Page:The Melanesians Studies in their Anthropology and Folklore.djvu/337

] obsidian, chert, and sharks' teeth were used. The bamboo knife has hardly been superseded by steel or iron; the edge will not stand long, but while it stands it is far sharper than a common steel knife in hands that know how to use it.

Pottery is unknown in the islands which are here in view, being present in well-known forms in Fiji, and in ruder unglazed dishes in Espiritu Santo. There may be room for question whether the wide circular wooden dishes, tapia, of the Banks' Islands, and the deep wooden pots, popo, bought by the Florida people from Guadalcanar, carry with them any reminiscence of fictile ware. The paltara, used to chop bread-fruit open in the Banks' Islands, is an interesting representation in wood of the shell adze.

Stone-boiling, in Mota salo, was known all through the islands, though not very much practised for cooking, at least