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Memoirs Jlcniicc P. Bishop Miisciiui 



house for seven or eight days, at the end of which time the skin was l)leaclied. 

 [ardin (33, pp. 32-59) says the natives of Xuku llix'a used tlie sap of the ;/;o(( 

 (Sicgcsbcckia oriciitolis) as a skin hleach, rubbing the skin with the crushed leaves 

 the day before a fete. 



Skin bleaching seems to have been almost confined to the women, although 

 Stewart (59, pp. 259-260) mentions a male dancer, whose skin had been bleached 

 in this wav, who was "almost as fair as any one of our number." The light color 

 pnxluced in this wav lasted for only a short time, exposure to the sun causing the 

 skin to reassume its normal brown tint. 



SrECIAL COSTUMES 



Special costumes were worn by priests in the performance of their duties. 

 According to Handy the ceremonial dress of the ta'iia of Atu Ona, Hiva Oa, was a 

 full length robe of tapa made from the thick liark of old l)anyan trees. Tt covered 

 the whole bodv and came to the ground, and was likened by the natives to a 

 ])riest's cassock. It was called kalnt kohito. 



Stewart, writing of Xuku Iliva, says ('50, pp. 271-272) : 



The Tahunas have a ihstinctive (h'ess, consisting' of a cap formed from a coconut leaf. .\ 

 part of the stem, six to eight inches in length, is placed perpenchcularly over the forehead, and 

 the leaflets still attached to it are passed around the head on each side and neatly fastened 

 together behind. Besides this article on tlie head, they wear a cajje of the same material. In 

 this the stem is split till within an inch or two of one of the ends : it is then passed around 

 the neck so that the extremities rest on each shoulder, and the separated ends are tied together. 

 The ribs rumiing through the leaflets being taken out, they hang gracefully over the chest and 

 back. Tiiese articles are usually worn by them on ordinary occasions, and always when in 

 discharge of the services connected with their office. 



He describes the dress of a ta'iia whom he visited as follows (59, p. 328) : 



His whole figure was enveloped in a large mantle of snow white ta]:)a, or native cloth, 

 over which a smaller one of fine scarlet kerseymere fell from his shoulders down the back 

 — both being fastened by one large knot, resting on the chest in front. A double roll of fine 

 white tapa encircled his forehead : while his hair, tied in two close knots, was confined on the 

 crown by long bands of the same. 



According to Handy the taputoho at Pua Ma'u, Hiva Oa. wore a long 

 cloak of ulc tapa, like a blanket, which was called /.■(///// kookoo, and a ])eculiar dark 

 colored headdress called pac kohito. This headdress was made from the bark of an 

 old life tree which was slightly pounded, and left rough. It was tied around the 

 head and knotted behind with a piece hanging down. 



Stewart (59, p. 288) describes the dress of a messenger bearing invitations 

 to a funeral as follows : 



[He] was dressed in a large quantity of white clotli, wearing on his head a bandeau 

 of white with bows, surmounted by a miter shaped cap, formed of the green leaf of a Ixuiana 



[162] 



