The herald., 1896-10-25
1ATTOOED YOUNG SMELLS
A Silly Fad That Is Thriving in
London
EXAMPLES OF THE ART
The Earl Of Craven Boasts a Hera1dic
Device on His Chest
Exhibits In the British Museum Should
Be Ghastly Enough to Kill the Popr-
larity of the Craze

LONDON, Oct. 7.-Some fashionable in
terest has been aroused in the question of
tattooing by the news that certain young
Dioods nave made martyrs, or fools, of
themselves, by having their coats of arms
or crests, tattooed upon some portion of
esn xnr The the beysd s PSGe
the chest, and one Of the young men so
ornamented is said to be the earl Of Craven.
Whose wife was Miss Bradley Martin, Of
advanced for the existence of this fad is.
that In event Of sudden death in far off
as a means of identification of the de-
ceased. But it is quite certain that the
majority Of the young men who. have
vision of some day winding UP their careers
and friends. Far from it, sifted down.
desire for the odd and unique.
Meanwhile. the. exhibits of the tattooists'
art In the British museum are attracting
plenty of them there. and If sight Of
them does not kill off all enthusiasm for
this new craze. human nature is under
this is meant the most horrible to gaze
upon. are those. of the Maori artist. the
native New Zealander. Tattooing in New
Zealand nowadays is rapidly fading away,
and few of the natives submit to the ug!i-
ness or torture of the practice. But seventy
FIVE years ago the art was at its height on
this island. Then under the influence of
civilization. it's decadence began.
1t is on record that some $50 years ago
when some hardy navigator visited New
Zealand the natives were not tattooed. One
hundred and twenty-five years later when
another navigator stopped at the island.
the natives were covered with tattoo
marks. 1t. is supposed that some sailors
were wrecked on the island between the
visits above mentioned, and that the
on the sailors arms. and were thereupon
initiated into the mysteries of the art.
A SCANDALOUS PRACTICE
The peculiar ghastiness of the exhibits
IN the British museum rests in the fact that
they are preserved heads of defunct and
decapitated Maoris. This is not the total
in the first half of this century, when Eng
lshmen were beginning to get grip on
the affairs Of New Zealand. the native
chiefs did a big business In cutting off the
tattooed heads of their slaves and exchang-
ing these relics for worthless guns. strings
Of beads and kindred baubles. The scan
dalous nature of this traffic can be better
not the custom for the New Zealand slave
to be tattooed. That was distinction of
prominence and high social standing al
lowed only to his master. But the master
could not obtain the. baubles. by cutting
Off his own tattooed head and handing It
over to the traders. so he first tattooed the
heads of his slaves, and when a trader
came along their heads were cut off with
out further ado.
The number of such heads now in the
great museums of the world, and in the
private collections of individuals, must be
very great, but the best of them are in the
British museum. In the Auckland (New
Zealand) museum there are a great many,
and in the nationa! museums at Berlin.
and other towns there are many more.
THEIR ARTISTIC FEATURES
If one could forget the ghastliness of the
whole thing, these tattooings would show
considerable artistic ability on the part of