Lining Pens of Banibu. 



103 



Our Polynesian friends did not always love labor for labor's sake, and we may 

 suppose they were not long in inventing the labor-saving contrivance of the multiple 

 pen shown in Nos. 1262 and 1263 of the same figure. These were made of the same 

 hard, dark colored wood and might well have served for forks ^ had the primitive 

 Hawaiian menu called for such implements. The form was there, but not the use. 



FIG. 54. COMPOSITE WNES. 



and the cannibals of Fiji were perhaps the first ones in the Pacific ocean to trench 

 upon the time-honored use of the fingers.''' 



Besides the neat wooden liners a much more common form was made from a 

 splint of bambu, as shown in Fig. 53. These, it will be seen, have another feature of 

 decorative convenience in the arrangement of the marking points in pairs, triplets, or 

 any desired combination. Fasily made and sharpened, light to handle and fairly well 

 suited for taking up the colored ink and holding it for even distribution when wanted, 



"It is claimed that the use of human flesh as food leaves a phosphorescent glow on lips and fingers of the 

 partakers of this rich feast. I do not vouch for the truth of this, having never been a guest at such a banquet. 

 The legend goes on that the glow was supposed to be the ghost or spirit of the baked one, and to avoid this presence, 

 especially disagreeable to primitive man, the cylindrical forks often seen in museums were devised. 



