wooden ornament showing two balls (1, 1) and suspensory lug (2) with outer lip, also square hole in front of lug. e, upper surface showing treatment of suspensory lug to be similar to that of ivory ornament (b).
A similar ornament (fig. 60, d, e) made of dark wood, attributed to Atiu and termed a rei, was figured by Gudgeon (35, pp. 210, 211). He regarded it as a phallic ornament peculiar to Atiu. He states: "The rei of Atiu was worn page 115only by the toa, or braves, of the tribe, and conferred upon the wearer certain rights over any woman he might meet, so long as he wore the symbol around his waist." Gudgeon does not give the whereabouts of the ornament nor the dimensions. He says, "The original is made of tamanu wood and is so old that the texture and polish is that of agate, though the grain of the wood can still be distinctly seen."
Gudgeon thought that the term rei raised the question as to whether the New Zealand ornaments known by the same name were not also originally emblems of the same nature, and he added that he fancied the rei of New Zealand was of phallic origin.
The term rei and its dialectical equivalent, lei, is widely distributed throughout Polynesia, and when applied to ornaments, it refers to the whale ivory or cachalot teeth from which the ornaments were made. Thus the Samoan necklace of several long pointed pendants made of whale ivory was termed 'ula lei ('ula, necklace; lei, whale ivory). The characteristic Hawaiian neck ornament, a hook-shaped pendant of whale ivory, was termed a lei palaoa (lei, neck ornament; palaoa, whale). Neither of these two ornaments suggests a phallic motif. In Mangareva (77, p. 173), a simple pendant of whale ivory was termed a 'ei rei ('ei, neck ornament; rei, whale ivory). It is evident that the term rei was the name for whale ivory throughout Polynesia; and, in some island groups, the term rei was also applied to ornaments made of whale ivory. In other islands, the term was applied to ornaments made of wood; for example, the wooden replica of the ivory ornament in Atiu. In Easter Island, the breast ornament made of miro wood was termed rei but was qualified by the material, rei miro.
The term rei as applied to the New Zealand ornament does not carry the idea of a phallic ornament. Modern native informants have a tendency to designate objects as phallic because they know that will intrigue European inquirers. The phallic nature of the Atiu ornament is further stressed by the statement that it was worn around the waist. That the ornaments were worn around the neck is amply proved by Cook (20, pp. 194, 195), who says of the Atiuans: "Some, who were of a superior class, and also the Chiefs, had two little balls, with a common base, made from the bone of some animal, which hung, round the neck, with a great many folds of small cord."
The use of these artifacts as neck ornaments is conclusively proved by Gruning (34, p. 22, pl. 17), who found such a necklace in a burial cave in Atiu. The specimen consisted of many folds of "finely plaited human hair" from which a ball ornament was suspended (fig. 61, a). A smaller ball ornament was found in the same cave. Both were made of whale tooth and both were deeply discolored. Gruning was not aware of similar ornaments from Mangaia, hence he regarded the Atiu ornaments as due to independent evolution.page 116
The method of suspension in Atiu necklaces differs from that of the Mangaian necklaces with similar ball ornaments, but it resembles in principle that used for the Mangaian pearl-shell breast plates. There appear to have been a number of these ornaments in Atiu, and it is probable that they conferred no greater sexual license than did the ear ornaments and necklaces of Mangaia. It is certain that the ball motif was shared by Atiu and Mangaia in pre-European times. The motif was evidently diffused from one island to the other, but I cannot say which was the island of origin.
Figure 61.—Atiu neck ornament from Gruning collection (after Gruning): a, whale tooth ornament (1) shaped into two balls "not more than about two inches a