Ancient Hawaiian F'a?is. 



II 



A form of fan used bj' the chiefs before the advent of foreigners is shown in 

 Fig. lo, representing a coUedlion of Hawaiian fans in the British Museum. None of 

 these are so useful as those shown in the preceding figure. I have not examined care- 

 fully these fans, which have, I understand, been in the British Museum for many 

 years; but, from the specimen in the Bishop Museum, shown in Fig. ii, it is probable 

 that some of them are of pandanus. In this last fan, which is very old and brittle, the 

 form is not so useful as ornamental ; the blade is closely and neatly woven ; the spread- 

 ing handle, which is the remarkable part of the fan, is carefully embroidered with 



Pig. II. ANCIKNT H.\WAIIAN FAN. BISHOP MUSEUM. 



human hair and some brown fibre. In many respects this work surpasses in design 

 au3-thiug Hawaiian in the department of basketry. Only the Solomon Islanders, as 

 we shall see later on, have done finer work of the kind in their grass embroidery. The 

 use of human hair, whether of friend or enemy, was common in Samoa and Fiji as well as 

 on Hawaii, but on the last group the hair was almost always that of some frieud. Several 

 of these fans are in the Museum of the Peabody Academy of Science at Salem, Mass., most 

 of them of good form. These were in the old Marine Museum earl}' in the last centurv. 

 I have never seen any of these old time fans in private colle6lions on these Islands. 



In all countries where the coco palm abounds considerable use is made of the leaves 

 for walls, fences, fish weirs, screens, etc. Two leaves, or more commonly the halves of 

 a leaf, are placed with the split midrib outward and the leaflets rudely interwoven. The 

 sides of tropical houses are often made of this rustic paneling, and on the Hawaiian Ids. 

 it is a favorite construdlion for sides and roof of temporary verandahs or lanai. 



