CHAP. IV.] NEGLECT OF FLOWERS. 55 



teeth, of the tiger-shark, which are very much 

 esteemed ; or a tooth of a deceased husband. Some- 

 times the opening receives the purple flower of 

 several kinds of Metrosideros, or Clematis, or the 

 favourite pipe. Generally speaking the natives take 

 very little delight in flowers, which they regard as 

 useless, and seldom use them as ornaments. They 

 wonder how Europeans can bestow such trouble on 

 Flora's children, being, as they say, useless for 

 food. 



Around the neck both sexes generally wear a 

 figure cut out of jade. This they call E' Tiki : it has 

 an enormous head, very large eyes, and monstrous 

 and disproportionate arms and legs. It is not in any 

 way regarded as an idol, although the value they 

 attach to it seems to be connected with some an- 

 cient genealogical traditions, as E' Tiki is also the 

 name of one of their great ancestors. Generally I 

 found that they considered these figures as heir- 

 looms in a family, but, where no such hereditary 

 value was attached, they readily parted with them. 

 This seems the real nature of these E' Tikis, which 

 we find in many of the Polynesian islands under 

 the same name, and which were considered as em- 

 blems of their religion, as they certainly are in one 

 sense, if we take their great veneration for the me- 

 mory of their ancestors as constituting part of their 

 religion. The colossal busts of Easter Island, the 

 grotesque statues of the Sandwich and Figi Islands, 

 are the same as the wooden carvings over a New 



