6 Bcrnicc P. Bisliofi Museum — Bulletin 



elusion that the faet reported must have heen "quite exceptional" we must 

 agree. It was customary, however, during famine times, for people to 

 seek the service of chiefs in order to be fed, and it may have been the 

 whim of some chief to have a particular mark tattooed upon them, but 

 this was certainly not a general custom. Indeed, Melville relates the "Hana- 

 manoo" episode as an especial and unusual case ; and it does not seem 

 unlikely that the same story is at the basis of both his and the Russians' 

 accounts. They have probably misinterpreted the ordinary custom of the 

 father of the opoti during the period of tattooing feeding the ka'ioi, who 

 were no more closely organized as a society than is our own "younger set," 

 to whom they were somewhat analogous. This would fit, too, with the 

 custom of the tuhuna's giving them samples of their art gratis during the 

 rest periods of the o{>ou. 



A careful search for any possible significance of face designs as tribal 

 marks, corroborative of Porter's statement to this effect (14, p. 114), 

 calls forth today, except in one instance only, vociferous refutation. How- 

 ever, that face patterns were insular during a later period of the art is 

 certain, the oblique paheke belonging to Nuku Hiva, the horizontal bands 

 called ti'ati'apu being worn by Hiva Oans, and the latter's variant, the 

 ihnepo, whose central band covers the nostrils themselves, being prevalent 

 on Fatu Hiva. Lacassagne (9, p. 79) quotes Lombroso as declaring that 

 face tattooing on Nuku Hiva distinguished two enemy factions, the one be- 

 ing marked by a triangle, the other by a circle. Triangles are associated 

 with the tattooing of the inhabitants of Tai-pi Valley by Melville and Ber- 

 chon, and these Tai-pi were powerful enemies of the tribes of Tai o Hae 

 Valley. More than one present-day informant has stated that men of a cer- 

 tain tribe living in Tai o Hae were marked with a great black circle on the 

 face (PI. V, 10). Seeing the two styles and finding them associated with two 

 enemy factions, it might be natural to conclude that face decoration was 

 to distinguish enemies ; but this is the one instance in which a tribal 

 significance is assigned today to a face design. 



That the operation of tattooing was performed during propitious sea- 

 sons or at times of importance in the life of the individual to be decorated 

 has been reported by Desgraz (18, p. 223). Living Marquesas informants 

 place its practice during the dry season when there was no breadfruit to 

 be harvested, during the months of October, November, December and 

 early January. The women, whose tattooing may still be examined, place 

 the beginning of their work at from seven to twelve years of age; the 



Melville made up his story of the "Hananianoo" episode after having read Langs- 

 dorfT or Krusenstcrn. 



