Dist) ibutiou of Pearls nnd rcarl-shcll \ \ \ 



Nanomana similar offerings wore siispciuied iiiuler the 

 altars of the principal gotis Foelangi and Mauman. 



Among the Torres Straits Islanders pearl-shells arc 

 trimmed and worn as breast-ornaments, or carved into 

 beautiful crescentic and other shapes to be worn as 

 pendants either on the chest or in the cars."" 



They also appear to liave been used in muninnficii- 

 tion, as Dr. Klliot Smith has recentl}- referred to the case 

 of a Torres Straits mummy having the eye-sockets filled 

 with a gum or resinous substance in which narrow oval 

 pieces of mother-of-pearl were embedded.'" 



Crescent-shaped plates of pearl-shell are also in 

 common use as breast ornaments in British New Guinea 

 and the Solomon Islands, and the same shell is used as 

 an inla\' to decorate the native canoes."'- 



In the Sandwich Islands the eyes of idols were 

 noticed by Captain Cook to be made from large pearl 

 oj'sters, with a black nut fixed in the centre. 



Ellis, in his ''Polynesian Researches,"'" gives us'a 

 lucid description of the curious dress worn in Tahiti at 

 death ceremonies of chiefs. This consisted of a cap of 

 thick native cloth fitted close to the heatl ; in front were 

 two large broad mother-of-pearl shells, covering the face 

 like a mask, with one small aperture through which the 

 wearer could look. Attached to this head-dress was a 

 beautiful kind of network composed of smill [pieces of 

 Ijrilliant mother-of-pearl shell, each being about an inch 

 or an inch and a half long, and less than a quarter of an 



"" A. C. Iladdon, •• ReporLs (jf ihe ( ."aiiiljricl^e .\iulu.)p..K.L;ic:il 

 Expedition to Torres Straits," vol. iv., 1912, pp. 40-45. 



11! -'Xlie Migrations of Kaily Culture" (Manchester, 1915). p. 93. 



'^- Haddon, op. cit., iv., p. 43; and II. H. (jup])y, " Tiie Solomon 

 Islands and their Natives," London, 1SS7, pp. 131 and 146-7. 



*'' Vol. i., pp. 412-3. 



