through the loops. One end of the bast strip was passed through the hole drilled through the back of the ear and the two ends were tied. It is probable that similar ornaments were worn by people of distinction.
Coconut Shells (Mangaia)
Reference has been made to the use of small coconut shells (vao). Gill (32, p. 337) states: "… The shell of a species of coconut producing small long nuts—their ends rubbed off on madrepore coral—were filled with fragrant flowers and leaves and worn in the slit lobes of ears of persons (males) of distinction. The lobes were marvellously distended by this practice."
Gill (28, pp. 126, 127) adds that after the leaves and flowers were put inside the nuts, the openings were carefully plugged up. He goes on to relate the story of a woman named Veve who landed on Mangaia from Aitutaki with her four children. On leaving her native island, she had her enormous ear-ornaments filled with mosquitoes so that she might hear their continual hum. She laid aside her ear ornaments to bathe in a stream at Vaikaute and later went fishing. During her absence, the mosquitoes escaped from their prison and stung two of her children to death, the other two escaping by immersing themselves in the nearby stream. Veve set fire to her house to destroy the insects but those that escaped became the ancestors of the present mosquitoes in Mangaia. A Marigaian poet referred to the story in a song commencing with the lines:page 107
Kua topa te poe The ear-ornament was i te taringa: dropped from the ear: Kua vare paa It was forgotten perhaps i Vaikaute. at Vaikaute.
Wooden cylinders (Mangaia)
Ivory Ornaments (Mangaia)
Three whale ivory (rei) ear ornaments in the British Museum are in the form of two small spheres connected with an upper circular lug to which the suspension element is attached. Two are labeled, "Hervey Islands. Phallic ear ornaments of ivory. Mangaia." These two are evidently the ones referred to by Gill (33, p. 253) in a work on Mangaia. "The chiefs, whether married or not, often wore phallic ear ornaments. Two of them are to be seen in the British Museum."
These ancient ear ornaments were regarded as phallic emblems by the missionaries in Mangaia, hence they abolished the native dances in which the ornaments were worn (33, pp. 252, 253). The third ornament (no. +6009) bore the label, "Rarotonga Chiefs ear ring [rei]. Rev. W. W. Gill. 26 Ap. page 1081893." It is probable that the ornament had been given to a Rarotongan chief, but that the island of origin was Mangaia. (See figure 56, a, b, c.) Details of the suspensory lug are shown in figure 56, d, e, f.
Figure 56.—Ivory ear ornaments (British Mus.): a (no number), two balls (1, 1) connected mesially and above to suspensory lug (2); greatest height, 23 mm.; greatest width, 29 mm.; greatest thickness, 19 mm.; fine human-hair braid tied around constricted neck of lug, looped into a small circle (3) about 9 mm. in diameter, crossed and seized together for a short distance (4), and then looped into a wider circle (5) about 24 mm. in diameter. b (+6009), similar to a, but upper mesial circumference of balls not so rounded; height, 23 mm.; width, 33 mm.; thickness, 20 mm.; holes bored through from two sides of lug neck into central pit and suspensory braid passed through holes across floor of pit; intermediate crossing of loops (a,4) has loosened. c (no number), body (1, 1) of ornament similar to b but suspensory lug has no circumferential lip but is divided by a mesial notch into two sharp ridges (2, 2) perforated for suspensory braid; height, 18 mm.; width, 25 mm.; thickness, 13 mm.; suspensory braid (3) shown crossed (4) but seizing fiber has disappeared; ivory much darker than a and b. d, side view of lugs of a and b, showing constricted neck (6), circumferential lip (7) and central pit (8). e, upper surface of lugs of a and b, showing circular form of flat surface and shallow central pit (8). f, upper surface of c showing suspensory lug divided into two transverse ridges (2, 2) by mesial transverse notch and horizontal holes through middle of ridges.
The ce