412 Memoirs Bcrnicc P. BisJiOp Museum 



ous, for fragments of scrapers may be found in the earth of any village site. 

 A few stone scrapers designed for other purposes may also have been used in 

 tapa making. 



BiCATlCRS 



The tapa beaters in common use were of two distinct ty])es, the round 

 and the square. There was a third rare type which was intermediate I)etween 

 the two main forms. 



The round beaters (PL Lxxiv, A, 3) are simple billets of fan wood, 18 to 

 20 inches long, cut from saplings i]^ to 2j4 inches in diameter. These billets 

 were stripped of bark, and while still green and soft, were incised from end to end 

 with a number of closely spaced grooves made, it is said, with the corner of a 

 stone adz. They were then allowed to dry, and were ready for use. Beaters 

 of this type have no distinct handles and both ends and all sides may be used. 

 The round beaters were commonly used only for the initial beating of the bark, 

 but could be employed for the entire process of manufacture. A very fine piece 

 of utc tapa was seen that had been beaten throughout with an implement of 

 this sort. 



The square tapa beaters (PI. ux.xiv, A. i) were made of toa wood (Cas- 

 uirina ) and their manufacture must have required considerable skill and patience. 

 Their handles are said to have been shaped with shells and the grooves 

 cut with sharpened jjcarl shells or rats' teeth. Beaters of this type were com- 

 mon to the whole of Polynesia, but those from the Marquesas are easily dis- 

 tinguishable by their shorter and heavier grips. The body of the beater is rect- 

 angular; the grip is round and nearly as thick as the body. There is a slight 

 flare at the butt of some beaters. Each of the faces is incised with a number of 

 closely spaced longitudinal grooves. The number of grooves on the different 

 faces of a beater varies slightly, hut there seems to be no distinction of coarse and 

 fine faces such as is found in the Tahitian and some other beaters. The orna- 

 mental designs on beaters which gave the tapa a sort of "water mark," common 

 in Hawaii, seem to have been entirely absent in the Marquesas. A beater with a 

 long slender grip, reminiscent of the Hawaiian and Tahitian forms, was seen in 

 Hiva Oa, and another obtained from an old mc'ac (in the same island, has the 

 grip set at a slight but distinct angle to the body of the beater, a very unusual 

 feature. 



Beaters of the third type constitute an ancient form. (See PI. Lxxiv, A, 2.) 

 Only two were seen, both of them crudely made. They are made of foa wood, 

 are rectangular in cross section, but somewhat more slender than the ordinary 

 square beaters and have no distinct handles. All four faces are grooved for 

 their entire length, hut the grooves appear to have been drawn alternately from 



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