Strange spears from New Hebrides

colin henshaw · 2nd January 2016, 01:16 PM

Thanks to those who contributed on these spears, glad to see they are of interest.

There is another image of this type in the British Museum 1910 Ethnographical Handbook, but it gives no further information.

Browsing the internet, I found the following excerpt from a book by Ron S Filion "Eaten by Cannibals", which seemingly contains passages from the travel diaries of Count Rudolph Festetics de Tolna and his wife Eila Haggin, concerning their yacht cruise in Melanesia in the 1890s :-

"The spear is tipped with three points made of bone from the warrior's family and below that are other points stuck in diagonally made of bone from the bodies of enemies the warrior has killed, each point marking one dead foe. Thus on the same piece of wood some bones were set to be honoured and the others hated"

Sounds a bit exaggerated to me, but there we are...

Should anyone find further information on these spears, please do post it.

2nd January 2016, 01:16 PM	#1
colin henshaw Member Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 1,429	Thanks to those who contributed on these spears, glad to see they are of interest. There is another image of this type in the British Museum 1910 Ethnographical Handbook, but it gives no further information. Browsing the internet, I found the following excerpt from a book by Ron S Filion "Eaten by Cannibals", which seemingly contains passages from the travel diaries of Count Rudolph Festetics de Tolna and his wife Eila Haggin, concerning their yacht cruise in Melanesia in the 1890s :- "The spear is tipped with three points made of bone from the warrior's family and below that are other points stuck in diagonally made of bone from the bodies of enemies the warrior has killed, each point marking one dead foe. Thus on the same piece of wood some bones were set to be honoured and the others hated" Sounds a bit exaggerated to me, but there we are... Should anyone find further information on these spears, please do post it. Attached Images