643 



The engraving is done in the soft clay with a thin piece of 

 wood. 



The third and last stage consists in the burning of the 

 pots, which is done in the afternoon. They are laid on the 

 sand upon the beach, usually several at a time, the mouth of 

 the pots being turned to windward. Dry sticks are laid all 

 round them individually, the greatest amount of fuel being 

 placed on the weather side, so that the heat may penetrate 

 well inside the pots. 



As mentioned above, pots are made by women exclusively,, 

 who, during their manufacture, are stated to observe a strict 

 taboo ; that means that they do not eat anything from the 

 moment they begin their work until the time they have finished 

 burning the pots. Whether, considering that the natives 

 hardly ever accepted food during the day, this taboo is very 

 important, I was unable to ascertain. At any rate, several 

 informants asserted that it was so, and I received the impres- 

 sion that pottery is considered to be a serious, and perhaps even 

 to some extent a sacred, activity. ("^2) 



Arm-shells ^'7^) a^id other Shell Ornaments. — The arm- 

 shells, with the exception of the strings of shell discs, are the 

 most highly valued articles of native ornament, and they form. 

 one of the principal means of exchange. They are made of 

 the shell of Conus millepiinctatvs, and Mailu was one of the 

 chief centres of their manufacture. I have heard native 

 connoisseurs pronounce those made here to be the best, though 

 possibly this statement may only mean that the best arm- 

 shells come from the east and that the Mailu were the middle- 

 men who imported them and sold them to the natives of the 

 Central District (comp. chap, iv., sec. 4). 



The Conus shell fOpi'opiJ is, in harmony with its name, 

 of an almost perfectly conical shape, and the armlet is made 

 out of a ring formed by a transverse section of the shell cut 

 near the base. The "cutting" is done by means of a stone. 

 For this purpose any stone of a fairly small size (about that 

 of a child's fist) can be used, provided it has a blunt point. 

 With this point the manufacturer (always a man) taps the 

 shell with light blows in quick succession, under which its 

 rather soft calcareous substance is, one might say, worn away 

 along the line where the blows are struck. In this manner 

 the base of the cone is first cut off. Then another similar 

 cutting is made, parallel to the plane of the first at a distance 



(72) This is also the opinion of the Rev. W. J. V. Saville, to whom 

 I am indebted for having drawn my attention to the pottery- 

 taboo. 



(73) Comp. the description of arm-shelLs in Seligman, op. cit., 

 p. 513, and pi. lix., where several of them are figured. 



v2 



