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The Material Culture of the Cook Islands (Aitutaki)

Motives Plaited on a Plain Subface

Motives Plaited on a Plain Subface.

So far, we have dealt entirely with motives that are picked out in white on the coloured background of a decorative border. The more common method of decoration in Polynesia is to form geometrical figures in colour on the plain surface of the mat. This method has crept into Aitutaki and the Lower Cook Group from the Northern Islands, particularly Manihiki. The figures are plaited mostly in the plain space between the two bands of a double border paretumu mat as in Fig. 107. A number of figures were plaited on the samplers already alluded to, but again the plaiters probably went out of their way to show the number of objects they could make.

The shape of the figure is worked out in colour. Here the technique on the actual figure is not confined to the check stroke as it is in the Northern Islands. The Aitutaki women enhance the figures with lines of twill, but no matter what the shape of the object, each strip of colour laid on a sinistral must be fixed at the bottom end with a check stroke and also at the top or end of its course. In the short course that the coloured elements take in the figures, the technique of the true decorative borders is departed from in laying colour on the dextral wefts when the shape requires lines that lean towards the right.

The names of some of these figures are given as follows—

Ke, Fig. 139B 2. This is the letter K, and it is immaterial that the arms are turned the wrong way. It will be noted that in the lower arm, the colour is laid on dextral wefts and lean to the right.

Ti, Fig. 139B 3. The letter T explains itself.

Kopeta, Fig. 139B 6. This figure cannot possibly be the letter X, for the simple reason that there is no X in the Aitutaki alphabet. It is therefore named kopeta, a cross.

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Varu, Fig. 140A 5. This is simply the figure 8, varu.

Kokiri, Fig. 140A 4. In seeking a name for a lozenge-shaped figure, (lie Aitutakians fell back upon fish to supply the shape and name. The fish selected was the trigger fish, kokiri. The Maori also sought a name for lozenge-shaped figures in decorative wall panels and on mats. He also sought the shape and name amongst fish. Though the kokiri under the same name and form exists in New Zealand waters, the Maori selected the more palatable flounder and the figure was named patiki. The patiki under the same name and form is also found in the waters of Aitutaki, but it is so full of bones and so tasteless that it is not sought after. It is thus natural to suppose that man, when seeking a name, chose that which carried the most pleasant associations.

Pa maunga, Fig. 141. The oldest and most common of these figures is the triangle, pa maunga.

Figure 141.Pa maunga, the mountain.

Figure 141.
Pa maunga, the mountain.

Pa maunga, Fig. 141. The previous figures are more or less transitory, but the figure which has come to stay is the triangle, pa maunga. It forms the common motive in the space between two decorative bands in paretumu mats, Fig. 107. Here it is seen singly as in the upper part or in pairs, apex to apex, on the left. The name is taken from maunga, a mountain. Pa maunga as a name for the triangle is evidently old, for it is said to have formed part of the decoration of the canoe of Te Muna Korero, who came from Havaiki.