Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 39.djvu/514

498 But the most remarkable examples are to be found in the Pacific islands. In the Marquesas Islands the patterns often represent animals: the head is covered with one design, the breast bears a shield, the arms and thighs are striped, the back is crossed, and each finger bears its own pattern. The tattoo is here applied to both sexes, though mainly to men. It is begun at nineteen or twenty years, and is rarely finished before forty. The instrument used is a small comb-chisel. The figure is drawn on the skin, the comb is dipped in ink of burnt cocoanut-shell and water, and driven by a mallet through the skin. Only a few square inches are tattooed at one time. The spot swells and becomes sore, with fever.

In New Zealand we find quite as remarkable a condition of things. The patterns here are composed of curves and spirals. The general design is conventional, and the lines of which it is composed bear special names. These may vary indefinitely in minor details. A difference of importance is found in the method of tattooing in New Zealand and that prevalent throughout Polynesia. Here the lines are cut, instead of being pricked in by points. "The patient lies on his back, with his head between the knees of the squat operator, who draws the outline in black pigment and slightly scratches it. The chisel, of tooth or a bird's bone, is then taken and the pattern cut through the skin. The operator dips the edge of the chisel constantly into the pigment and rubs it into the cut each few inches, using a little bunch of fiber. The cutting is done by hammering the chisel, not by a knife. The complete pattern takes two or three years. During the operation friends sing, to drown the groans of the subject" (Wood). In Japan the tattoo was formerly very common, but is now prohibited by law. Such designs as "a monster crab on the small of the back, a pretty cottage on the chest, or a scarlet fish between the shoulders," were common (Fig. 9). As to the origin and meaning of the tattoo we can scarcely err in regarding it the same as for painting. The victor returns stained with blood and