ETHNOLOGY HEDLEY. 241 



inches in total length, and when folded for use is eighteen inches 

 in depth, it is made of the inner bark of the fau (Hibiscus tiliaceus) 



Fig. 4. 



stained red with nonou (Morinda citrifolia). When unfolded, the 

 centre band (fig. 5) is four and a half inches wide, woven closely 

 of narrow strands ; along the out- 

 side edge of the matting is a seam 

 where additional fibres have been _<**&^> -r^ 

 introduced to lengthen and thicken Up "' 



the dress : this latter feature is J 

 absent from an old, worn and un- ^^^^^^i^^^ 

 ornamented tukai in the collection. 

 At the inner corners the matting Fig. 5. 



is produced into plaited strings for 



tying on the dress. The outer part of the fiinge, that which is 

 exposed when worn, is elaborately decorated with pandanus leaf 

 ribbons arranged in four series of four, whose symmetry is only 

 broken by the substitution of red for yellow in the penultimate one. 

 Each ribbon is attached to the lower edge of the matting, is two 

 feet long, two to two and a half inches wide, and forked at the 

 tip. The right-hand streamer is for half its length decorated with 

 three series of successive breadths of yellow, red, and black leaf, 

 sewn on with European cotton. A row of five or six white tests 

 of a Foraminifer (Orbitolites complanala, var. laciniata), is sewn 

 on each black band. The second ribbon is yellow, with one red 

 band atop ; the third is black with a black and a red fold above, 

 thence a series of confluent yellow diamonds extends to the edge 

 of the fringe ; the fourth is wholly red ; the fifth repeats the first, 

 and so on. This style of ornament recalls that of a Banks Island 

 robe, figured by Edge-Partington.* When the dress is put away 

 these ribbons are carefully doubled up and tied to be out of harm's 

 way. The native Wilkes figured was similarly decorated with 

 pandanus ribbons, but as far as I can understand his description 

 they were attached not to the tukai but to a separate belt. From 

 Tahiti, Edge-Partington figures a like girdle with pendant tassels, f 

 and in the New Hebrides there exists a similar overall dress with 

 streamers five or six feet long. 



* Edge-Partington loc. cit., ii., pi. Ixxxv., fig. 8. 

 f Edge-Partington loc. cit. t i., pi. xxxv. 



