NOTE ON FIJIAN CLUBS. 
circumference of the club, but at some place or places in their length 
bend sharply either upwards or downwards to meet the adjacent 
band. Interspersed among these are six link-like ornaments, five 
resembling the stud links of a ship’s cable, and the sixth resembling 
two long plain links. They are arranged longitudinally with 
reference to the greater axis of the club, or at right angles to the 
main design, which they resemble in principle, but they are com- 
posed of three lines instead of four, as in the transverse bands of 
the main design. 
It seems evident that this type of ornamentation is derived from 
the spiral, so characteristic of Maori art, and only resembled at all by 
the scroll pattern prevalent in New Guinea decoration. 
Mr. A. Hamilton,* Director of the Dominion Museum, Wel- 
lington, N.Z., was informed by an old Maori that the spiral, 
called pitau, represented the young circinate frond of the tree 
fern, pitau being the Maori term applied to the young frond of 
the tree fern (Cyathea). 
The small studs between the coils of the spiral in the carvings 
represent the pinne of the frond. The five links in the design 
on the club are plainly only the elongated first or central coil of 
the spiral, with one end continued and closed on the central coil, 
while in the double links both ends are continued and closed. 
The transverse bands are simply a further elongation of the 
same coil, although their origin is not so apparent. The diamond- 
shaped points forming lines between the bands and in the links take 
the place of the studs in the spiral. 
Mr. Schmidt’s specimen (Fig. 3), which has no available history, 
he having purchased it from a dealer in Prahran, a suburb of 
Melbourne, is what is commonly known as the pineapple type 
among Fijian clubs, on account of the head bearing a resemblance 
to that fruit. 
As in the previous specimen, there is also nothing in the form 
of this club which shows any departure from the type it represents. 
The ornamentation (Fig. 4) is restricted to 84 inches of the 
handle, the rest being perfectly plain. With the exception of a 
central transverse band, the ornamentation is in the main similar 
to that just described. 
These minor differences consist in most of the four lined bands 
being curved, and not bent to meet the adjacent ones. The dis- 
tance between the bands is also greater, so that the diamond-shaped 
points of the other club here rather assume the character of short 
longitudinal ridges, and in the two lower links they are replaced 
by U-shaped forms. The links, of which there are four, are all 
double, while in the Museum specimen, as pointed out, there is only 
one of this kind. 
* Maori Art, Part L., p. 11, 1896. 
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