Distribution of Pearls and Pearl-shell. 1 1 1 



Nanomana similar offerings were suspended under the 

 altars of the principal gods Foelangi and Maumau. 



Among the Torres Straits Islanders pearl-shells are 

 trimmed and worn as breast-ornaments, or carved into 

 beautiful crescentic and other shapes to be worn as 

 pendants either on the chest or in the ears.™ 



They also appear to have been used in mummifica- 

 tion, as Dr. lilliot Smith has recently referred to the case 

 of a Torres Straits mummy having the eye-sockets filled 

 with a gum or resinous substance in which narrow oval 

 pieces of mother-of-pearl were embedded. ""^ 



Crescent-shaped plates of pearl-shell are also in 

 common use as breast ornaments in British New Guinea 

 and the Solomon Islands, and the same shell is used as 

 an inlay to decorate the native canoes."' 



In the Sandwich Islands the e3'es of idols were 

 noticed by Captain Cook to be made from large pearl 

 oysters, with a black nut fixed in the centre. 



Ellis, in his '' Polynesian. Researches," "■' gives us a 

 lucid description of the curious dress worn in Tahiti at 

 death ceremonies of chiefs. This consisted of a cap of 

 thick native cloth fitted close to the head ; in front were 

 two large broad mother-of-pearl shells, covering the face 

 like a mask, with one small aperture through which the 

 wearer could look. Attached to this head-dress was a 

 beautiful kind of network composed of small pieces of 

 brilliant mother-of-pearl shell, each being about an inch 

 or an inch and a half long, and less than a quarter of an 



ii" A. C. Iladdon, "Reports of Lhe Cambridge Anthropological 

 Expedition to Torres Straits," vol. iv., 1912, pp. 40-45. 



Ill "The Migratictis of Early Culture" {Manchester, 1915), p. 93. 



"2 Haddon, op. cit., iv., p. 43; and H. B. Guppy, "The Solomon 

 Islands and their Natives," London, 1887, pp. 131 and 146-7. 



11' Vol. i., pp. 412-3. 



