FEATHER MAI. 



purpose of a stiff mat a loose net of olona would seem quite unsuitable. For protection 

 in war these very brilliant and gaud}' mats would attract the arrows or missiles of the 

 enemy, from which they would offer as much protection as a common newspaper. 



The figure of the under side of one of these mats, which I did not have at the 

 time the plate was published, will, I think render my claim tliat the specimens are 

 mats, more stable; for the sticks, four in number, that are inserted to stiffen the 

 structure would make it diffi- 

 cult to wear them in battle, 

 except tliev were used like 

 the stays of the French gciis- 

 cCaniics, which would be quite 

 foreign to the Polynesian 

 ideas of propriety-. Perhaps 

 Mr. Edge-Partington will roll 

 one of them up and try if it 

 will eo into the box which 

 seems, as he says, Tahitian. 

 From the picture he gives of 

 this receptacle I should think 

 it would not fit. The strings 

 need not entangle us, for they 

 are hardh' suited to tie to- 

 gether or to anj-thing else, 

 but seemed to me to be analo- 

 gous to the strings often left 

 on towels partly for ornament 

 and partly to keep the warp 

 and woof together. 



It is difficult to decide 

 upon the matter in the ab- 

 sence of the specimen, but it 

 seemed to me that perhaps the sticks were not a part of the original manufacture, but 

 added as "spreaders" for exhibition purposes. If these sticks were removed the fabric 

 would easil}' roll together and the cylinder thus formed might slill be connected with 

 the god Kukailimoku in this way: I am informed that in moving the feathered head 

 it was raised on a pole and borne by its ka/iii or keeper ; why not cover the pole with 

 this feather ornament ? I am inclined to think that it would about fit the truncated 

 neck of the war god. When the idol rested my former idea of the mat would be appro- 

 priate still. As will be shown in the chapter on ancient Hawaiian worship it was an 



[4o9] 



FIG. 



KUKAILI.MOKl'. XEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNH. 



