A VANISHING PEOPLE OF THE SOUTH SEAS 



291 



Photograph by John W. Church 



ONE OF THE MAIES, OR SACRED GROVES, OF THE MARQUESAS 



Back in the deep shade of the banyans is another terrace, on which the native tiki, or god, 

 stood. Here the feasts which followed human sacrifices were held. 



race there were no songs nor dances, if 

 one excepts the remarkable hula-hula, 

 which was essentially an amatory, terpsi- 

 chorean debauch, usually the concluding 

 ceremony of any fete or feast. 



WHERE TATTOOING HAD BECOME A FINE 

 ART 



Both men and women were elaborately 

 tattooed. Had I not unfortunately lost 

 the color screen of my camera, I would 

 be able to show photographically some of 

 the really beautiful work done with the 

 bone needle. The ordinary lens of the 

 camera will not reproduce the blue fig- 

 ures on brown skin, so I am without 

 photographic confirmation of their skill 

 in an art for which they have been fa- 

 mous throughout the South Seas. 



Usually there was but one tattoo artist 

 for each tribe, and his apprentices lived 

 with him'. They used a set of needles 

 made from human bone and the juice 



from the buds of the noni bush for color. 

 Under his skillful hands, each maiden 

 and youth of the tribe willingly under- 

 went the torture of tattoo. 



The amount of decoration varied ac- 

 cording to rank, additions to the original 

 designs often being made later in life ; 

 but always the legs were tattooed from 

 ankle to thigh, and necklaces and brace- 

 lets were worn on the arms and throats 

 of the maidens. The warriors were cov- 

 ered with geometric and spiral designs, 

 except the face, which was divided into 

 blocks of solid color like a chess-board. 

 The squares on the faces of the chiefs 

 were sometimes enclosed in an inverted 

 triangle, the base running across the fore- 

 head and the point resting on the chin. 

 This peculiar marking gave to the nat- 

 urally mild countenance of the warrior 

 an expression of extreme fierceness. 



Much of the ornamentation of the wo- 

 men resembled fine lace- work. and. as 

 their skins were usually a light brown, 



