380 ]\Icnioirs Bcniicc P. Bislwf^ Miiscuiii 



banana stumps were beaten until the soft parts and fiber sejiarated. Tlie fiber 

 was cleaned, washed and dried, and then rolled into cord bv the jirocess just 

 described for pineapple fiber. The only remembered use of this cord was in 

 the making of pchc or string figure. 



Jardin {;3,^, pp. 3-3-59) mentions the use of certain other fiber plants. No 

 accounts of these were obtained from the natives but the information ap])ears 

 to be reliable. The species are: /^akoko [Phascolits ainaciiiis) of which Jardin 

 says (t,^), "The flower shoots are very flexible; the natives make from them 

 lines for catching fish;" papa, an unidentified legume, which, according to Jardin, 

 "serves like the pliascohis aiiiacuiis for the making of threads;" and piitc (Pip- 

 hinis propiiiqiiiis) of which the same author says, "The natives use its branches, 

 which are very flexible, to make large ropes." 



Other materials, which can scarcely be classed as fil)er, were tapa, and 

 a variety of long grass, unidentified, called by the natives iiiaiioiiiafifo nc 

 tctahia. The tapa was sometimes twisted into strings for the suspension of 

 ornaments, but had so little tensile strength that it was usually reinforced with a 

 strand of coconut fiber about which the tapa was wound. Strips of grass are 

 said to have been plaited into cords which were used by girls in a game, but no 

 more exact information could be obtained. 



A discussion of knots and splices belongs under the general head of cord- 

 age and fiber, but it is quite impossible to distinguish at the present time be- 

 tween native forms and those of European origin. The Marquesas became at 

 a verv earlv time a regular ]iort of call for whalers and a number of the natives 

 served and still serve as sailors on European shi])s. It is not surprising, there- 

 fore, that they soon ac(|uired a knowledge of all the I{uropean knots and splices 

 and ha\'e for manv vears used them as skill fullv as anv white sailor. 



[120I 



