Transcription
TC/3 8 June 65Ceremonious observances that must have originated long before the technical process were carried over into the work activities. Thus Sayce quotes Hamilton (Maori Art): in canoe-building there were ceremonies at the felling of the tree, (2) to give power to the axe, (3) when the canoe was drawn out of the bush (4) to propitiate the heavens before starting on a long voyage. (5) to calm the sea (6) on arrival at a strange land (7) to enable paddlers to keep time (8) at the naming of canoe, when the priest sprinkled the
Sayce 6
Since the source of power lay above & beyond the local community the king could
break through its customs & overcome its taboos. This was a victory for rationality in a
world that by the fourth millennium must have been swarming with irrational elaborations &
false imputations- themselves the products of early successes in domestication.
Sayce suggests (P. 13) that Paleolithic peoples may have had the bow-drill. They had the bow.
