The native flute (Ivivu) is composed of a thick piece of bamboo nearly three feet long, hollowed out but closed at each end. It contains four holes. {131} The first one is about five inches from the top and is made for the mouth of the player. At a distance of another five inches is another hole for the first finger of the right hand, and the remaining two holes are at the far end separated by a few inches. The tone obtained from this peculiar instrument is not at all unpleasant.

They possess still another instrument, known in England as the mouth fiddle, which is roughly made of a bent stick and has two strings. The player holds one end of it between his teeth and manipulates the strings with his fingers after the style of a big Jew’s-harp.

Besides their musical accomplishments the natives are very fair draughtsmen, and some of their drawings are surprisingly good. Shark fishing, head-hunting, and scenes of murder, are amongst their favourite pictures. The frigate birds and human heads figure in nearly all their designs—especially the former, which are fish-hawks as large as big seagulls, but somewhat darker in plumage. When soaring overhead in search of prey to swoop down on, the frigate bird shows the peculiar shape of its wings, which, roughly speaking, form the letter “M.” Like the shark it is more or less sacred, and therefore not eaten and seldom harmed. {132}

All the drawings are done on wood with a red-hot stick, in much the same way as poker-work is done in England. There is no particular shape or size or even design in the instruments used for drawing. Nowadays the natives beg a little iron or wire, which they make red hot and go to work with to burn out their designs.

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Wax matches and magnifying glasses have quite superseded this method in the shore villages, and as traders get farther into the country, native fire producing will die out, as many other customs have done and are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.