107
FIG. 1 (left): Map showing
the Western Islands of
the Bismarck Archipelago,
the Caroline Islands, and
northern New Guinea. The
dotted circle shows the
western Caroline Islands,
where weather charms are
known to have been used.
Cartography by Alex Copeland,
polariscartography.com.
FIG. 2: Pros de Satawal, courant grand laigue
(Satawal pros, in heavy wind).
Ink on paper. Image: 24 x 35.5 cm.
Plate 107 from Admiral François-Edmond Pâris, Essai sur la construction
navale des peuples extra-Europeen ou collection des navires et pirogues
construits par les habitants de l’Asie, de la Malaisie, du Grand Ocean et
de l’Amerique, Paris: Arthus Bertrand, Libraire, 1841–1843.
ANMM collection, purchased with the assistance of the Louis Vuitton
Trust Fund, inv. 00018656.
FIG. 3 (right):
Weather charm, hos.
Polowat, western Caroline
Islands.
Wood, stingray spines, palm leaf,
vegetal fiber. H: 56 cm.
Museum für Völkerkunde, Hamburg,
inv. 2373 II.
In my article on Micronesian weather
charms, or hos, that appeared in the autumn
2005 edition of Art Tribal magazine,1 I was surprised
to find that my research led me to the conclusion
that these objects seemed to occur only
in a very limited area of the central and western
Caroline Islands (fig. 1). These generally take the
form of a torso and head, sometimes janiform,
with downward-projecting stingray spines and
often bound with clipped palm leaves and cordage
that may support other elements (fig. 3).
These were used in rituals intended to clear
storms for ocean-going canoe voyages (fig. 2)
and were carried on the canoe during the trip,
sometimes in a spirit house lashed onto one of
its outrigger booms. In my personal communications
with the renowned German expert on
Oceania, the late Gerd Koch,2 he indicated to
me that he had never encountered such weather
charms in his field research in Tonga or in the
Gilbert, Ellice, and Santa Cruz islands. Moreover,
the noted traditional navigator Tevake of
the Reef Islands in the Santa Cruz Archipelago,
with whom Koch became acquainted during the
course of his research there in 1966 and 1967,
made use of neither incantations intended to
ward off storms nor such weather charms. Investigation
into whether such weather charms
might have been used in central or eastern Polynesia
likewise turned up negative results.
/polariscartography.com
