ART. 30 DESIGN" AKEAS IN OCEANIA KRIEGEB 19 



made in the same way. The baskets and banana leaves are all the 

 dining-room furniture required, although the natives are beginning 

 to use imported plates and dishes. 



Fans are of various shapes and materials. The coarser fans are 

 woven from coconut leaves and are used to fan the spark to produce 

 a flame. The finer fans are used as heat or sun screens for the face. 



Polynesian stone structures and images. — Spirit houses (Fale-aitu) 

 were erected in some of the districts to the deities, especially the war 

 gods. These temples were built of the same materials and in the 

 same style as the houses of men, with nothing to distinguish them 

 from the ordinary dwelling except that they always stood on plat- 

 forms of stones varying in height and size with the respect felt for 

 the god. They were usually situated on the public green and sur- 

 rounded by a low fence. Whatever emblems of the deity were in the 

 possession of the village were placed in the temple. 



Worship of a venerated ancestral chief appears in eastern Poly- 

 nesia, in Easter Island and in Tahiti at its best. It is not so apparent 

 in western Polynesia, in Samoa, and in Tonga. Thus, in Tahiti, the 

 Ahu, or stone-flagged burial quadrangle reserved for the chiefs cor- 

 responds to the stone bases on which rest the stone images of Easter 

 Island. They also correspond to the bases on which elsewhere in 

 Polynesia are erected the huts where are preserved the small wooden 

 idols. 



In Easter Island the great stone figurines with stone hats are 

 found even on the slopes of the mountains. Elsewhere in Polynesia, 

 in Hawaii, New Zealand, the Marquesas, Hervey Island, even on the 

 borders of Melanesia in Nukumanu, all figurines representing ances- 

 tral deities are carved from hardwood. In Easter Island, due to the 

 scarcity of hardwood, the figures of ancestral deities are carved from 

 the tufaceous lava, except for the smaller statuettes of from 1 to 2 feet 

 in length, which are carved from hardwood and are very rare. Char- 

 acteristic of these smaller figurines is the curved nose, protruding 

 ribs, breastbone in relief, abdomen concave, and thin legs and arms. 

 The hard lavas of Hawaii and of other Polynesian islands and con- 

 versely the quantities of hardwood there obtainable led to a distinct 

 development in wood carving in the round. 



The Easter Island images are the most interesting of archeological 

 monuments. There are over 600 of them on this island. Formerly 

 they stood in groups of from 6 to 12 on platforms of hewn stone fac- 

 ing the sea, but in later years they have been thrown down during the 

 civil strife among the natives. Most of them are to be found on 

 hillsides at the eastern end of the island. They were hewn out of 

 volcanic tufa in the crater of an extinct volcano and transported over 

 its sides, sometimes 3 or 4 miles, to their destination. The island is 



