Linton — The Marquesas Islands 429 



cords for attachment. It is possible that this specimen is a head ornament rather 

 than a gorget, as a somewhat similar ornament is said to have been worn with 

 the great headdress of cocks' feathers. 



Plate Lxxviii, C, Nos. 3 and 4, shows two gorgets of more ordinary type. They are 

 composed of a number of sections of hght wood strung together by cords running through 

 lateral holes. The cords are concealed except at the ends, where they are braided together to 

 form the tying strings. The usual number of cords seems to be two, but a gorget in the 

 Cambridge Museum has three. Each section of the gorget has a thick inner end and a tliin 

 outer end, but the proportions of these parts are variable. In the specimens figured the outer 

 ends are short and flat, but in other gorgets the ends are considerably longer than the thick 

 portion and slope upward toward the outside so that the collar looks dished. In a few 

 gorgets the edges of the collar are cut into tongues or rays. The assembled collars are so 

 rigid as to indicate that the sections were glued together. The incrustation was limited to 

 the thin outer part of the collar. The thick part was whitened with lime or clay. 



It is rather curious that the Marquesans should have made a rigid collar 

 of many sections when it would have been much easier to cut it in a single piece. 

 The most plausible explanation for its composite construction seems to be that 

 the idea was borrowed from the necklaces of pandanus fruit which had much the 

 same shape. Krusenstern (34, 156-158) says such collars were the peculiar mark 

 of a priest. 



So far as known, seed incrusted ornaments are found only in Polynesia in 

 the Marcjuesas and Cook Islands. Outside of Polynesia they appear to have 

 been made only in Australia and northern New Guinea. 



Necklaces and breast ornaments differing from any of those described 

 are mentioned by some of the early visitors. Langsdorff (38, pp. 170-171) says: 



"Hogs' fangs or pieces of bone, or muscle shells of a particular kind strung together 

 in rows with the threads of the coconut, are very common as necklaces." Fleurieu (23, 

 p. 114) says: "Some are content to carry, hanging from their necks, small pieces of polished 

 bone, of shell, or of white coral or stone which are carved in dififerent figures but which for 

 the most part imitate a large tooth." He also remarks (p. 120) that the women wore collars 

 or necklaces made of black seeds mi.xed with little shells. Desgraz (15, p. 283) says that 

 small tiki figures of human bones were worn around the neck as amulets. Krusenstern (34, 

 pp. 156-159) says: 



"Another sort of gorget is made entirely of boars' teeth fastened onto a band, woven 

 with the fibers of the coconut, and they also wear single boars' teeth, either suspended from 

 their necks, or fastened to their beards, and balls about the size of an apple entirely covered 

 with red beans." 



A drawing reproduced by Cook (14, p. 310) shows a string gorget of un- 

 usual form, which seems to be made of a great number of short cords doubled 

 over a longitudinal rope. The cords are gathered into bundles just below this 

 rope, the ends hanging free in a deep fringe. 



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