes worn as personal ornaments by the islanders, and are very frequently used to decorate canoes and drums. (3) I have no explanation of the fly episode. (4) The head of this kind of arrow is made of split bamboo and sharpened to a point. It is used in pig hunting, and I was more than once informed that when used in warfare it was invariably aimed at the abdomen, in order to rip it open. (5) I do not understand why Bu was murdered by his friends; generally those who encompass the death of a Dorgai are themselves destroyed by supernatural means.
This star myth is supposed to account for the fact that the Dorgai waralaig constellation has only one lateral star (get = hand). I believe this is the constellation of the south-east season.
