overseas contacts . . . made either via intervening island groups or 

 directly from the Marshall group. It is also possible that in the 

 early period European or American ships played a role in this 

 contact (T.i.P. p. 282)." [This question of borrowings from 

 island to island arises constantly when provenance is considered.] 



This piece, identified as Futunan, is enriched with a narrow 

 border of figures picked out in dark red to match a wide border of 

 the same rich coloring. 



On some islands of Polynesia, both tapa and mats were made. 

 According to Buck (1930), household furnishings and clothing 

 were made from both the beaten and decorated bark of Brous- 

 sonetia papyri/era, the paper mulberry, and the laboriously pre- 

 pared leaves of at least three species of Pandanus, all of which 



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family where "a great tapa curtain some 12 by 20 feet, was 

 stretched across one end of the oval house to make a room for me, 

 and my bed and Fa'amotu's were behind it. For my bed some 

 twenty fine mats. . .which it takes a woman a year or more to 

 make... were spread upon the floor..." (Mead 1977). Mead 

 (1973) describes the types of mats used in Samoa and how and at 

 what age girls were taught to plait them and also how to make 

 decorated bark cloth. 



Case 413: 5'5" X 46" (163 X 125 cm); black and brown on ecru, 

 "[the tapa] is definitely Samoan. You can compare it with the 

 drawing in T.i.P. Fig. 1 82. The latter was taken from a tapa in the 

 Peabody Museum in Salem. I sent the photo to Mrs. Maxine 



Tamahori in New Zealand, who is an expert on Tongan tapa 



She wrote to me that the pattern appeared to be a Tongan 

 arrangement. I think, however, that she was mistaken, being so 

 much concentrated on Tongan material but knowing too little 

 about Samoan bark cloth and Samoan designs." 



Note: A possible reason for confusion in establishing provenance 

 may be that this piece seems to have been brushed over with a 

 semi-transparent reddish-brown glaze before the pattern of trian- 

 gles was painted on it. According to Tamahori ( 1 963), this glaze, a 

 Tongan technique, gives the cloth stiffness and imparts a slight 



69 



