Bladed warclubs from British Guiana

INDIAN NOTES
! AND MONOGRAPHS

EDITED BY F. VV. HODGK

A SERIES OF PUBLICA-
TIONS RELATING TO THE
AMERICAN ABORIGINES

BLADED WARCLUBS FROM
BRITISH GUIANA

°f California
Facility

MARSHALL H. SAVILLE

NEW YORK

MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAN INDIAX

HEYE FOUNDATION

1921

LIBRARY

UNIVERSITY OF
CALIFORNIA
SAN DIEGO

THIS series of INDIAN NOTES AND
MONOGRAPHS is devoted primarily to
the publication of the results of studies
by members of the staff of the Mus-
eum of the American Indian, Heye
Foundation, and is uniform with HIS-
PANIC NOTES AND MONOGRAPHS, pub-
lished by the Hispanic Society of
America, with which organization this
Museum is in cordial cooperation.

Only the first ten volumes of INDIAN
NOTES AND MONOGRAPHS are numbered.
The unnumbered parts may readily be
determined by consulting the List of
Publications issued as one of the series.

INDIAN NOTES
AND MONOGRAPHS

EDITED BY F. W. HODGE

A SERIES OF PUBLICA-
TIONS RELATING TO THE
AMERICAN ABORIGINES

BLADED WARCLUBS FROM
BRITISH GUIANA

BY

MARSHALL H. SAVILLE

NEW YORK

MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN

HEYE FOUNDATION

1921

»rtc uwivtKSITY LIBRARY
UNIVERSITY Ur CALIFORNIA, SAN

LA »oii A

SAVILLE BLAOED WARCLUBS

ENGRAVED WARCLUB WITH STONE BLADE

3

BLADED WARCLUBS FROM
BRITISH- GUIANA

BY MARSHALL H. SAVILLE

^^>J|EVERAL types of wooden war-
\t(l|cJ clubs were formerly relatively
^^M^J common among the tribes of

British Guiana. They were
called tiki by the Carib people, and Dr
im Thurn, writing about forty years ago,
states that "they are probably no longer
made, and are carried more as ornaments
than for use. They are made of hard
heavy wood, and are often highly orna-
mented, being covered with a pattern
formed by engraving and filling the lines
thus made with a white earth, brightly
polished, and neatly bound with large
quantities of red or white cotton from
which fringes and streamers, tasselled
with bright-colored feathers, hang loose.

INDIAN NOTES

BRITISH GUIANA

Originally, apparently they differed in
shape according to the tribe which made
them; but these differences, as in so
many other similar cases, seem now to be
somewhat lost, and most of the various
forms of tiki may be seen in possession
of any one of the tribes. The commoner
forms are three in number. One is four-
sided; that part which is grasped in the
hand is square, but from that point the
sides gradually curve outward, the one
end much more than the other, until
they are abruptly cut off and end in
both directions in flat surfaces at right
angles to the sides. This form appears
to have been appropriated by the Macu-
sis." After describing various other
types of these clubs, he states, "From
specimens existing in English and Euro-
pean museums, derived from Guiana and
the neighboring parts of South America,
it would appear that these clubs were
occasionally made yet more formidable
by the addition of a stone axe-blade, or
in later times a similar blade of iron,
which was occasionallv fixed into the

INDIAN NOTES

BLADED WARCLUBS

side." He says later that "the few that
are still to be found in the possession of
Indians are wholly of wood. But there
is a tradition that these used to be made
more formidable by the addition of a
stone blade." l The extreme rarity of
wooden clubs with stone blades embedded
in the wood is shown by the fact that im
Thurn, who spent nearly five years in
British Guiana before writing his book,
and had exceptional opportunities for
collecting, was able to secure only a
single specimen of this character.

Bernau2 illustrates one of these war-
clubs in a plate with other Indian weap-
ons, but gives no account of it (see our
fig. i). An early description of these war-
clubs in Dutch Guiana, based on observa-
tions made from the years 1772 to 1777,
is given by Captain Stedman,3 who writes:
" I must not forget that every Indian car-
ries a club, which they call apootoo, for
their defence. These clubs are made of
the heaviest wood in the forest; they are
about eighteen inches long, flat at both
ends, and square, but heavier at one end

AND MONOGRAPHS

BRITISH GUIANA

than the other. In the middle they are
thinner, and are wound about with strong
cotton threads, so as to be grasped, hav-
ing a loop to secure them round the wrist,
as the sword-tassels are used by some

FIG. i. — Warclub from British Guiana (after Bernau).

cavalry. One blow with this club, in
which is frequently fixed a sharp stone,
scatters the brains. These are used by the
Guiana Indians like the tomahawk by the
Cherokees, on which, besides other hiero-
glyphical figures, they often carve the
number of persons slain in battle. The

INDIAN NOTES

BLADED WARCLUBS

manner of fixing the stone in the club or
apootoo is by sticking it in the tree while
it is yet growing, where it soon becomes so
fast that it cannot be forced out: after which
the wood is cut, and shaped
according to fancy." On the
plate opposite page 406 Sted-
man illustrates one of these
clubs with a stone blade which
we here reproduce as fig. 2.

Warclubs with stone blades
were also formerly in use
among the Indians of French
Guiana, for Barrere illustrates
a specimen which shows a tau-
shaped blade mounted in a
long, slender, round handle,
and writes (p. 174), " Ordi-
nairement c'est le Capitaine,
avec les principaux & toute le
jeunesse, qui marchant en corps
d'armee. bein munis de leurs
arcs, filches, boutous, haches
de pierre, & autres instru-
mens de guerre." The illus-
tration of a mounted stone axe

FIG. 2.—
\VarcIub from
Dutch Gui-
ana (after
Stcdman).

AND MONOGRAPHS

BRITISH GUIANA

shown in fig. 5 of his plate, facing page
1 68.

In the Handbook to the Ethno-
graphical Collections of the British
Museum, published in 1910, are illus-
trated (p. 281) two warclubs with stone
blades. Both have cord-wrapped handles,
and one appears to be engraved.

The Museum of the American Indian,
Heye Foundation, is exceedingly fortu-
nate in possessing two examples of this
type, and a third specimen with an iron
blade, all received by the generous gift
of Harmon \V. Hendricks, Esq., a trustee
of the Museum. These are illustrated
in the accompanying plates. The most
interesting weapon is that shown in pi. I,
which is made from a close-grained, dark-
reddish wood, well-rubbed down and
polished; it is 16^ in. long, the upper
part of the four sides of the rectangular
expanding club being covered with the
delicately engraved design shown in pi.
II. There are at present no traces of
pigment filling the lines. Around the
handle, the part to be grasped by the

INDIAN NOTES

SAVILLE — BLAOCO WARCLUBS

LTD Of

cm

ENGRAVING ON THE FOUR SIDE

1 0 [ ,j PlusssssslP

'HE WARCLUB SHOWN IN PLATE I

BLADED WARCLUBS

hand is covered by a tightly-wound,
coarse cotton thread, and in addition
there is a woven cord forming a loop
tied loosely in such a manner as to be
placed round the wrist. A stone blade
of the petaloid type, so commonly found
in the West Indies, projects i% in.
from the wood. It is a hard, compact,
black stone resembling diorite, and is
identical with the greater number of
petaloid celts from Porto Rico.

The second example, illustrated in pi.
in, is 171/2 in. in length, and the stone
blade projects 2}^ in. This specimen is
not carved, but it is polished, and is
made from the same kind of wood as the
first example. It has a wrapping around
the handle, with two tassels of many
cotton strands, and a wrist loop made of
coarse threads loosely twisted on the
opposite side. The blade is of a greenish
stone, not so hard as the other.

The last specimen, illustrated in pi. iv,
is also of the same kind of wood, and is
polished but not carved. It is 16 in.
long, and has an iron blade projecting

AND MONOGRAPHS

10

BRITISH GUIANA

i ^3 inches from the club. It also has a
wrapping around the handle, with a loop,
and two long strings hanging from the
opposite side.

The specimens of Guiana warclubs in
the Museum of the American Indian,
Heye Foundation, were procured in
London and were unquestionably col-
lected many years ago. It is doubtful
if at present any weapons of this type
are to be found in British Guiana. The
expedition of the University of Penn-
sylvania Museum under the direction of
Dr W. C. Farabee, during the long time
spent in the country collected no speci-
mens of this type. The writer has seen
several other examples of this class in
European museums, but they must be
considered as among the rarest ethno-
logical objects from South America.

It is interesting to compare the style of
mounting of these British Guiana war-
clubs with those from the West Indies.
In the writer's study of Monolithic Axes
and their Distribution in Ancient Am-
erica5 will be found an illustration of the

INDIAN NOTES

SAVILLE BLAOEO WARCLUBS

WARCLUB WITH STONE BLADE

BLADED WARCLUBS

11

only known example, from the Antillean
area, of a petaloid celt still in the original
wooden handle. A number of monolithic
stone axes are figured, and, as in the celt
in the wooden handle, all show the poll
of the blade protruding through the
handle, which is rounded; whereas the
handles of the British Guiana examples
are squared, and the celts are imbedded
in the handles, and probably do not
extend more than half the distance
through the wood. The socket into
which the stone blade of the club shown
in pi. I is fixed, is squared, and the celt
seems to be held firmly in place by a
coarse gum. The specimen illustrated
in pi. II is sunk into the wood by a socket
cut to the shape of the stone blade, and
fits closely. Both blades, however, fit
so tightly that they cannot be removed
without injury to the specimens.

In our study cited above6 we figure two
monolithic axes from the province of
Santa Marta, Colombia, in which the
poll-end of the blades are represented as
embedded in the handle, and not passing

AND MONOGRAPHS

12

BRITISH GUIANA

through. These blades, however, are not

of the petaloid type, and the same is

true of the stone axes embedded in

wooden handles from the Guaiqui Indians

of Brazil, which have been illustrated

by von Ihering.7

NOTES

i. im Thurn, E. F., Among the Indians of Guiana.

Being sketches chiefly anthropologic from

the interior of British Guiana, pp. 298-300,

425-426, London, 1883.

2. Bernau, J. H., Missionary Labours in British

Guiana, London, 1847.

3. Stedman, J. G., Narrative of a Five Years

Expedition Against the Revolted Negroes

of Surinam in Guiana, on the Wild Coast

of South America, vol. i, chap, xv, pp.

396-397, London, 1796.

4. Barrere, Pierre, Nouvelle Relation de la

France, Equinoxale, Paris, 1743.

5. Saville, Marshall H., Monolithic axes and their

distribution in ancient America, Contribu-

tions from the Museum of the American

Indian, Heye Foundation, vol. n, no. 6, pi. n,

4, New York, 1916.

6. Ibid., pi. v, nos. i, 2.

7. von Ihering, Hermann, Os machados de pcdra

dos Indies do Brasil e o seu emprego das

derrubadas de Mato, Separado da Rev. do

Inst. Hist, de S. Paulo, vol. xn, 1907, fig. 2-3.

INDIAN NOTES

SAVILLE BLADEO WARCLUBS

WARCLUB WITH IRON BLADE

University of California

SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY

405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90024-1388

Return this material to the library

from which it was borrowed.

UC SOUTHERN RE

000738011 6

Univer

Soul

Lib