CHAPTER I. 
THE ARTS OF THE CLUB. 
The South Sea ethnica in the Museum of the University of Pennsyl- 
vania are so numerous in the sum of the pieces as to establish this as 
one of the great collections of the world. Of even greater moment is 
the fact, immediately and distinctly recognized in the recent recension 
of the material, that such careful judgment has been exercised in the 
acquisition of most of these specimens as to establish the collection in 
the foremost position for the critical study of a great many types of 
objects. Very few indeed are the culture sources which are not rep- 
resented; still fewer are the types of objects pertaining to the by no 
means simple culture of the islands of the Pacific which are not abund- 
antly exemplified. Ina large number of such types the suite of speci- 
mens is sufficiently rich to afford a most remarkable opportunity for 
the study of the evolution of the object from a primitive form to one 
more highly conventionalized, and in the ornamentation to enable the 
student to discover the reason of much that has passed from the 
serving of an end of strict utility to a system of ornament which without 
this richness of material would remain quite incomprehensible. Inthe 
latter particular it is to note that almost all this ornament is mere con- 
vention to the people who employ it and that their explanation is 
wholly fanciful. 
In the course of the recension of the collection and the ordering of 
the various types by theme one group peculiarly came to the front as 
offering practically a complete suite sufficient for the evolutionary 
study of dissonant cultures at a point of contamination through inter- 
course of at least two distinct ethnic groups. The present paper is 
addressed to the statement of the several problems which arise in the 
examination of the wooden clubs of Nuclear Polynesia. It becomes 
necessary, therefore, to present as basic a catalogue raisonné of all the 
ethnica of this particular subdivision in the museum. Upon this 
record, regarded as the base of all study, depend certain conclusions 
which are essentially matters of opinion and interpretation, and as 
such open to discussion. 
Nuclear Polynesia is the designation of a subdivision of ‘the Polyne- 
sian Pacific which upon linguistic and traditional grounds I found it 
necessary to erect. In “‘The Polynesian Wanderings’”’ at page 179 I 
announced this subdivision as follows: 
1. Nuclear Polynesia (Samoa the nucleus, and Niué, Tonga, Viti describing 
the perimeter) was under settlement by Polynesians from a date so remote 
that they had lost all direct memory of an anterior movement thither. They 
held themselves autochthons, and in the greater groups had creation myths 
in which land first emerged from the tireless sea, their own the first of lands 
I 
