444 Mcutoiis Bcrnicc P. Bishop Miisciiin 



A number of interesting records for songs and stories are also figured and 

 described bv \'on den Steinen. One record (56, p. 111-113) has a body in the form 

 of a woven sact;, as large as a child's head. The knotted record w as attached to 

 the edge of the sack, and when not in use was kept coiled up within it. The sack 

 was kept hung up by a handle in the house of the fulutna. and was supposed to 

 contain a great number of spells and stories, all of which could be related bv the 

 aid of the single cord. Another record is very elaborate. It has a short body, 

 covered with white tapa and decorated with plaited coconut leaves and bunches of 

 midribs of coconut leaflets. To this are attached seven cords for songs and twelve 

 for iiiafa. All of these were recited in regular order. Still other small records, of 

 the general type shown on Plate Lxxxiv, E, were used to instruct chiefs' children 

 in chants. One record (56, fig. 5) is woven from fau bark, an unusual material 

 for these objects. 



\'on den Steinen (56, j). 113) reproduces a drawing by Porter, entitled 

 "God of the Taipis." Tt is in the form of a human figure, woven from sennit, and 

 from the loops surrounding the top of the head is identifiable as a string record. 

 Von den Steinen says that the use of these records in the Marquesas seems to 

 have been limited to the islands of Tau Ata and Hiva Oa. An incomplete speci- 

 men was, however, collected in Fatu flix'a, and the object from Xuku Hiva 

 figured by f^orter seems to prove their existence in the northern part of the group. 



String records were used to keep record of taxes in Hawaii, of songs in the 

 Cook group, and of geneologies in New Zealand. 



[184] 



