Linton — The Marquesas Islands 433 



ornament of this sort, now in the Peabody Museum of Salem, is shown on Plate 

 Lxxx, A, 2. 



The ornament consists of two feathered bands, of identical construction, placed side 

 by side and fastened together by wrappings of sennit at intervals of three or four inches. 

 The ends of the bands are enclosed in a longer wrapping; each band consists of a heavy 

 core of twisted coconut fiber over which there is a continuous sennit wrapping. The plumes 

 are closely spaced and have been laid on with their quills against the core, each quill being 

 held in place by two or three turns of the wrapping. Great care was taken to place the plumes 

 so that their natural curve caused those on each half of the band to incline outward and 

 away from the center. Heavy sennit cords, probably a continuation of the fiber in the cores 

 of the bands, spring from either end of the ornament. Other cords of fau bark are attached 

 to the ends of the sennit cords. 



The taazvha was worn across the forward part of the head, a little back of the forehead, 

 with the plumes rising vertically. The cords at its ends were tied under the chin, like bonnet 

 strings. It was primarily a man's ornament, but was sometimes worn by women dancers at 

 fetes. 



Gracia (28, p. 134) says that about 500 feathers were required for a taavaha, and that 

 each cock had only two feathers which would serve, so that it was necessary to despoil over 200 

 cocks to make a single ornament. At the time of his visit a taai'aha was valued at a gim. 



A modified form of the taazxiha is shown on Plate lxxx. A, i. The bands which form 

 the base of this ornament are like those in the one just described, but the workmanship is 

 not so good. The feathers are much shorter and appear to be cocks' tail coverts. They are 

 made up in small bunches of three to five feathers each, with the quill ends enclosed in short 

 sennit wrappings. The bunches are attached to the cores of the bands by a method resembling 

 that used in attaching the small locks of hair in hair ornaments. 



Stewart (59, pp. 247-249) describes still another modification of the taa- 

 zvha. He says: 



It [the headdress] consists of a crescent three or four inches broad at its greatest 

 breadth, fixed uprightly in front, the lower edge following the line of the hair on the forehead, 

 and the points terminating at each temple immediately above the ears. A neat border, an 

 eighth of an inch vi^ide, ran around the edges in a herring bone pattern of alternate black and 

 white — while the middle was entirely filled with the small scarlet berries of the Abriis prc- 

 catoriiis, fastened upon the material of which it was constructed by a gum which exudes from 

 the breadfruit tree. [Compare this description with the gorget ( ?) shown on PI. lxxviii, C, 2.] 

 The crescent formed the front of a cap, fitting closely to the head behind, and the founda- 

 tion in which the heavy plumage surmounting it is fixed. This plumage consisted of the 

 long black and burnished tail feathers of the cock — the finest I ever saw ; those in the center 

 being more than two feet in length. They were arranged behind the front piece as closely 

 as possible, and in such a manner, as to form the shape of a deeply pointed chapeau, placed 

 crosswise on the head — the feathers in the center standing perpendicular, and becoming more 

 and more vertical, till the lowest at the edges drooped deeply over the shoulders. 

 The ends — falling, from the highest point above the forehead, one over another in a regularly 

 defined curve on either side — played in the air with the gracefulness of an ostrich plume, 

 and imparted to the whole an appearance of richness and taste we had not been led to expect 

 from any of the decorations of the country previously seen. 



According to Handy a headdress made from the white feathers of the 

 z'aki bird was also called taavalia. 



Gracia (28, p. 134) says: "Oftentimes a bunch of other more curious 

 feathers of sea birds, in the form of a plume, are worn at the top or back of the 



U7i] 



