Objects Used for Ornament

Armlet of black wood and whale's tooth
Hawaii

Trifles of the most various kind find employment for decorative purposes. In its shells of many colours the sea provides copious material. Flowers and tendrils are worn in tasteful style round the neck, in the hair, in the ears, even in the nose. Knotted strings of pandanus-leaf or coco-nut fibre serve not only for purposes of divination, but, as on Ule, for the reckoning of time; and many chiefs wear them for that purpose round their necks. Or are we to see in this a kind of record of memoranda (Dui) such as the chiefs carry in Pelew?

Woman of the Society Islands (From photograph in the Dammara Album)

To these superstition adds shells and bones of particular shape, human bones, human teeth; even millipedes are strung together for necklaces. Pendants of birds' bones and ear-ornaments of albatross-skin were favourite modes of adornment with the New Zealanders.

Ear-button of whale's tooth
Marquesas

On Tongatabu the natives used as ornaments the iron nails which Cook had brought for trade-purposes; one nail was the price of a hen. In Tonga chains were made of long thin leg-bones, alternating with small brown snail-shells, and from them hung a large mother-of-pearl shell. Single teeth, birds carved from sperm-whales' teeth, black and white beads made from shells, are also hung round the neck. Combs made of the stalks of plants, bound close and evenly round the upper end with finely-plaited fibres are among the most beautiful productions of Tongan art. In Hawaii the ornaments are either for the feet, thickly set with dogs' teeth, snail-shells, or beans, or else armlets made of carved pieces of bone or tortoise-shell, all of one size, fastened into a flexible whole by doubled threads passed through them. Similar strings with closely-ranged disks of shell, divided by smaller disks of a black nutshell, are used as money and also occur as foot and arm ornaments.

Combs from Tonga - longest 320mm approx. (British Museum.)

In Micronesia also garlands of fresh flowers, red and yellow, play an important part in feminine adornment. A shell, a circular piece of mother-of-pearl or tortoise-shell, little polished disks of Conus shell, all strung on a thread of human hair, form the favourite gaud of the Gilbert and Marshall Islanders. On Pingelap bits of red Spondylus shell are liked for necklaces; elbow-rings of Conus and Nautilus shells are worn on Yap.

Breastplate of mother-of-pearl set in iron,
and with sling of human hair
Approx 215mm top to bottom.
(Christy Collection.)

A Polynesian with all his jewellery upon him gives the impression of being overlaid with varied hues. But the taste for colour, in the absence of staring mineral pigments, was formerly much better developed than it is now that European traders have taken to dressing these people in their stuffs at so much a yard. Both sexes among the Polynesians are graceful; nor is coquetry unknown. On Sundays the Samoan women put on a long and ample chemise-like garment, always of a bright colour, which suits them charmingly. When they go to church they add a tiny straw-hat, decked with flowers and ribbons of many colours, stuck as much as possible on the side of the head. For dancing masks are worn; also a peculiar ear-ornament, and skirts of leaves so dry that as they move to the tune a rustling sound arises. Red paint is also freely employed, and they carry paddle-shaped dancing-wands.

Woman of the Paumotu Islands
(From photograph in the Godeffroy Album)