ETHNOLOGY HEDLEY. 237 



TATOOING. 



In their tatooing the Ellice Islanders differed greatly, as the 

 American Exploring Expedition remarked, from other branches 

 of the Polynesian Race, both in their patterns and in the sharing 

 of the custom by both sexes. As far as I can gather, the Micro- 

 nesians, whose figures resemble more those of Funafuti, use short 

 straight lines variously arranged in chevrons, diamonds, etc.,* 

 whereas the tatooing of the Polynesians, at least as shown by the 

 Maories, seems rather to have been disposed in curves, employing 

 spirals, scrolls, and circles, f Again, among the Polynesians it was 

 the rule to tatoo men profusely, women slightly or not at all ; a 

 rule reversed by the Melanesians. j In Funafuti both sexes were 

 of old equally tatooed. 



Tatooing has long been an extinct art on Funafuti, and I was 

 unable to procure any of the implements used in it. Only half- 

 a-dozen, old, white-haired men and women survive who are thus 

 decorated. 



Of the Funafuti men, one of whom he figured, Wilkes wrote : 

 " They were tatooed differently from any heretofore seen, their 

 arms being covered, from the shoulder to the wrist, with small 

 curved figures or zig-zag lines. They had this tatooing also on 

 the body, extending from the armpits to the waist, and down, 

 until the whole body was encompassed in the same manner. No 

 marks were observed on the face or legs, but on two of them were 

 a few lines across the small of the back." And of the Nukufetau 

 men the same author continues: "The tatooing was in great variety 

 on the body, but in all, the arms were tatooed alike, for there it 

 varied only in quantity. On the body it was frequently extended 

 across the back and to the abdomen ; and in many, the bodies and 

 thighs were tatooed down as far as the knee. Many of the natives 

 designated the figures as intended to represent pigeons." On the 

 men of Atafu, the same traveller saw, " many marks resembling 

 fish on the arms, and a sort of triangle, together with figures of 

 turtles, on the breast." On Funafuti a native of Nanomea ex- 

 plained to me that certain tatoo marks on his arms represented 

 Holothuria. 



Only one woman from Nukufetau visited the "Peacock." "Her 

 arms were beautifully tatooed, of the same figure as the men, but 

 the tatooing was continued down the leg in horizontal stripes an 



* For tatooing of the Caroline Islanders see Kubary Journ. Qodeffroy 

 Museum, vii., 1875, p. 129; for the Marshalls, Kotezbue Voyage of 

 Discovery, ii. ( 1821, plate facing p. 63 ; for the Gilberts, Wilbes op. cit., 

 v., p. 77 ; for Rarotonga, Williams Native Missionary Enterprises, 1837, 

 p. 503. 



t Bobley Moko, or Maori tatooing, 1896. 



J Turner Samoa, 1884, p. 55. 



