Linton — The Marquesas Islands 417 



be worn with the knot either on the breast or on one shoulder. According to Han- 

 dy the festive dress of the women consisted of a strip of tapa as much as thirty or 

 forty meters long which was wrapped round and round the wearer, giving an effect 

 not unHke an European hoop skirt. In some cases it was doubled and plaited arovmd 

 a hoop \\hich hung from the hips. This custom of wearing great quantities of tapa 

 has also been described from Hawaii and the Society Islands. It is rather inter- 

 esting that the poncho-like upper garment worn in the Society Islands seems to 

 have been imknown in the Marquesas. 



TATTOOING 



The Alarquesans surpassed all other Polynesians in the excellence and ex- 

 tent of their tattooing. In men the entire person, even to the crown of the head, was 

 covered with intricate and beautiful designs. Women were tattooed on the arms, 

 legs and shoulders, but not on the body. The facial tattooing of women was 

 limited to a series of short lines on the lips and a small figure behind the lobe of 

 the ear. The present natives deny that the genitals were tattooed, but a draw- 

 ing in the prospectus of \^on den Steinen's book on Marquesan art indicates that 

 this was sometimes done on women. 



The tattooing was done with bone combs. 



The larger combs were made from the bones of revenge victims, hcana. the smaller combs 

 of bird bones. In Hiva Oa at least smaller tattooing combs were made from the bones of 

 tapu birds caught on Fatu Huku. The combs are roughly triangular in outline, with 

 rounded apexes and slightly convex edges. Unfinished specimens show that they were shaped 

 and grotmd to a sharp edge before the teeth were cut. The cutting of the teeth is said to 

 have been done with a sliver of bamboo. The largest comb collected is about 3 inches long 

 and j4 inch wide at the base, with a maximum width of about yi inch, and a thickness of 

 i/i6th of an inch. The smallest, made of bird bone, is about 2j^ inches long, with a base 

 width of i/io of an inch and a ma.ximum width of about 1/5 of an inch. The teeth range in 

 length from 1/8 to 1/5 of an inch and vary in number from 3 to 18, according to the width 

 of the comb. The lower edge of several of the combs is convex rather than straight so that 

 the incisions made must have been deepest in the middle. This is not a constant feature and 

 was probably accidental. The larger combs were used to fill solid space in the designs, the 

 smaller, in working out curves and details. (See PI. lxxv. A, 2.) 



According to informants in Hiva Oa, the combs were provided with temporary handles 

 made from joints of upland reed, in which small transverse slots were cut for the insertion of 

 the upper end of the comb. When not in use the handles were discarded and the combs stored 

 in short joints of bamboo (PI. lxxv. A, 3). The complete implement looked like a minia- 

 ture adz from four to six inches long. In Nuka Hiva a more permanent form of handle 

 seems to have been used, the blade being attached by ornamental lashings of very thin sennit. 



The pigment used in tattooing was made from soot or from pulverized char- 

 coal, mixed with water to form a thick ink. 



In making the soot pigment, which was considered the best, a flat water-worn stone was 

 propped up on three other stones in such a way as to leave a small space beneath it. Three 

 strings of candle nuts, strung on sennit, were then tied together in a bunch, lit, and thrust under 



[15;] 



