336 Memoirs Bcniicc P. Bisliop Miiscitiit 



was so heavy, however, that several men would ha\e been required to move it 

 and it must have been fixed in some special place. It was said to have been used 

 to dye tapa with saflfron. 



A third stone bowl was seen in the valley of Pua Ma'ii. Hiva Oa, and is 

 known to have been the property of the last queen of that \alley. It was made 

 of red tuffa of the sort ordinarily employed for large stone slabs, and was very 

 roughly finished. The dimensions were as follows: diameter, 18 inches; external 

 depth, 14 inches: thickness of rim. 3 inches. It was said by the owner to have 

 been used to keep fire in, in the house at night, but this seems to have been an 

 unusual practise and no other bowls of the sort were known to the natives. 



A peculiar stone tray was collected in the valley of Taipi Vai. Xuku 

 Hiva. This specimen is made of rather coarse lava, worked all over but poorly 

 finished. The outside is decidedly asymmetrical — somewhat oblong in shape with 

 rounded ends. One end of the tray has a curious flat projection running from 

 a short distance below the rim down the outside of the bowl to the bottom. This 

 projection is 5^ inches long. 31^8 inches wide at the tipper end and 2 inches 

 wide at the lower end. at the top it is i inch thick, at the bottom ^ an inch. The 

 upper end and sides of the projection are somewhat undercut, and a shallow 

 trans\erse groove rtins across the lower end ;;4 of an inch above its tip. The 

 internal depression of the tray is nearly rectangular, 1 1 inches long, y^/^ inches 

 wide and ^ of an inch deep. The bottom is flat, the sides curving upward 

 abruptly. The outer stirfaces of the tray recurve slightly at the rim. The 

 dimensions of the tray are: length, 14?, s inches: width, 934 inches: maximum 

 thickness, 4^2 inches. This tray was used by its owner to grate saffron root and 

 was described by him as an heirloom. There is good evidence, however, that he 

 found it while clearing land onl\- a short time before its purchase and its ancient 

 use remains uncertain. (See PI. L. B-C.) 



The specimens described have all been of large size and rather crude 

 workmanship. Certain fragments in the collection of the Bishop Museum, how- 

 ever, prove that there were in the group small and finely made stone bowls. 

 Xo. B3699A is a fragment of a bowl or tray, its size being too small to make 

 exact determination possible. The material is some soft, rather close-grained, 

 grey stone, and the whole surface, including the fracture, is heavily patinated. 

 The walls are about J4, of an inch thick, and the internal depression fi of an 

 inch deep at the rim. The rim is flat, and the object appears to have been finely 

 finished on all surfaces. Another fragment (Xo. B3699B ) is of a small cir- 

 cular bowl about 6^ inches in diameter and 2^ inches deep. The walls are 

 }s of an inch thick at the rim and about 134 inches thick at the bottom. The 

 outer sides recurve slightly at the rim, which is flat with rounded edges. This 



I76] 



