NATIVE CARVING. 



311 



rag, coloured leaves or flowers, and various shells are constantly 

 used for this purpose, and the bows of the craft are sometimes 

 ornamented with fretwork figure-heads, which, with the limited tools 

 the natives have at conunand, must have cost infinite labour to 

 produce. Many of these are of designs that would be really 



FRETWORK FIGURE-HEADS, JOBl laLANO. 



creditable to a pupil in a school of art, and they are especially 

 remarkable from the fact that no two of them appear to be alike. 

 The decoration of the praus is apparently most frequent on the 

 occasion of a feast, when the natives themselves appear adorned 

 with the red flowers of the hibiscus, or with yellow leaves tucked 

 beneath their armlets, which have by no means so innocent a 

 meaning as might be imagined.^ 



Wandering one day in the forest at the back of the village, we 

 came upon a skull wedged in the branch of a tree, with a well-worn 

 ^ Quot hostium virgines per vim stupraverunt, tot folia aurea gerere illis mos est. 



