118 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



mentation is transferred. Fijian specimens, both of the finished product 

 and of the stencils employed in its decoration, are shown in the illus- 

 tration on page 116. 



Other objects typical of the South Sea area generally, such as adzes, 

 fly switches and tattooing implements are also adequately represented 

 in the collection. There are numerous throwing-clubs, short sticks 

 terminating in a knob, formerly carried in the girdle and used as the 

 instrument of assassination. The collection contains a very large series 

 of clubs of varying shape; some are obviously recent productions fash- 

 ionetl in imitation of guns. Many of these weapons have a carved 

 decoration, which usually takes the form of a zigzag pattern of some 

 kind. Part of them are wrapped with cordage, others with a checker 

 plaiting. A weapon differentiating the Fijians from their eastern neigh- 

 bors is the bow, which occurs in Polynesia merely in the form of a toy. 

 A small assortment of Fiji earthenware (page 121) is of considerable 

 interest, as all of the Polynesian tribes lack pottery and are obliged to 

 prepare their food by baking or roasting. 



One of the most valuable specimens is the model of a bure, or tem- 

 ple. This building was usually erected on a platform or mound, ren- 

 dered accessible by a notched plank. From this eminence the bure 

 rose to the height of about thirty feet. As nails were entirely unknown 

 to the Fijians prior to European contact, they fastened together the 

 posts and rafters by means of sinnet, the native cordage, prepared from 

 the dried fibers of the cocoanut husk. In the construction of a temple, 

 an immense quantity of sinnet was used for decorative purposes, so 

 that from a distance the whole house seemed to be built of braided 

 cord. Before lowering the corner posts into their holes, the Fijians 

 offered human sacrifices to propitiate the deity of the temple; sometimes 

 men were placed standing in each post hole and buried alive by the 

 side of the post. The setting up of the first pair of rafters was solem- 

 nized with a cannibal feast, and a similar celebration took place as soon 

 as the building was completed. The human bodies were baked in ovens. 

 The forks or dishes used in eating human flesh were strictly "taboo," 

 that is they were religiously reserved for this purpose under penalty of 

 death. The Museum collection contains several of these cannibal forks 

 and flesh-racks (page 121). Although serving as a council-chamber, a 

 place for entertaining friendly visitors, and even as a sleeping-place for 

 the most eminent residents of the village, the principal function of the 



