Linton — Tlic Marquesas Islands 437 



lections are of celluloid and the carving- on such objects is often superior to that on those of 

 genuine tortoise shell. There are indications that the traders went even further in the 

 packaha trade, for the plaques in a specimen seen in Pua Ma'u, Hiva Oa, seem to have been 

 stamped in a mold. The material used was apparently vulcanized rubber. 



Paekaha were made by special tuhuna. and according to Handy were paid for in pigs. 

 Land was not legal tender in this case, because the packaha was worn on the head, and if a 

 woman walked on the land given in payment it would be as though she stepped over the head 

 of the owner of the packaha, a great defilement. The holes in the plaques were made with a 

 pump drill and the carvings executed, in ancient times, with rats' teeth. 



Packaha were worn by both men and women and in view of the large 

 number preserved in collections it is rather curious that neither Cook nor 

 Fleurieu mention them in their accounts of the southern islands although they 

 speak of other headdresses for whose existence we have little other evidence. 

 This would seem to strengthen the evidence for their Fatu Hivan origin, and it 

 seems probable that they became popular in the other islands of the group only 

 in historic times. 



In contrast to this silence in regard to the j^ackaJia we have an abundance 

 of early references to another sort of shell and tortoise shell headdress, the 

 uhikana (Handy). Cook says (14, p. 309-310): 



Their principle headdress, and what appears to be their chief ornament, is a sort of broad 

 fillet, curiously made of the fibers of the husks of coconuts. In the front is fixed a mother of 

 pearl shell wrought round to the size of a tea saucer. Before that another, smaller, of very fine 

 tortoise shell, and perforated in curious figures. Also before and in the center of that, is another 

 round piece of mother of pearl, about the size of half a crown, and before this another piece of 

 perforated tortoise shell the size of a shilling. Beside this decoration in front, some have it also 

 on each side, but in smaller pieces ; and all have fixed to them the tail feathers of cocks or tropic 

 birds, which, when the fillet is tied on, stand upright: so that the whole together makes a very 

 sightly ornament. 



Plate Lxxxi, C shows the back of one of these ornaments and the inside of the head band. 

 The bands were plaited in the same way as those of the packaha. The pearl shell, of the largest 

 size available, was ground to a regular outline and drilled near the center with two or more 

 holes for attachment. 



A very fine specimen, now in the Peabody Museum of Salem, is 

 shown on Plate Lxxxii, C. The final disc of tortoise shell is missing — ^possibly 

 it was never there. The design on the large tortoise shell disc is of the same 

 general type as that illustrated by Cook (14, p. 310). There are indications 

 that two distinct conventions were employed in the carving of these discs. 



One convention was characterized by a round disc with elaborate tracery, and an absence 

 of human figures. In the other the disc was oval and from the top center rose two large hooks, 

 with their tips ])ointing outward. Radiating from the center of the oval were six rather large 

 tiki heads, with the spaces between cut away. Bordering the oval, and joining the tops of the 

 heads, was a continuous band, toothed on the outer edge and delicately pierced and traced. 

 Uhikana, in which the oval discs were used, seem usually to have had the ends of the bands 

 covered with plates of mother of pearl and tortoise shell like those used on packca. Those 

 with round discs lacked the plates. It seems probable that these conventions represent local 



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