l8 Bernice P. Bishop Museum — Bulletin 



said to belong to Fatu Hiva. Of this but one living example could be 

 found (PI. V, 8). Of the old Nuku Hiva pahcke, distinguished by an oblique 

 band running from the right center of the forehead across the left eye 

 and cheek (PI. v, 5), there remain today but two examples. What form 

 the transition from spiral to band may have taken can only be conjec- 

 tured. A reliable Hiva Oa informant describes a former convention of that 

 island which seems to be a combination of over-eye arcs — perhaps a relic 

 of the spiral — , of peheke and ti'ati'apu (PI. v, 6; see also Langsdorfif's 

 description and PI. viii, figs. 10, 11, p. xi). In Melville's time, both the 

 modern styles were seen on Nuku Hiva, and in the tattooing to be seen 

 today, the Hiva Oa has replaced the Nuku Hiva design completely. In the 

 fine inset and inter-band motives are to be found both geometric and con- 

 ventional motives, never naturalistic. 



How may this divergence between groups and the growth from the 

 naturalistic through the geometric to the conventional — as seems to be 

 the probable development — be accounted for? 



Perhaps it may be postulated that before the seventeenth century 

 naturalistic motives were used in both groups, that during the two un- 

 recorded centuries geometric figures appeared in the southeastern group, 

 that these gradually replaced the naturalistic there or transformed them 

 into the conventional, and that at each stage of development the new 

 styles were carried to the northwest where they did not so completely 

 obliterate or amalgamate the native patterns, some of which persist to 

 this day in their old form. 



Influences which may have contributed to such a development are 

 suggested by an examination of adzing and carving motives. Ornamental 

 adzing in simple geometric patterns seems to have been the primitive 

 form of wood decoration. Imitation of its technique as well as the use 

 of its motives on the body is evident. The former is seen in the filling 

 of spaces, ordinarily made solid in color, with parallel, oblique, zigzag 

 or wavy lines (PI. iii^ 7, inset in eye band; xxi, B, b; xxxvi, insets 

 in e and g; xxxv, inset barred teeth in /; xxx, d) ; in the use of the inter- 

 section of adzing lines to form the motive called kopito (PI. xxiii. A, d; 

 possibly also the inset in the forehead band in PI. in, 8). In tattooing 

 are found such housepost motives as the cross formed by adzing oi? the 

 corners of a square (PI. xii, C, b), concentric circles (PI. xii-£, b) and 

 concentric half-ovals (PI. xxviii, £; xviii, a). It is possible that the 

 use of four triangles in a square or oblong, as well as the conception of 

 design in bands may have come from this art of adzing wood. When it 

 is remembered that wood was scorched before a pattern was adzed or 

 car\'ed upon it, so that the design was in natural wood color, the back- 



