There are numerous examples of the annihilation of the useful by the
beautiful. One instance came under my notice at the Murray Islands,
in Torres Straits. Formerly when a girl was engaged to be married,
in addition to numerous petticoats she wore a number of ornaments
suspended from her neck and hanging down her back. The more important
of these were white triangular pieces of shell, _o_, cut out of _Conus
millepunctatus_; turtle-shell (“tortoise-shell”) bodkins (_ter_), used
for shredding the leaves of which their petticoats were made, and for
piercing the septum of the nose of infants; turtle-shell fish-hooks,
and curious turtle-shell ornaments which are called _sabagorar_. These
latter vary considerably in size, form, and amount of decoration;
but by placing a number of them together a sequence can be obtained
which illustrates the evolution of the _sabagorar_ from the fish-hook
(Fig. 44). Some hook-like objects are slightly ornamented with incised
lines, and they might very well serve as fish-hooks; others are
clearly totally unfitted for practical use, and may be quite plain or
decorated. Fish-hooks (Fig. 44, A) are used in pairs, being fastened
at each end of a piece of fine string, which, in its turn, is tied at
its middle to the fishing-line proper. When the piece of twine with its
hooks was thrown round a girl’s neck, the two hooks would often hang
down her back shank to shank. Two _sabagorar_ similarly arranged occur
in the British Museum collections. What more natural than that this
should be noticed, and to save the trouble of making two _sabagorar_
a double one should be cut out of one piece of turtle-shell. The more
remotely from the fish-hook did the _sabagorar_ vary, the larger it
became, and in some instances the double form became of considerable
size, and the hook portion acquired a slight spiral curvature (Fig.
44, K). In one modified specimen the hooks are actually fused with
the shank (Fig. 44, L). It will be also seen that divergent =Λ=-like
processes often occur on the _sabagorar_, but are never found on the
fish-hook.
[Illustration: FIG. 44.—Turtle-shell ornaments worn in Torres Straits.
The ratio of size of the illustrations to the originals is as 4:15. A.
Ordinary fish-hook, made of turtle-shell. B-L. Series of ornaments,
probably derived from fish-hooks, made of turtle shell. All in the
British Museum, from a photograph by Mr. H. Oldland, of the British
Museum.]
The betrothal equipment of a girl thus consisted in the main of
objects of utility which had reference to her future condition. The
turtle-shell objects being easily cut, afforded a convenient field
for ornamentation, and most of the _ter_ implements exhibit a little
decoration. The comparatively slender fish-hooks provided insufficient
surface for ornamentation; the broadening of them for decorative
purposes reduced their efficiency, so that in time the latter was
sacrificed and a mere ornament resulted.
In the chain of islands which stretch away from the south-eastern end
of New Guinea, one finds an interesting metamorphosis of the stone
axe. The stone axe was very precious among these people, to whom the
art of working in metals is still unknown. A large fine axe would have
very considerable value, and the exhibition of it would be a symbol
of wealth, and consequently of power. The desire to be recognised as
wealthy has resulted in the development of a stone axe of which the
stone is very large, often remarkably thin and beautifully polished,
and is hafted to an unwieldy handle which may be carved and decorated
with shell-money and other ornaments. The value of such an object seems
to depend upon the amount of work required to produce it; its inutility
enhances the reputation of the wealth of its possessor; thus we appear
to arrive at certain primitive conceptions. Work done gives ownership
or property. One form of wealth is the possession of unnecessary or
useless property; the exhibition of this gives power to the owner.
[Illustration: FIG. 45.—Sketches of two axes from the South-east
Peninsula of New Guinea in the possession of the author; about
one-tenth natural size.]
I have made sketches (Fig. 45) of two axes in my possession. The first
(A) is decorated with characteristic ornamentation, consisting in the
upper part of birds’ heads and at the handle of the bird and crocodile
design; but it is still a useful implement. The second axe (B) has a
large thin stone, and is an unwieldy and probably quite useless object.
The late Mr. H. H. Romilly[21] tells us that at Utian (Brooker Island),
in the Louisiades, “The stone implements made here are very fine. I
got some axes of enormous size, which I am sure could not be intended
for use. They seemed rather to be a common possession; perhaps two or
three belonged to the village, and were exhibited on state occasions.”
The Rev. Dr. W. Wyatt Gill,[22] at South Cape, saw “two axes solemnly
carried by the chiefs as a preliminary to peace ... a glance at the
slight artistic hafting will convince any one that they are not
intended for cleaving timber.” This is all the information we have
concerning these axes. It appears that they have come to be recognised
as symbols of authority, but it is extremely doubtful whether they are
anywhere held as a common possession.
[21] _The Western Pacific and New Guinea_, 1886, p. 138.
[22] Chalmers and Gill, _Work and Adventure in New Guinea_,
1885, p. 334.
A still more wonderful change has affected certain adzes in the Hervey
Islands. (Fig. 46.) The stone blade is a carefully cut and polished
piece of basalt, and it has every appearance of being perfectly
serviceable; but the elaborately carved handles preclude the idea that
in their present state they could be used for practical purposes. In
form the handles may be quadrangular, gradually diminishing from the
base to the blade, or conical, or polygonal or cylindrical. When short
the handles are thick, even to the extent that they can scarcely be
grasped by the two hands; these forms too are often perforated by
quadrangular holes. One specimen in the Archæological and Ethnological
Museum at Cambridge is six feet three inches in length.
[Illustration: FIG. 46.—Mangaian symbolic adze in the Copenhagen
Museum; from Dr. C. March.]
Later on (p. 83) I shall describe the ornamentation on these adzes; at
present we are merely concerned with the fact that for some reason or
another they have become functionless through increase in the size of
the handle, and by reason of the weakness caused by deep carving. We
have now to trace the meaning of this vagary.
Dr. W. Wyatt Gill, who resided for twenty-two years in the Hervey
Islands, and who has been a very careful observer and recorder of
Polynesian customs and beliefs, informs us that “The adzes of the
Hervey Islanders are frequently hafted with carved ‘pua’ wood. The
carving, which is often admirable, was formerly executed with sharks’
teeth, and was primarily intended for the adorning of their gods.
The fine-pointed pattern is known as ‘the sharks’ teeth pattern’
(‘nio mango’). Other figures are each supposed, by a stretch of the
imagination, to represent a man squatting down (‘tikitiki tangata’).
Some patterns are of recent introduction, and being mere imitations of
European designs, are destitute of the significations which invariably
are attached to ancient Polynesian carving. The large square holes are
known as ‘eel-borings’ (‘ai tuna’); the lateral openings are naturally
enough called ‘clefts’ (‘kavava’). To carve was the employment of
sacred men.” Dr. Hjalmar Stolpe, of Stockholm, who has made a special
study[23] of the ornamental art of these people, found in the museum
in Chambéry an adze of this kind; according to the account on the
label the stone had belonged to a chief, and it was after the owner’s
death shafted in this manner that it might be preserved by his family
as a remembrance. Dr. Stolpe continues, “The internal probability
of the story confirms the truth of the account. Ancestor worship is
a characteristic feature of Polynesian religion. The souls of the
departed become the guardian spirits of the survivors. Their worship
demanded a visible form, under which offerings could be enjoyed by
them, and this was found sometimes in the skull itself of the deceased,
which was preserved in the house, sometimes in some article of his
property. In the latter case scarcely anything could be more suitable
than the stone adze, which was the deceased’s most important implement,
and which it required so much toil to make. On the Hervey Islands the
transition was easier, as there the stone adze itself is considered as
a god. Even the fine plait of coco-nut fibre with which the adze is
fastened to the shaft was a god, and the method of binding it had, in
Mangaia, been taught by the gods. Both during the operation of plaiting
and during the decoration of the adze-shaft songs were sung in a low
voice to the gods, that they might further the work. The ‘pua’ wood
(_Fagræa Berteriana_) of which the carved adze-shafts are made may also
have a religious significance, for Gill speaks of ‘its long branches
being regarded as the road by which the spirits of the dead descended
to Hades.’”
[23] H. Stolpe, “Utvecklingsföreteelser i Naturfolkens
Ornamentik” (_Ymer_ 1890), translated by Mrs. H. C. March,
“Evolution in the Ornamental Art of Savage Peoples,” _Trans.
Rochdale Lit. and Sci. Soc._, 1891.
The following conclusions of Dr. Stolpe’s appear to be warranted:—“From
these researches it appears to me to follow that the peculiarly shafted
stone adzes of the Hervey Islands have a religious signification, that
they are especially connected with ancestor worship, and that they were
probably the very symbols under which this worship was performed.”
[Illustration: FIG. 47.—An erect drum (_Kaara_), surmounted by the head
of a god from Java, in the Copenhagen Museum; from Dr. C. March.]
Dr. H. Colley March[24] has gone a step further, and tries to account
for the very remarkable form of the handle of the sacred adze. He says,
“It is remarkable that the typical Mangaian axe [adze] was exclusively
associated with ‘Tane, the royal-visaged.’ This god was widely
venerated over the Pacific; in Mangaia he was especially the drum-god
and the axe-god; he presided over the erotic dance as well as over the
war dance ... it is evident that the drum was not only associated with
a Tane cult in the erotic dance, but was regarded as Tane’s embodiment;
when the drum was beaten, it was Tane that was struck, and from the
fissure in the drum it was Tane’s voice that issued.” Dr. March
quotes a number of extracts from early voyagers, etc., descriptive
of various Polynesian drums, and he comes to the conclusion that the
upright drums, which were hollowed out of a single piece of wood,
were originally derived from bamboo instruments. He figures a drum
(Fig. 47) said to have come from Java, which, with the exception of
the terminal head, corresponds closely with the drum called _naffa_
which Captain Cook describes at Tonga. He concludes that after the drum
“had passed from bamboo to wood, the horizontal instrument assumed
the erect form, more appropriate to the god, and was then surmounted,
as in the so-called Javan example, by Tane’s head, which subsequently
gave place to Tane’s adze. As the cult differentiated, the symbolism
differentiated too.” Without going into further detail, in the short
thick form of the Mangaian adze, such as Fig. 46, the upper portion
of the handle is usually cylindrical. The lower portion is usually
quadrangular, or may be polygonal, and looks as if it might be a
pedestal for the former. According to Dr. March’s interpretation, the
stone implement represents the head of Tane; the upper cylindrical part
of the handle is his neck. The lower part of the handle is an artistic
analogue of the sacred drum; “the useless transverse closings represent
the original bamboo joints, as well as the solid ends of the wooden
drum. In spite of the fact that their presence increased the difficulty
of hollowing out the shaft, they were reproduced in obedience to a
well-recognised law. The square and oblong rectangular openings have an
analogous explanation. They indicate the original aperture, whether the
slit in the bamboo, or the single or double chink in the wooden drum
which was excavated through the drum in order to secure its resonance.
The great increase in the number of apertures, helped by rectangular
designs on horizontal instruments, took place as an evolution of
ornament that largely consists in a multiplication of functionless
details.”
[24] “Polynesian Ornament a Mythography; or a Symbolism of
Origin and Descent,” _Journ. Anth. Inst._, xxii., 1893, p. 307.
It is possible that the adzes from the Hervey Islands, with long,
unperforated carved handles, may have a different history from the form
illustrated in Fig. 46; they may merely be decorated but useless adze
handles. In any case, the above-quoted conclusions of Dr. Stolpe may be
accepted.
In the three examples of the metamorphosis of a practical object into
an unpractical one just recorded, we have an illustration of the
effects of three dominant human forces on these several implements,
art, display or wealth, and religion. The result is practically the
same in all cases, but the motive leading to it is different. Analogous
modifications are everywhere to be met with.