Linton — The Marquesas Islands 287 



The end post of a small mortuary house was decorated at the bottom with 

 a small caryatid figure less than two feet high. The undecorated upper part of 

 the post, which was of the ordinary triangular form, was nearly eight feet in 

 length. No other specimens of this sort were seen and the form was probably 

 uncon:mon. 



Carvings on Posts 



The use of house posts carved with non-naturalistic designs was quite 

 common in Hiva Oa, Tahu Ata and Fatu Hiva. Only one doubtful example of 

 post carving was seen in Nuku Hiva and Stewart's excellent description of the 

 dwellings of that island makes no mention of this sort of decoration although 

 he speaks of ornamental lashings (59, pp. 233-6). An informant of Ua Huka said 

 that the house posts on that island were never carved with designs although he 

 remembered the use of ornamental lashings and described them in some detail. It 

 seems probable, therefore, that this type of decoration was little used in the north- 

 ern islands of the group. 



House posts decorated with carved designs retained their original rect- 

 angular or triangular cross section, the designs being rather shallowly incised upon 

 the flat surfaces (PI. XLi, C). Front posts were usually carved on the outer and 

 inner sides; the lateral surfaces were left plain. Most end posts were carved on the 

 flat inner side only, but a few were observed in which the two outer surfaces were 

 also decorated. No two posts were exact duplicates, but all the posts from a 

 single house showed more or less uniformity in the motifs employed. This was 

 probably due to their being the work of a single artist. 



Some of the posts had been carved with metal chisels, but originally the 

 designs appear to have been hewn vipon the posts with a special form of narrow- 

 bitted adz. With this implement the artist worked free hand without a model, 

 which accounted for the coarseness and irregularity of much of the work. The 

 designs were never continuous from top to bottom, but were applied in horizontal 

 zones of varying width. On a few posts there was a suggestion of an additional 

 longitudinal division of the surface into two equal parts. The two surfaces of the 

 outer sides of end posts were ordinarily treated as separate units. The grooves 

 of the carving were usually semicircular in cross section, the raised surfaces be- 

 tween them being narrow and sharp edged. In some curvilinear designs small 

 uncarved spaces were left, but as a rule the artist showed no appreciation of the 

 value of plain surfaces and covered every inch of available space with carving. 



In carving house posts angular-geometric and curvilinear patterns were 

 used, but on analysis the nvmiber of motifs proved to be small. The designs in 

 the posts studied may be given as follows : 



[27] 



