The dishes (Plate 52, Fig. 1) are made out of the trunk of a tree called ongome.  The usual length of a dish, without its handles, is between 1 and 2 feet; its width varies from 9 inches to 1 foot, and its depth from 3 to 6 inches.  It is rudely carved out of the tree-trunk, [50] the work being done with stone adzes—­unless they happen to possess European axes—­and it generally has a handle at one or both ends.  It is not decorated with carving in any way.  The common form of handle is merely a simple knob about 3 inches long and 1 1/2 inches wide.  But it is sometimes less simple, and I have a dish one of the handles of which is divided into two projecting pieces about 7 1/2 inches long and joined to each other at the end.  The handle is always carved out of the same piece of wood as is the dish; never made separately and afterwards attached.  The wooden forks are simply bits cut from trees and sharpened at one end, and they are without prongs.  Their use is only temporary, and they are not permanently stored as household utensils.  The cassowary and kangaroo bone implements (Plate 25, Fig. 3) are also merely roughly pointed unpronged pieces of bone, and otherwise without special form.  When eating en famille they do not always use these pointed wooden and bone sticks, but very commonly take the food out of the dish with their hands only; but if the family had guests with them they would probably use the sticks more, and their hands less.  The men and women often eat together, sitting round the dish and helping themselves out of it, though, if there are too many to do this conveniently, pieces will be handed out to some of them.

Various Implements.

Besides the cooking and eating implements above described and other things, such as weapons of war and of hunting and fishing, and implements for manufacture, agriculture and music, which will be dealt with under their own headings, there are a few miscellaneous things which may be conveniently described here.

Bamboo knives (Plate 51, Fig. 5).  These are simple strips made out of a special mountain form of bamboo, and are generally 8 to 10 inches long and about 1 inch wide.  One edge is left straight for its whole length, and the other is cut away near the end, very much as we cut away one side of a quill pen, so as to produce a sharp point.  The side edge which is used for cutting is the one which is not cut away at the end; and when it gets blunt it is renewed by simply peeling off a length of fibre, thus producing a new edge, bevelled inwards towards the concave side of the implement, and making a hard and very sharp fresh cutting edge.  The point can of course be sharpened at any time in the obvious way.