202 Appendix. 
evident that it is regarded with some significance, as 
in the Berlin Museum there are three poles strung with 
Triton-shells from this island.” In Ratzel’s “ History of 
Mankind” (vol. i., p. 260) there is a figure of one of these 
77riton-decorated poles surmounting the roof of a New 
Caledonian hut. It is interesting also to note that a 
bunch of Ovu/um ovum shells is attached to the base of 
the pole. That the Ovu/um shell is regarded in Oceania 
as having an intimate connection with cosmogony is 
gathered from its association with the god Tangaroa, who 
is revered even in the remoter islands, such as Taaroa and 
Kanaloa. “A Raiatean legend gives a grand picture of 
his all-pervading power ; how at first, concealed in an egg- 
shaped shell, he hovered around in the dark space of air, 
until weary of the monotonous movement, he stretched 
forth his hand and rose upright, and all became light 
around him. He looked down to the sand on the sea- 
shore, and said: ‘Come up hither.’ The sand replied: ‘I 
cannot fly to thee in the sky.’ Then he said to the rocks : 
‘Come up hither tome.’ They answered : ‘ We are rooted 
in the ground, and cannot-leap on high to thee.’ So the 
god came down to them, flung off his shell, and added it 
to the mass of the earth, which became greater thereby. 
From the sherds of the shell were made the islands. Then 
he formed men out of his back, and turned himself into a 
boat. As he rowed in the storm, space was filled with 
his blood, which gave its colour to the sea, and, spreading 
from the sea to the air, made the morning and evening 
glows. At last his skeleton, as it lay on the ground with 
the backbone uppermost, became an abode for all gods, 
and at the same time the model for the temple; and 
Tangaroa became the sky.” 
According to Pickering,” war-conchs, made of 7+rz/on- 
shells, were met with at Aratika, in the western Paumotu 
Islands. In this group, also, and especially in Manihiki, 
ornamentation by means of pearl-shell is very character- 
istic, canoes and their paddles, clubs, and bowls, being 
inlaid with discs of this shell." The associated use of 
pearl-shell and 77zfon-shell trumpets is also present in the 
'* Bernice Pauhi Bishop Museum, vol. i., No. i., Honolulu, 1898, p. 18, 
'® Ratzel, of. ett., 1, pp. 308-9. 
#° ** Races of Man” (Bolhn’s Ed.), 1850, p. 56. 
2! Bern, Pauhs Bish. Mus., of. cit., various pages. 
