number D 200 1 and on the label there is also, in blue ink, the letter 

 C. On the label, in brown ink (faded from black?) is written in a 

 nineteenth century hand: "Hiapo (or Tapa) from Savage Island." 

 Near the label is scrawled a large $3.50; there is also a word 

 (indecipherable) scrawled over with blue-pencil. 



The original name of Niue was "Savage Island", so named by 

 Captain Cook in 1774 because of the hostility of the inhabitants. 

 Kooijman's identification is thus confirmed by the evidence on 

 the tapa itself, assuming that its provenance was correctly noted 

 in the first place. 



Accession Number 861 1: 



Flat case 409: 1 33" X 20" (338 X 5 1 cm); black on reddish brown. 

 Sash (oro), part of a wedding costume, a handsome example of 

 contemporary decorated bark cloth made on Moce Island in the 

 Lau group of the Fiji archipelago. The only example of Fiji's 

 contemporary tapa (masi) in its collection, the Botanical Museum 

 received this piece in 1980 as the gift of Mr. and Mrs. Alan 

 Bodger, who acquired it in 1979 while residents of Suva, Fiji. This 

 oro, worn over a skirt (sulu), is elaborately finished with deep cut 

 fringe and on one side has fringe consisting of triangular, pierced 

 dentils dangling from thin strips of bark cloth. The predominant 

 figure decorating this sash is a favorite, the conventional vutu- 

 tutki, alternated with smaller rosette figures of various designs, all 

 set off with repeated motifs forming borders which extend onto 

 the fringe at both ends of the oro. 



These ornamental patterns are applied by means of stencils in a 

 technique unique in Oceania to Fiji. Until recently, the stencils 

 were cut out of banana leaves. The name drudru (leaf) is still 

 applied to the stencils used today, but they are cut from 14"X 17" 



exposed x-ray film. 



An unusual feature of this sash is the clear reddish brown color 

 of the cloth. Staining large pieces of cloth brown before decora- 

 tion is applied is characteristic of Tonga. The reddish brown color 

 is developed by either smoking or immersion. The smoke of a 

 slow fire made of either Cordyline terminalis or of green sugarcane 

 (Saccharum officinarum), over which the cloth is suspended, is 

 preferred (Roth 1934). Sometimes the cloth is soaked in coconut 



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