Tobe (hair plait)

In 19^th century Fiji, tobe were locks or long tresses of hair that young women wore behind each ear as a token of their virginity. They were left to grow for 10-12 years and were worn across all classes of Fijian society at the time. In Mathuata, on the northern coast of Vanua Levu, young unmarried men also wore clusters of tobe (1).

The cutting of woman’s tobe occurred soon after marriage when a special vei tasi (feast of clipping) was held (2). However, tobe were sometimes removed as a mark of respect. In the mid 19^th century, visitors arriving in a fleet of canoes to the island of Bau were asked to lop-off their locks before landing, in deference to the chiefs of the region (3). 

Over time, hair styles and practices changed in Fiji. In the 1950s, a researcher working in the Yasawas region, noted that only one girl at Nabukeru wore the tobe and that the custom was becoming rare (4).

The acquisition history of this tobe was not recorded but it came into the museum around 1900.

References

1. Thomson, B., Corney, B. G., & Stewart, J. (1908).The Fijians: a study of the decay of custom. William Heinemann p.302
2. Thomson, B., p. 202
3. Erskine, J. E. (1853).Journal of a cruise among the islands of the western Pacific: including the Feejees and others inhabited by the Polynesian negro races, in Her Majesty's ship Havannah. J. Murray. p.454-455
4. Raven-Hart, R. (1956). A village in the Yasawas (Fiji).The Journal of the Polynesian Society,　65(2), 95-154. p.148