PLATE 29. 



Rakotongan Tapa. Toxc.ATAiu' Tapa. 



These two specimens, hoth from the British Museum, illustrate designs used 

 on the Hawaiian Islands as well, but I have less perfect specimens for illustration 

 from the latter source. The upper one looks much as if the tiny drop of lava 

 thrown from the Hawaiian active craters with its filament of Pele's hair attached 

 had been cemented on a stiff sheet of kapa and used as a type or upete. The 

 blotches and their trail resemble nothing else so closely. The lower specimen from 

 Tougatabu shows clearly the sudden change of direction in a line which all the 

 Polynesian kapa designers much affected. The Rarotougan .specimen is black on 

 white, while the one from Tongatabu seems to be black and red (?) on a gray or 

 buff ground. 



