Uses of Coconut Shells. 



149 



found in the burial caves deposited with the dead, no decorated ones are known. 

 The beautiful carving of the Marquesan, Fijian and others shown in Plate XXXVII 

 and Fig. 12S is not found on Hawaii. 



Next, perhaps, came the use of coconuts for spoons, filling a natural need, and 

 almost any concave fragment served, but soon the handle was developed, and a ver}- 

 complete ladle {oonia pii iiiii) resulted. As the Hawaiians did not boil their food, and 

 soups were unknown, this manufaAure was not so important as in the groups where 



the discovery of pot- 

 tQvy was followed by 

 hot liquids. The in- 

 digenous products are 

 shown in Fig. 127. In 

 certain districts where 

 the water supply was 

 scarce and kalo could 

 not be cultivated, the 

 sweet potato ( ita/a 

 niaoli ) took its place 

 as dail}' bread, but the 

 resulting mass was 

 wanting in the adhe- 

 sive qualities of the 

 kalo- made poi and 

 could not be wound up 

 on the fingers, so a 

 spoon was needed, and 

 the bits of coconut figured were and are still used to convey this food to the mouth. 

 For salt cellars disks of the shell answered very well. 



As the coconut shell takes a beautiful polish the manufac^ture of cups, bowls and 

 small dishes has been much modified under foreign influence. Among Hawaiians 

 these polished nut cups, foreign even to the glue that unites the cup and base, the 

 latter the work of the turner, are still popular for individual poi bowls at feasts. Their 

 form is shown in Fig. 129 which presents four well made cups from the colledlion of 

 the Princess Ruta Keelikolani now in this Museum. The first is one of the large 

 southern nuts on a turned stand of kou wood ; the second shows a cover and base also 

 of the nut ; the third is a well-proportioned cup and stand, and the last is one of the 

 yellow variety of nut. Both the dark and light varieties of shell were esteemed, but 



[333] 



FIG. 128. MARQUESAN C.-^RVED CUP. 



