Two staff weapons deserve special mention due to their uniqueness
and lethality. The Maori, the aboriginal peoples of New Zealand, devel-
oped a special type of massive war club. With a length of about 1.5 meters
and a weight of approximately 5 kilograms, this curved, two-handed club
was powerful enough to shatter the largest bones in a human body. Maori
warriors were able to close against the British invaders and use the weapon
to good effect. Another type of club, used by the Samoans, was the tewha-
tewha,a long stick (1.5 meters) with a wooden haft at its end. This axlike
device was also a fierce weapon in a premetal technology.
Even in this Neolithic world, an extensive range of unique weapons
Pacific Islands 405A late-nineteenth-
century engraving by
J.W. Warren of a
bare-knuckle boxing
match between
Hapae islanders.
(Hulton-Deutsch
Collection/Corbis)