Handy — Tattooing in the Marquesas 5 



by early visitors, such as the mata-komoe distinguishing a hero ( lo, PI. 

 VIII, fig. 9; p. XV ), the marks of high birth put upon the arms of women 

 in famihes of chiefs (18, p. 222-223), the tattooed right hand and left foot 

 of women as a sign of wedlock (13, p. 221-222). Mr. Linton was told 

 that only chiefs had their feet tattooed; but this is not borne out in the 

 late practice of the art nor corroborated by other informants. The con- 

 fusion probably arises either from the distinguishing chiefly marks being 

 upon the ankle, or from the custom of tattooing the body of the opou 

 from the feet up, contrary-wise to that of the ka'ioi. 



The only distinguishing feature of the tattooing of a ka'ioi, as re- 

 ported today, is the order in which the designs were put on, the face 

 being decorated first. The reason assigned by a Pua Ma'u informant for 

 the custom of beginning with the feet of the opou was that the face if 

 tattooed first was liable to become infected and cause a stoppage of the 

 operation. It is possible that the reverse order in the case of the ka'ioi was 

 the result of indifference as to their fortunes, but it is also possible that 

 there was here a fundamental class distinction. There is no proof today 

 that the work was not of the same pattern as that of the opou, though 

 Melville thought he distinguished a difference in the quality of the work 

 put upon "inferior natives," their designs appearing to him like daubs of a 

 house-painter's brush (13, p. 250). 



Berchon says that tattooing was an obligation rather than a mark of 

 distinction for women, that the right hand must be tattooed by the age 

 of twelve so that it might be used in making popoi, in making pakoko (the 

 circular movement of two fingers in taking up popoi to eat it) and in 

 rubbing dead bodies with coconut oil (i, p. 114-115). Natives today say 

 that an untattooed hand could not make popoi nor eat it from the same 

 bowl as a tattooed hand, that a tattooed man could not eat with a woman, and 

 that a man with all his designs finished could not eat with a man whose 

 designs were unfinished ; but any reason for these requisites beyond their 

 being "pretty" is unknown. Women would not marry untattooed men, 

 probably because the decoration represented either wealth, endurance of 

 pain, style, or ail three. 



A special effort was made to find some trace of banqueting societies 

 distinguished by marks tattooed on the chest, which Krusenstern, Langs- 

 dorff, and Melville' describe (8, p. 159-160; 10, p. 121-122; 12, p. 50-51) ; 

 but no memory of anything in the nature of such fraternal orders supported 

 by the chief and tattooed gratis is discoverable today. With Berchon's con- 



' All of the detailed information of Krusenstern and Langsdorff came from two 

 white sailors living among the natives, whose accounts are in many instances un- 

 mistakably erroneous and exaggerated. It would not surprise me in the least if 



