290 RECORDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. 



inches long, and may be described as follows : — As a kernel or 

 support to the coil are a few turns of stiff bark, nine inches in 

 diameter when rolled, and joined by a cord of twisted beaten 

 bark, two feet long, to the tongue-shaped end of the feather 

 rope, which is a plaiting of the untwisted fibres of the rope, 

 with an edging of Job's-tear (Coix lachryma) sections, covered 

 with a plate of turtle shell, and a tassel of four lengths of 

 strung Coix sections, each length terminated by pieces of Nautilus 

 shell. The feathered portion succeeding this tongue consists of a 

 flat rope, two and a quarter inches wide, by a quarter of an inch 

 thick, and is to some extent flexible. The rope is transversely 

 bound with fine beaten bark fibre, but of what it is composed 

 internally I do not know ; on one side this fibre is visible, but on 

 the other it is completely hidden by the remains of the red feathers 

 of a Lorikeet (^Trichoglossus massena, Bonpt.) At thirteen feet 

 two inches from the end are suspended from the edges of the rope 

 two tassels of five strings each of Coix seed sections, each length 

 terminated by pieces of Nautilus shell roughly broken into a 

 triangular shape. On the inner side, at this point, a hexagonal 

 panel-shaped device is worked by passing blackened Pandanus (1) 

 leaf strips over and under a certain number of bark-fibre strands, 

 producing a checkered pattern like a draught board. From this 

 point the remainder of the rope measures thirteen feet eight 

 inches, and the extreme end is simply a repetition of that already 

 described, except that the terminal tassel has three lengths of 

 Croix seed sections, two of thnm terminated by lanceolate pieces 

 of Pearl shell, and the third by a Univalve ( Atys cylindrica, 

 Helbling.) 



Edge-Partington figures" a coil of this money from Santa Cruz, 

 but without the interior bark support, " made of a band of wood 

 with parrot feathers sewn on to the outer surface." On another 

 plate Edge-Partington figures,^ instead of the bark coil, three 

 forms of wooden frame supports of quite a different type, said to 

 be used "for keeping the coils of native money in position," but 

 it is not said the feather money, in fact I do not see how a semi- 

 rigid body such as the latter is, could be coiled with advantage on 

 at least two of these supports ; possibly the native money meant 

 may be the strings of shell sections so prevalent throughout the 

 South Pacific, and employed in the dual capacity of personal 

 ornament and currency. 



Our specimen also lacks the " three armed piece of wood (cut 

 out of the solid) invariably found with the ' parcel ' of feather 

 money " figured^ by Edge-Partington. 



7 Edge-Partington — Album, 1st Series, pi. 165, f. 1. 



8 Edge-Partington— Loc. cit., pi. 163, f. 2-4. 



9 Edge-Partington— Loc. cit.. pi. 165, f. 2. 



