MARQUESAN POI POUNDERS. 



39 



FIG. 33. MARQUESAN POI POUNDERS. 



Its distinguishing feature, on all the specimens that I have seen, was the small knob 

 at the top which was either simply grooved (S004, 8005) or decorated with a head 



of the type common 

 in Marquesan art. 

 Both these forms are 

 shown in Fig. 33, and 

 the graceful curve of 

 the stem should be 

 noticed. The artistic 

 outline is closer allied 

 to the Tahitian than 

 to the Hawaiian. A 

 very ancient form of 

 Marquesan pounder 

 now in private hands 

 in Honolulu is shown 



in Fig. 34. The double head is boldly modelled and the whole finish of the pounder is 

 good. It perhaps favors my belief that 

 the cannibals did better work, and had 

 better taste, than the people who lived on 

 poi and fish; but any one may form his 

 own theory if he has specimens enough 

 of the work of each division of the 

 Pacific islanders to make a fair com- 

 parison. To me there is something 

 very cannibalistic in the two faces on 

 this pounder, and I am inclined to be- 

 lieve that the poi pounded with it was 

 often as the bread to the more im- 

 portant meat. 



The pounders used by the can- 

 nibals at the other end of the Pacific 

 region, the Maori, have been already 

 figured (Fig. 22, p. 28). The fern root 

 and hinau berries (yEIceocarpus dciita- 

 tiis) were generally beaten in a wooden 

 bowl with a wooden pestle, neither of '"'^- ^^- ^^^"Ent marquesan poi pounder. 

 them having any connexion with the Hawaiian poi board and pounder. Both the bowl 

 and pestle were often carved in artistic forms as were so many of the humblest imple- 

 ments of the Maori. [371] 



