NARRATIVE OF THE CRUISE. 
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two birds joined tail to tail and suspended by strings attached to the bars representing 
the bases of the wings at their opposite extremities (see fig. 254). The bird bowls 
retain the four stout feet each ; and this is even the case in the double bird bowls, 
where two pairs might have been dispensed with without the combination becoming 
unstable. Another bowl is in the form of a crocodile, an animal of which the natives are 
in dread. Here again the four supporting feet are present, and it has not struck the 
Fig. 252. — Large carved wooden Food Bowl without handles, Admiralty Islands. 
artist to make these coincide with the legs of the animal, which are represented 
separately (see fig. 255). 
Some of the bowls are blackened all over, others are of a bright and handsome burnt 
sienna colour. In some the effect of the carving and fretwork is enhanced by colouring 
with the usual red and white pigments (see Plate M.). 
A remarkable appreciation of symmetry and fertility in design is shown in the patterns 
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Fig. 253. — Food Bowl, with spiral, carved, and perforated handles, carved from a single block of wood, Admiralty Islands. 
which are cut upon the circular plates worn sometimes on the forehead, oftener on the 
breast. These consist of circular white plates ground down out of Tridacna shells, with 
a hole in the centre for suspension. On the front of this white ground is fastened a thin 
plate of tortoiseshell, which is ornamented with fretwork, so that the white ground shows 
through the apertures. The patterns are of endless variety, no two being alike, and show 
all kinds of combinations of circles, triangles, toothing, and radiate patterns. The shell 
