jade blade, but the binding has been taken off. One of them is engraved by the Rev. J. G. Wood.[1] The axe to the left, in Fig. 104, as well as that in the centre, is from Tahiti. The axes from Mangaia, so common in collections, exhibit great skill in the mounting and in the carving of the handles. Some have been engraved by the Rev. J. G. Wood.[2] A ceremonial stone adze with a very remarkable carved haft from New Ireland[3] bas been figured by Professor Giglioli.
In some instances the ligaments for attaching the stone blade against the end of the handle pass through a hole towards its end. A North American adze in the Ethnological Museum, at Copenhagen, is thus mounted, the cord being apparently of gut.
A similar method of mounting their adzes, by binding them against the haft, was in use among the Egyptians.[4] Although it is extremely probable that some of the ancient stone adzes of other countries may have been mounted in this manner, there have not, so far as I am aware, been any of the handles of this class discovered. I have, however, two Swiss celts of Lydian stone, and of rectangular section, found at Nussdorf and Sipplingen, in the Ueberlinger See, and on the flatter of the two faces of each, there is a slight hollow worn away apparently by friction, which was, I think, due to their having been attached against a handle in this manner. The blade in which the depression is most evident bas lost its edge, seemingly from its having been broken in use. I have not up to the present time found any similarly worn surfaces upon British celts.
Another method of hafting adopted by various savage tribes is that of winding a flexible branch of wood round the stone, and securing the two ends of the branch by binding them together in such a manner as tightly to embrace the blade. A stone axe from Northern Australia thus hafted, is figured in the Archælogia[5] whence I have borrowed the cut. Fig. 105. Another used by natives on the Murray river[6] bas been figured by the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. This method of hafting bas been mentioned by White,[7] who describes the binding as being effected by strips
- ↑ Op. cit., vol. ii. p. 201.
- ↑ Op. cit., vol. ii. pp. 369, 373.
- ↑ Int. Arch. f. Ethn., vol. iii. p. 181, pl. xv. 1, 2.
- ↑ Rev. Arch., vol. xviii. p. 266.
- ↑ Vol. xxxiv. p. 172.
- ↑ P. S. A. S., vol. x. p. 263. See also "Notes on some Australian and other Stone Implements," by Prof. Liversidge, F.R.S. (Journ. R. S. of New South Wales, vol. xxviii., 1894), and Mr. E. J. Hardman's accoimt of some West Australian implements (Wood Martin's "Rude St. Mons. of Ireland," 1888, p. 115).
- ↑ "Journ. of Voy. to N. S. Wales," p. 293; Klemm, "Cult.-Gesch.," vol. i. p. 308.
