i8 



B RICH AM ON HAWAIIAN FEATHER WORK. 



ing me the measurements requested the Curator to send photographs, which he kindly 

 did, and the results are shown in the figures. The first cape in this colle(5lion, once 

 attributed to the Maori, is small, 14 inches deep; 29.5 inches wide at the upper end, 

 and 41 inches at the bottom. (Fig. 19.) It is covered mainly with the pure white 

 feathers of the Tropic bird, with ornamentation of black, probably the feathers of the 

 Man-of-war hawk. The net at the upper part is wholly bare of feathers. It is quite 



like the cape Xo. 70, 

 page 76, in the Hof- 

 ninseum at Vienna, and 

 seems to be made of 

 similar feathers. 



III. The other 

 cape is in a sadlj- di- 

 lapidated condition, al- 

 though it will be seen 

 that the net is still 

 entire, and enough 

 feathers of the iiwi re- 

 main to show that it 

 once was entirely red. 

 It is 13 inches long; 

 29.5 inches in its widest 

 extent; 17 inches across 

 the neck, and 8.5 down 

 the front. The edge of 

 the neck had some yel- 

 i-u;. 20. con. ui- FKATiiER MONKv. low fcathcrs, but not 



enough remain to determine the pattern. Plate LX\TI., upper figure. 



Feather Money. — I have spoken of the feather currency of the Hawaiians 

 and Samoans, which consisted merely of a bunch of feathers of some red bird, or on the 

 former group preferabh' yellow. But there was (and still is to some extent) on Santa 

 Cruz, in the western Pacific, a more developed coinage, more peculiar than the huge 

 stone disks of the Caroline Islanders that represent monc}-. Mr. R. Etheridge, Jr., the 

 distinguished Curator of the Australian Museum, has published in the Records of that 

 museum (Vol. IV., No. 7, August, 1902) a very interesting account of a specimen lately 

 acquired, and as the ciirious currency- seems rare in collecftions I have thought it might 

 be of interest to describe a coil in this museum which came some years ago labelled 

 "War Belt." In the note below I give various references to published information 



[452] 



