22 Bcniicc P. Bislwp Museum — BuUcliu 



geometric linings, with here and there a naturalistic unit, break up the heavy 

 patches and add to their irregular and fancy appearance. Examination of 

 the leg motives of this very tapw Nuku Hiva chiefess, who must have em- 

 ployed the best artist obtainable, provokes the suggestion that these insets 

 were crude and inartistic attempts at a style from the southeast which had 

 perhaps just been introduced into Nuku Hiva and with which the Nuku Hiva 

 tuhuna was not acquainted or perhaps to which he was not equal. The 

 second type, that of Ua Pou, is put on below the knee only, in horizontal 

 bands of delicately lined patterns, the motives on either side of the center, 

 front and back, being exactly alike. The whole may be conceived of in front 

 and back longitudinal sections of symmetrical halves, which meet in the 

 middle of either side of the leg. Naturalistic, geometric and conventional 

 treatments are all present. The third type, that of Hiva Oa, which was 

 the prevalent style at the time of the discontinuance of the art, is similar 

 in arrangement to that of Ua Pou, extending however high up onto the 

 thigh, and presents a mean between the two former in heaviness of 

 treatment, the fine lines swelling into black curves. The mode is almost 

 purely conventional. The two latter may be characterized as curvilinear; 

 the former, as angular in design. 



The leg patterns to be seen on living men fall into two types, a single 

 example representing that of Nuku Hiva (PI. xxxi), all the rest being 

 of the Hiva Oa type (Pis. xxxii-xxxviii). The former is characterized 

 by unadorned heavy patches, triangular and oblong in shape, fitted together 

 obliquely with no plan of arrangement save the formation of a straight 

 intersection down the front of the leg. Teeth are the only insets. The 

 Hiva Oa examples show the style to be of horizontal bands extending 

 around three quarters of the leg, the inside front quarter being filled 

 with triangles in the Nuku Hiva style (PI. xxxiv, e-j), indicating, per- 

 haps, a borrowing from the heavy black patches of that group. The thigh 

 band and the underknee band are always composed either of four triangles 

 or of triangles and parallelograms with insets of teeth ; but beyond this, 

 this style is totally different from the Nuku Hiva example, variations of 

 the same fine line motives used in Hiva Oa for women being set into 

 pahilo so that the heavy bands become merely a framework for them. 

 The Nuku Hiva pattern drawn from life stands quite apart from that 

 pictured by early navigators (lo, pp. 117, 119; 16, PI. 132) and described 

 by a modern informant on Fatu Hiva (See PI. xxix). It is a pity that no 

 other living example of the work of a Nuku Hiva artist could be found, 

 as it is unsafe to make any general statement about it. 



At the present time, there is but one type of back decoration for men 

 (PI. XIV, C) : eight heavy rectangular patches arranged in pairs along the 



