724 
TFE VOYAGE OF H.M.S. CHALLENGED. 
whilst at Wild Island there was no fortification. The natives inhabit the small outlying 
islands, probably for protection from attack. Very few natives were seen living on 
the mainland, and these few at one spot only, near the mouth of the small river, 
where there was an apparently temporary hut. Former dwelling places on the mainland 
appear to have been abandoned. No actual fighting was seen, but in a quarrel about 
some barter alongside the ship Oto, the chief attempted to strike a native in another 
canoe from a distant small island, but was prevented by his own men, who held 
him back. The opposite party at once got their spears ready, and threatened him 
with them. 
There are several club houses in Wild Island ; they have already been partially 
described. One such had as door-posts a male and female figure roughly carved in wood, 
but elaborately ornamented with incised patterns and colour (see fig. 257). Between the 
legs of the female figure a fish was represented. There are in the same figure black patches 
with white spots, which appear to mark out the breasts. The hair in both figures is 
represented as cut short, the mop of hair of the warrior not being represented in the 
male figure. No clothes, i.e., T-bandage of bark-cloth, bulla shell, nor ornaments, such 
as ear-rings, nose ornaments, and breastplates, are indicated on the figures, and the 
male figure has no weapons. The ears of both figures are, however, slit for ear-rings, 
and it is possible that a zone of diagonal ornament passing round the body of the male 
figure represents the plaited waistbelt commonly worn. On the upper part of the chest 
of the male figure are a series of circular white ring-marks on a black ground, which 
evidently denote the cicatrizations present in all the male natives. In the female 
figure the tattooing is possibly indicated by ■ a wide patch of diagonal ornamentation 
upon the abdomen, as also by lines drawn round the eyes, and not present in the male 
figure. In the male figure one lateral half of the face is painted white, and the other 
red. The arrangement of paint in this way is in vogue amongst the natives here as at 
Fiji. One Admiralty Islander was seen with one side only of his face reddened, and 
in Fiji at dances it is common to see natives with one lateral half of the face blue, and 
the other red or black (see Plate E. fig. 4). All the ornamentation on the figures is of 
the common zig-zag pattern, and formed of a series of lozenge and triangular shaped 
spaces. The patterns are incised, and stained of three colours, black, red, and white. 
The parts coloured white and red are cut in, whilst the patches of original surface left 
in relief are blackened. Careful coloured drawings of the figures were made by 
Mr. J. J. Wild, artist of the Expedition, and facsimiles of them have been published by 
him in his work 1 already referred to. 
Another club house had no figures, but the four large drums already mentioned. To 
the rafters and supports of the roofs of these club houses inside are fixed up quantities of 
skulls of pigs and turtles, all arranged regularly, with the snouts downward ; these skulls 
1 Dr. J. J. Wild, At Anchor, p. 138, London, 1878. 
