lO Bcrnice P. Bishop Museum — Bulletin 



Before the coming- of the tuhnna, the father of the opou had pre- 

 pared the pigment (liinu). The preparation of this was a very tapit 

 operation, the man making it being forbidden all relationship with women 

 during the period; and, according to Lesson (i, p. 107-108), it was 

 necessary for a virgin to aid him in the work. The shells of the ama nut 

 (Aleurites triloba) were heated so as to open easily (7, p. 45), and the 

 kernels placed over a fire in a kind of pocket of stones which allowed 

 the smoke to ascend through a small passageway in order to collect on a 

 smooth stone (pa'e hinu). Upon this stone a constant tapping was kept 

 up while the soot collected to the depth of about an inch. This process, 

 according to Berchon, was called amahi ama. The soot-covered pa'e hinu 

 was then placed on a banana leaf and left in the sun to dry, being kept 

 thus until the tuhnna arrived for his work. Thereupon, the father, ac- 

 cording to present-day information, mixed the soot with plain water in 

 a small coconut shell (ipu hinu) and gave it to the artist. Marchand 

 Langsdorfif, and Porter agree upon water as the solvent; but Berchon 

 further rejxjrts that the ink, which he calls kaaki, was made by mixing the 

 soot with coconut oil; while Melville (13, p. 246) gives vegetable juice 

 as the liquid. He and Langsdorff describe the use of the ashes, rather 

 than the soot, of this nut kernel, and Porter thought burnt and powdered 

 coconut shell was used, but apparently no other pigment save carbon was 

 ever employed in the Marquesas, as all early voyagers remark only the 

 dark blue or blackish coloring. (See 15, p. 16; 14, p. 78; 10, p. 118; 

 8. P- 155; 13, P- 158). Jardin (7) speaks of carbonizing and pulverizing the 

 kernels of the ama and mixing the powder with water to trace the de- 

 signs on the body, and it may be that the residue of the burnt nuts was 

 so used. 



When the tuhnna arrived, bringing his instruments in a bamboo case 

 seven or eight inches long (pukohe fan hinu), stoppered with a wad of 

 tapa, he spread them out upon a piece of tapa on the ground, ready for 

 use. The instrument is generally known as ta (to strike), but Berchon 

 (i, p. no) gives the following nomenclature for its various parts: ta'a 

 (a point) for the toothed end. kakaho (reed or cane) for the horizontal 

 support of the teeth, and ta-tiki (strike-//^/) for the baton (Berchon, p. 

 no). There was always an assortment of these toothed ends of varying 

 fineness or coarseness appropriate for all grades of work from the delicate 

 hair lines to solid patches. The flat instruments for straight lines and 

 gradual curves were of human bone, sometimes of the bones of enemy 

 sacrifices (izn heana). They were about three inches long, flat and 

 slightly wedge-shaped, and toothed or comblike at the end. Instruments 

 for the smaller curves were of the bones of the kena (Sula piscatrix), 



