 upper turns which are drawn taut. Another lashing is made a little lower down in same way. Four spaced lashings are made in a length of 125 mm. Lashing sennit is 2 mm. to 2.5 mm. in width, and composite cord of fine elements is 19 mm. by 16 mm. thick. At a distance of 5,620 mm. from looped end, one end of doubled sennit (1) appears and is seized with fine sennit. Composite cord for four elements, three hair covered and one uncovered, continues for another 1,450 mm. Near end, four elements are lashed five times with fine sennit, as at commencement end. Single ends of uncovered and of hair-wrapped elements are seized with fine sennit which passes over from uncovered sennit to take eight turns around hair-covered loop, where it is fixed, b, figure on label, showing that turns were over both shoulders and around the waist.
At feasts and festivals, fragrant leaves and the yellow fading leaves of the ti were worn around the upper arm. Beyond this, nothing is known of special armlets outside of Mangaia.
Human-hair Armlets (Mangaia)
Gill (32, p. 337) states that plaited human hair (manoa) was wrapped around the arms as ornamentation by the chiefly class.
Shell Armlets (Mangaia)
Figure 68.—Shell armlet (British Mus., E. Polynesian case): white cowrie shell (Ovula ovum),90 mm. long, showing two holes for attachment to arm.
Scented leaves and yellow ti leaves were tied around the ankles during festivals by the masses of the people.
Hair Anklets (Mangaia)
Mangaia again appears peculiar in the use of finely plaited human hair braid, which, according to Gill (32, p. 337), was wound repeatedly just above the ankles by the better classes. As in the similar use of hair braid on the arms and breast, the amount indicated rank and wealth. It is probable that sennit wrapped with human hair (as in fig. 67, a), was also used. This form of hair wrapped sennit was also used to wind around the stand of one of the Mangaian gods (fig. 240).
An ornamental staff carved with five sets of fairly evenly spaced human figures and with the spaces between the figures ornamented with fine sennit has no history, but the carved figures are typically Rarotongan. The staff is wider in one diameter than the other. On the wider surface, the human figures are shown in profile in pairs back to back, whereas the full face is shown on the narrower surface. Each set, except the middle one, consists of a pair with well formed heads, eyes, mouth, and ears and with conventional upper and lower limbs. The middle set has two pairs of figures with their feet meeting in the middle line and their heads directed toward their respective ends of the staff. In the end sets, the heads form the ends of the staff; and each of the intermediate sets have the heads directed toward the nearer staff end. The four interspaces between the five sets of figures range in length from 158 to 183 mm. The two end interspaces are covered with the Rarotongan multiple lozenge pattern similar to that on the Rarotongan fan handles and like them in two colors, natural and red. The two middle interspaces are covered with close transverse turns in which two colors are alternated to form narrow bands. Details are shown in figure 69.
The figures are well carved, the eyes having raised flanges instead of curved incisions. The ears show three variations of detail: with distinct ears hollowed out (fig. 69, c, e), without being hollowed out (fig. 69, b, f), and two ears fused into one (fig. 69, d).
Figure 69.—Ornamental staff (British Mus., 1905-11-14-1). a, full staff: total length, 1,096 mm.; shows five sets of human figures (1-5) and four interspaces, two end ones (6, 9) with multiple lozenge lashing and two middle ones (7, 8) with transverse turns, b, side view of left end figures (a,1): shows back to back heads with eyes formed by raised flanges, incised mouth and distinct ears; raised carved figure (1) forms conventional upper limbs in front view (g, 1) and lower elliptical raised figure (2), with middle hollowed out, forms lower limbs in front (g,2); below figures a raised, notched flange (3) encircles 