This collection demonstrates the contrast between the arrow types of the Kainantu and Asaro areas, two of the four subdivisions I found for the Eastern Highlands arrow family during my travels in 1968 and 1969. It is readily apparent to the eye that both 1-5 and 6-10 fall within the same family-the barbing is enclosed within the external lines of the sides of each arrowhead, each has a plaited collar at the join of the head and the shaft, the bast whipping around each shaft is the same and each head has what I call, for want of a better term, a "hilt" (as a knife) between the places where the barbing ends and the head disappears into the shaft, and each shaft has had the skin scraped off. These are all distinguishing characteristics of the Eastern Highlands arrow.

The first measurement references the total length of the arrow, the second describes the head length from the end of the shaft. Objects are described from left to right. 1. is a beautiful awemi war arrow from the Gadsup near Kainantu. Its hardwood head is of cruciform cross section in the barbed section and round at the hilt. It has twelve barbs and is decorated with dots of red ochre and blue dye and ochre strips on the hilt. (130.5/42.5 cm).  2. is from the Kainantu area, possibly from the Kamano language group. Its blackpalm head is of triangular cross section and it has twelve long barbs. It is decorated with red and yellow paint and orchid fiber. (133/54 cm).  3. is a wai-inda asenda from the Auyana language group southwest of Kainantu. Its hardwood head is concave/convex in cross section, with six long barbs and four short barbs just above the hilt. (141/51.5 cm).  4. is from the Gadsup language group, and its blackpalm head is roughly semicircular in cross section. It too has six long barbs and four short barbs. (132.5/46 cm).  5. is from the Kainantu region and is triangular in cross section. Its red-painted blackpalm head has nine long barbs and three small barbs.  (139/59.5 cm).  6. is a sena from the Bena Bena language group. The old widow who sold it to me at the village of Megabo said her husband had killed a man with it in fighting before pacification. She was the only person of the many who sold me arrows to make such a claim, and I have no reason to doubt it. In cross section, the blackpalm head is flat to slightly concave on the facing side and rounded on the back. Intact, it had twelve barbs. (131.5/54,5 cm).  7. is a Bena Bena behi of triangular cross section with fifteen barbs. The head is of blackpalm.  (126/47 cm).  8. is a Bena Bena segikogoya. The head is of blackpalm, of square cross section with thirty-two barbs. Under each set of barbs is a plaited collar of orchid fiber, a characteristic of this type.  (128.5/50 cm).  9. is a Bena Bena fobaiyo with a blackpalm head of triangular cross section carrying six barbs, the four long ones being set alternately on opposite sides. (123/46,5 cm).  10. is another Bena Bena blackpalm-headed sena with ten barbs of varying length. The cross section is a triangle rounded on the back. (127.5/48 cm).

© D. Skinner Collection.