Polynesia

Ersatz Curios

A Flourishing Trade in Polynesia

From Our Own Correspondent

Papeete, Feb. 1.

rjTHE article of commerce popularly A known as the Hawaiian grass skirt, is not compounded of grass. In these islands, it is fashioned from the inner bark of the Fau tree (Hibiscus tiliaceus).

The process, from the tree to finished costume, is long, complicated, and requires skill and patience.

Actually, this ’Ahu More—as the skirt (and the corselet and headpiece which usually go with it) is named, is the only “curio” available in the islands which is not ersatz. Most of the other objects offered as “curios” are manufactured by Chinamen and Europeans with the aid of noisy, power-driven machines.

Before 1914 the old Boche sent out ship loads of carefully executed replicas of Polynesian artifacts which were judici ously planted in the several islands.

We suspect that many of these ersatz artifacts are now reposing - in museums whither they were taken by learned scientists who swarmed over the islands during the notorious 1920 decade.

The ’Ahu More are now in great re quest, as souvenirs, by men of our armed forces. This “curio” commerce has brought considerable (so-called) Dollar Prosperity to the islands. Unhappily, most of the gain has stuck to the fingers of predatory middlemen. We learn from the radio that the proprietors of the several Hollywood honky-tonks have been “brought before Jhe beak” on charges of scandalously overcharging men of the armed forces. That, precisely, is what is going on in the islands of the Pacific.

War profiteers are an undying race. As often as not, they are the very men who radio to our soldiers and sailors overseas— “We are behind you 100 per cent.” So they are; but the percentage is usually very much higher!

The notorious 1920 decade in the United States was a saturnalia of war profiteers —a prolonged Witches’ Sabbath of ghouls and harpies fattened on the blood of battlefields.

During this war, the vampires appear to have been frustrated. The little leeches, however, swarm merrily in the jungle growth of the wilderness through which we are passing.