Linion — The Marquesas Islands 419 



Both sexes removed the pubic and axillary hair by means of tweezers 

 made from the shells of small bivalves. 



HAIR DRESSING 



A number of modes of hair dressing were employed b}' the Marquesans, 

 the men apparently surpassing the women in the number of styles. Porter says : 



The females at times, on what occasions I do not know, shave their heads close ; but 

 I am induced to believe that such occasions are rare, as some wear their hair long, some cut 

 short, and some cropped close, while others are close shaved. They have such variety in wear- 

 ing- their hair that I could not discover any fashion which seemed to prevail over the others. 

 (See 49, pp. 113-114.) 



The pahhe (woman's head dress) consists of a remarkably fine and white piece of paper 

 cloth, of open texture, and much resembles a species of fine gauze, called by us spider's web. 

 This is put on in a very neat and tasty manner and greatly resembles a close cap. The hair is 

 put up gracefully in a knot behind, and the head, when dressed in this manner, bears no slight 

 resemblance to the prevailing fashion of the present day (1812) in America. (See 49, p. 96.) 



Porter's observations were made in Nuku Hiva. According to informants 

 in Hiva Oa, women's hair was usually cut off at the shoulders, although it might 

 be allowed to grow full length. On ordinary occasions it was allowed to float 

 free, or was held back from the face by a band of white tapa, with the ends 

 hanging behind. At the time of feasts the hair was drawn up through the pacliaka, 

 or other ornament worn, and frizzled so that it stood out in small locks. One 

 informant said that these locks were sometimes passed through small corrugated 

 tubes of human bone, of the sort used to decorate container handles. 



Men shaved their heads in various ways. Porter says (49, pp. 113-114): 



Their [young men's] custom is to put it up in two knots, one on each side of the head, 

 and they are secured with white strips of cloth, with a degree of neatness and taste which 

 might defy the art of our best hair dressers to equal. The old men wear it sometimes cut short, 

 sometimes the head is shaved, and they occasionally have their heads entirely shaved, except 

 one lock on the crown which is worn loose or put up in a knot. But this latter mode of wear- 

 ing the hair is only adopted by them when they have a solemn vow, as to revenge the death of 

 a near relative, etc. 



When the hair was dressed with two knots the center and back of the head 

 was shaved, the tapa wrapped knots protruding like horns from the bare skull. 

 Gracia (28, p. 134) says that the old men, and especially the high chiefs, wore 

 their hair done up in a single horn on top of the head. 



The natives of Hiva Oa seem to have had an even greater variety of styles. 

 Some men never cut their hair, others did it up in two horns, as in Nuku Hiva ; 

 still others arranged the crown in fantastic ways, as one half shaved the other 

 long, or the front shaved and the back long, or a series of shaved stripes, with 

 long hair between. Handy was informed that in time of war, finger bones or 

 other trophies of slain enemies were attached to the hair. 



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