TAT001NG. 113 



society would let them ? But the stern laws of fashion 

 allow of no exception. In Fiji this practice is confined 

 to the women, the operation being performed by mem- 

 bers of their own sex, and applied solely to the corners 

 of the mouth, and those parts of the body covered by 

 the scanty clothing worn by them. The skin is punc- 

 tured by an instrument made of bone, or by the spines 

 of the shaddock-tree ; whilst the dye injected into the 

 punctures is obtained chiefly from the candle-nut. No 

 reason is given for the adoption of the custom, beyond 

 its being commanded by Degei, their supreme god. 

 Neglect of this divine commandment is believed to be 

 punished after death. The men probably refrain from 

 tatooing, because their skin, generally speaking, is so 

 dark that the designs would not be seen, and the pain- 

 ful operation undergone would be mere labour thrown 

 away. 



In Polynesia tatooing seems to have attained its cul- 

 minating point in the Society Islands and the Mar- 

 quesas, where both men and women submitted to it ; 

 proceeding thence eastward to Samoa and Tonga, we 

 find it restricted to the men ; in Fiji to the women, 

 and altogether ceasing in the New Hebrides. Yet, 

 strange to add, Polynesian tradition asserts that the 

 custom was known in Fiji before its being adopted 

 in Samoa and Tonga. Two goddesses, Taema and 

 Tilafainga, swam from Fiji to Samoa, and on reach- 

 ing the latter group, commenced singing, "Tatoo the 

 men, but not the women."* Hence the two were 

 worshipped as the presiding deities by those who 



* Turner's ' Nineteen Years in Polynesia,' p. 182. 



I 



