The W-Pattern of Paddles

Abstract

IN your impression of the 2nd ult. allusion is made to the origin of the W pattern which occurs upon paddles from the Solomon Isles. Without illustration it is difficult to understand the transitions which have taken place, but with the objects before you their history is easily read. I therefore inclose sketches; they are all from the same locality. In Fig. 1 it is seen that the swell of the blade of the paddle has suggested the idea of a fish's body, and accordingly the head with the mouth and eyes of a fish have been carved in their proper place. In Fig. 2 the same occurs, except that the blade is bent, probably to adapt the paddle to steering purposes, or for some other object. These two specimens represent the head of a fish in its realistic form. The progress of ornamentation is from realism to conventionalism. By comparing Fig. 3 with the foregoing it is easily seen that the W represents the mouth and sides of a fish's head reduced to straight lines, the eyes having disappeared. In all the specimens in my possession its position is always that in which the true fish's head occurs in the realistic specimens. In Fig. 4 a further change has taken place, the mouth is omitted, and the sides of the head have been brought together in a point, thus forming a simple triangle. Possibly the idea of a fish's head may have been altogether lost in this stage of the ornament, but in the next example, Fig. 5, the idea revives again, as so frequently happens in like cases, without recurring to the original model. Two eyes are seen to be inserted in the place where one occurred in the realistic specimens, the mouth still being deficient.