Linton — Tlic Marquesas Islands 427 



dently thrust through the loop and held on the outside with a pin of 

 some sort. Edge-Partington (20, p. 44) shows a specimen with ends finished in 

 this way which has three shell pendants of graduated size. Necklaces with 

 both ends finished alike were tied behind the neck with strings of twisted tapa. 

 (See Nos. 3, 4.) x\ polished pearl shell was usually suspended from the 

 center of the necklace. 



Edge-Partington (20, p. 6y) figures a hair girdle from Niue wiiich closely 

 resembles these ]\Iarquesan necklaces. A necklace of similar form from the Ellice 

 Islands is now in the American Museum of Natural History, and the National 

 Museum has a series of necklaces from Penrhyn Is.land which dififer from the Mar- 

 quesan forms only in minor details of the finishing of the ends. All these orna- 

 ments are obviously similar to the Hawaiian hair necklaces which with a whale 

 ivorv hook formed the insignia of chiefly rank. 



Necklaces other than those of hair cord seem formerly to have been worn 

 principally by women. They were made from porpoise teeth, shells, or seeds and 

 in later times of European glass beads. The teeth tised were perforated as near 

 the bottom of the root as possible, and strung on threads of pineapple fiber. Bead 

 necklaces were usually made of a double strand of beads which was looped back 

 and forth as in chain stitching. The ends of the necklace were tied together at 

 the back of the neck. Combinations of beads and teeth, or of beads and shells, 

 seem to have been rather common. (See PL ivXxvii, B.) 



GORGETS AND BREAST ORNAMENTS 

 The ]\Iarquesans used a great variety of gorgets and breast ornaments, 

 most, if not all, of which were worn l)y the men. The most valued of these 

 was the ci. or whale's tooth (PI. Lxxviii, A) some of which at least had a 

 religious significance. As the INIarquesans did not catch whales the supply of 

 teeth must have been far below the demand. Porter says that a schooner load of 

 sandal wood could be bought with ten large teeth. \Miales' teeth worn as orna- 

 ments were drilled transversely near the tip of the root, and were commonlv 

 ground at this end, to make them thinner and easier to perforate. In view of 

 their skill in ivory carving it is rather curious that the natives seem not to have 

 carved or shaped these teeth. The tooth was sometimes attached to the ends of 

 a hair ornament worn on the shoulders, serving to weight it down and hold it 

 in position. Most of the specimens seen, however, were attached to ropes of 

 twisted coconut fiber covered with white tapa. 



Plaques of large pearl shells were formerly used in the Marcjuesas, but 

 very few examples have survived. 



In making the plaque the shell was ground to a more or less regular outline and the 

 colored outer layers removed except for a narrow band around the edge. This band was dec- 



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