the intimacy of wood carving to textilia. Bows, spears, arrows, &c.
are bound with textile materials to increase their strength. Knives
and other weapons are covered with textile sheaths and handles of
certain utensils are lashed on with twisted cords. In ceremonial
objects these textile features are elaborated for ornament and the
characteristic features of this ornament are transferred to associated
surfaces of wood and stone by the graver. A most instructive
illustration is seen in the ceremonial adzes so numerous in museums
(Fig. 356). The cords used primarily in attaching the haft are, after
loss of function, elaborately plaited and interwoven until they become
an important feature and assume the character of decoration. The heavy
wooden handles are elaborately carved, and the suggestions of figures
given by the interlaced cords are carried out in such detail that at a
little distance it is impossible to say where the real textile surface
ceases and the sculptured portion begins.

All things considered, I regard it as highly probable that much of the
geometric character exhibited in Polynesian decoration is due to
textile dominance. That these peoples are in the habit of employing
textile designs in non-textile arts is shown in articles of costume,
such as the tapa cloths, made from the bark of the mulberry tree,
which are painted or stamped in elaborate geometric patterns. This
transfer is also a perfectly natural one, as the ornament is applied
to articles having functions identical with the woven stuffs in which
the patterns originate, and, besides, the transfer is accomplished by
means of stamps themselves textile. Fig. 357 illustrates the
construction of these stamps and indicates just how the textile
character is acquired.

[Illustration: FIG. 356. Ceremonial adz, with carved ornament