624 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION G. 



liealthy, marry well, and become the fortunate mother of 

 children. The gh'l was then more strictly watched and 

 guarded. 



In Samoa, tatooing (more jii'operly called tatau) was 

 universally observed by the young men as an initiation to 

 manhood rights. Girls were not tatooed. It was originally 

 introduced from Fiji. A legend states that two Fijian 

 goddesses, Taema and Tilafainga, swam to Samoa from Fiji, 

 and on reaching land sang, "Tatoo the men, but not the 

 women." The tradition says that they intended to direct the 

 reverse, for in Fiji women are tatooed and not the men, but in 

 their haste they issued a contrary order, which has ever since 

 been observed . Among the Papuans the women are tatooed or 

 cicatrized, and not the men. Girls are tatooed at various 

 periods on INew Guinea. (See Rev. J. Chalmers' paper read 

 at Melbourne in 1890). The tatooing lancets were made 

 from a flat piece of human bone of the os ilium, and some- 

 what resembled a small toothed comb, with a cane handle. 

 The colouring matter was a mixture of burnt candle-nut 

 CAleurites trilohaj ash and water or oil, into which the 

 lancet was dipped, and then struck into the skin with a little 

 wooden hammer. Various patterns were followed with 

 remarkable accuracy. Some of these patterns denoted the 

 clan to which the young man belonged, like a Highlander's 

 ))laid. A considerable time was spent in the process of 

 tatooing, for only a portion would be done at a time, as far 

 as the patient could bear the torture of the operation. The 

 operator was well paid for his work. A good deal of feasting 

 and revelry, and often immorality, took place during the 

 event. The tatooing was on the lower part of the body only, 

 entending from the waist to the knees. When a young man 

 was tatooed he was considered eligible to take his place as a 

 warrior, and mingle in the dances and assemblies of the 

 people, and drink kava with the elders, if so disposed, though 

 kava-drinking was confined chiefly to elderly men, and 

 taken by them only to a limited extent. 



No particular ceremony was oberved as an initiation into 

 the tribe ; birth, or adoption, or the bestowal of the name or 

 title by an important member of the tribe entitle the subjects 

 to be members. In the case of young chiefs, superior and 

 inferior, before they could be eligible to speak at the councils 

 CfonoJ they had to be well grounded in the genealogy of 

 their progenitors and also of the chieftains of other tribes, 

 and into the various titles and patronymics given to these. 



