The Atoll of Funafuti, Ellice group : its zoology, botany, ethnology and general structure based on collections made by Charles Hedley of the Australian Museum, Sydney, N.S.W.
Ornaments
Ornaments.
Trinkets for personal adornment, except those of European pattern, are now, through missionary influence, disused on Funafuti. A band of small and polished Nautilus shells, somewhat like that Edge-Partington figures from Samoa,* was purchased by a member of the Expedition. As the Pearly Nautilus does not occur alive on the atoll, and rarely if ever drifts there, I am not satisfied of the local origin of that ornament.
* Edge-Partington—loc. cit., pl. lxxxvi., fig. 2.
Head-dresses were formerly made of the Frigate bird plumes,‡ but of these I failed to procure either specimens or models. A pandanus leaf head-dress is figured by Wilkes, the Funafuti native wearing it also sports an ankle-ring. §
On Nukufetau the American Exploring Expedition observed a coconut leaflet tied round the necks of some men (ante p. 27). On Fotuna this was a mark of rank.‖ An illustration of a king of Fakaafu shows him thus adorned.¶
* On Ponape, the dress of chiefs is pandanus leaves crimped. Brigham—loc. cit., iii., p. 49.
† This kind of cord is used in some of the New Ireland dance masks in the Australian Museum.
‡ Gill—Jottings from the Pacific, 1885, p. 17.
§ Wilkes—loc. cit., p. 41.
‖ Journ. Polyn. Soc, i., pp. 41, 42.
¶ Journ. Anthrop. Inst., xxi., 1892, p. iii., fig. 1.