452 STUDIES, SCIENTIFIC AND SOCIAL chap. 



Polynesian tattooing.^ Their weapons are spears, shields, 

 stone clubs, and hatchets, one tribe only — the Ilema — 

 making bows and arrows. In like manner the Motu tribe 

 only make pottery, which the other tribes obtain from them 

 by barter. They use drilling machines with a spindle 

 wheel and cord, like the Polynesians. The houses, whether 

 on shore or inland, are raised on piles, but are small 

 as compared with those of the Papuans, each accommodat- 

 ing one or two families only. 



Intellectually these people are considerably advanced. 

 They can reckon up to a million. They use the outstretched 

 arms as a unit to measure by. They divide the year into 

 thirteen months, duly named, and reckoned from the new 

 moons. The four winds and many of the stars have names, 

 as well as every tree, shrub, flower, and even each well- 

 marked grass and fern. They prefer fair to dark people, 

 and are thus disposed to like and admire the white races. 

 The children are very merry, and have many toys and 

 games. The Rev. W. Turner tells us that they make 

 small windmills of cocoa-nut leaves, and are well versed 

 in the mysteries of cat's cradle ; while spinning a button 

 or round piece of shell on a cord, and keeping a bladder 

 in the air by patting it with the hands, are favourite games. 

 They also amuse themselves with miniature spears and 

 bows and arrows, catching fish, which they cook for them- 

 selves on the shore. They are left to do what they like, 

 and know nothing of the tasks of school, the difficulty of 

 keeping their clothes clean, or the misery of being washed 

 — troubles that vex the lives of almost all civilised chil- 

 dren. According to Mr. Turner, the villages of the Motu 

 are by no means clean, all manner of filth being left about 

 unheeded ; and as this agrees with most other descriptions, 

 we must conclude that the model village already referred 

 to is quite exceptional in its cleanliness and order. 



Mr. Turner thinks the Motu are colonists from some 

 other land, while he considers the Koiari of the interior 

 to be " evidently the aborigines of this part of New 



^ See figures illsutrating the Rev. W. Turner's article on *'The 

 Ethnology of the Motu," in the J omnia'' of the Anthropological Institute, 

 1878, p. 480. 



