Chap, xix.] DEGENERATION IN DECORATIVE FIGURES. 44I 



borne in each fully manned canoe. Hence it seems probable 

 that the people would wish to carry a representation of a god 

 constantly with them, and the comparison of the form of the 

 Hook-ornament with that of the crescent-shaped and hollow- 

 faced images of gods, seems to leave little doubt, that the hook 

 represented the head of a god ; and thus, as a religious emblem, 

 suspended round the neck, corresponded to those in vogue in 

 the case of so many other religions. It may thus well be com- 

 pared to the well-known jade "Tikis" of New Zealand, 

 similarly worn, which, however, represented ancestors and 

 tutelary deities rather than gods.* 



It must have been a matter of great labour to work hard 

 ivory or stone into the form of the Hook-ornament. The 

 curves in all examples seem to correspond closely ; and there 

 is a ridge on the outer-curved surface of the hook, which 

 appears to represent the crest of the helmet. The necklace 

 and ornament is termed in Hawaiian " Lei palaoa," simply 

 " whale's tooth necklace." 



These speculations as to the meaning of the Hook-ornament 

 will, I hope, elicit further information on the subject. General 

 Lane Fox has rendered familiar to ethnologists the curious 

 transitions of form which representations of the human face 

 may undergo in savage decoration under the process of succes- 

 sive copyings. The details of the representation gradually 

 dwindle away ; a mere simple transverse crescent remains to 

 represent the entire face of a man on some of the paddles of 

 New Ireland. t 



Many similar degenerations of form in copying of decoration 

 are well known ; and a well-marked instance is to be seen in 

 the crockets on the pinnacles of the Bodleian Library at 

 Oxford. Towards the bases of the pinnacles the crockets are 

 carved in the form of well-defined gurgoyle-like animals, with 

 open mouths ; but in tracing the successive crockets upwards 

 the shape is seen to degenerate gradually in each until towards 

 the tops of the pinnacles the crockets have merely a sort of 

 scroll-form, the origin of which could not possibly be guessed 

 if it were looked at separately. 



It seems probable that a very large proportion of what 

 appears, in savage art, to be mere simple pattern ornamenta- 

 tion is in reality derived originally from degeneration of outline 



* The origin of tattooing in Polynesia is supposed possibly to have 

 been from the desire to mark the body permanently with the figure of 

 the tutelary deity. Waitz, "Anthropologic der Naturvolker," 6'" Th. 

 Leipzig, 1872, s. 34—35- , ^ 



f General A, Lane Fox, F.R.S., "Address to the Department of 

 Anthropology." Report of the British Association, 1872. 



