Fire was produced in the old days, and still is in the bush, by rubbing two pieces of wood together. One is a flat piece in which a small groove has been made, and the other is a stick pointed at the end. The operator holds the stick in his two hands and rubs steadily up and down in the groove. This rubbing makes a small powder collect in the end of the groove, and after a few minutes it begins to smoulder, and, finally, with the aid of gentle blowing, it ignites sufficiently for other dry wood to be lighted by it. Wax matches and magnifying glasses have quite superseded this method in the shore villages, and as traders get farther into the country, native fire producing will die out, as many other customs have done and are doing daily. The making of war weapons is already on the wane, and old Winchesters and modern rifles are quickly taking their places. Even for hunting {133} purposes the natives prefer to purchase a weapon, rather than go to the trouble of making one. The only sort of war weapon to be seen to-day is a composition of the English axe-head, sold by the traders, mounted on a handle of native manufacture. These are crude but useful, and are as a rule well carved. The bow and arrow are in pretty general use in the Solomon Islands, though they are not seen so often in New Georgia. In Bougainville and St. Christoval bows and arrows are used for all hunting purposes. Spears and clubs form their other weapons; the spears are not poisoned, only a few have barbs on them, and the majority are made with hard wood points. Bougainville supplies most of the specimens showing barbs. The clubs used in St. Christoval rather resemble in shape an Australian boomerang with a straight handle. Other clubs belonging to different islands are of the policeman’s truncheon order. Shields are also carried, and are made generally on a bamboo frame lashed together with native string and thatched. They are between three and four feet long and one foot broad. {134} CHAPTER XIII What “hope” is to the Solomon islander—The use of the evil eye. Sacred places in the Solomons are called hope, the word being used in very much the same way as _tapu_ (taboo) is by the Maoris of New Zealand, and other savage races, but, unlike the Maoris, the Solomon islanders use “hope” to keep a place free from trespassers; thus if a native has a cocoa-nut grove or a yam patch he erects a “hope,” and so prevents any other native from going to it.