ISO 



The Ancioif Hawaiian House. 



the former takes the better polish ; one in this Museum from the Society Islands is 

 perhaps the most beautifull}' polished coconut I have seen. 



Besides polishing, which is a comparatively modern fashion, the other groups 

 furnish examples of inlaying most artistically and neatl}^ done. The cannibals of the 

 Solomon group have inlaid a simple coconut shell cup with crenate triangles of pearl 

 shell in a way that would do credit to a civilized artisan who had never eaten his 

 fellow man. The shell is hard and thin and the recesses cut for the inlay must be 

 shallow, but the method of decoration is much used among the Solomon Islanders and 

 they certainly understand their material (Fig. 130). On other Pacific groups much 



Fic;. 129. MODERN COCONUT CUPS OF THE HAWAIIANS. 



greater use was made of the coconut. How far the decoration of cups went, I cannot 

 say, for I do not know of an}' colledlion to illustrate this, but certain specimens on 

 hand in this Museum may be noticed. On the Fijian group a plain cup has an attach- 

 ment of braided coir, so that one drinking from the cup could use this permanent 

 napkin which could be washed with the cup (Fig. 131). On the Marquesas coconuts 

 were often incised with the peculiar figures so much used there in tatuing and wood 

 carving. Fig. 128 shows a cup or basket, if we consider the handle, which has a pleas- 

 ing pattern surrounding the bowl. Similar to these are the Fijian carved cups and 

 oil bottles shown in Plate XXXVII. The Papuans of New Guinea also carved their 

 coconuts, and examples of their work are shown on the same plate. The latter coco- 

 nuts seem to have a very thin shell, compared with the other nuts described. 



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