DBA Armies

This list covers those peoples of the Pacific who fielded substantial armies; from the settlement of the last islands until the introduction of firearms. In Hawaii, chiefs wore crested helmets and patterned red and yellow feather cloaks and their army had a core of warriors with 15 foot pikes expected to fight to the last man. Fijians, Tongans and Samoans charged fiercely with short two-handed clubs behind a hail of spears and throwing clubs. Other Melanesians had long spears, clubs and sometimes small shields, while Polynesians typically fought individual duels with clubs. Coconut fibre armour was sometimes used. Maori wore an apron or kilt and broad belt of flax, chiefs adding a dog skin or dark feather cape, tattooed faces and often thighs in dense linear patterns and fought with 2-handed weapons such as the taiaha (a hardwood sword with a spear point and feather distracter at the butt end, making it suitable for “bayonet and butt stroke” type fencing), with a shorter whalebone or wooden patu or greenstone mere tucked in the back of the belt. References: Slingshot 203, Ancient Hawaii H. Kane.