The Kwara'ae and other peoples of Malaita island in Solomon Islands once dressed for special occasions in ornaments of glistening white shell and pearl shell, intricately carved turtle shell, strings and straps of shell money-beads, and combs and bands patterned with colorful plant fibers. This book, the first comprehensive account of Malaitan decorative and body arts, reviews the significance of these ornaments in Kwara'ae society, and the history of their rejection under the changing circumstances of colonial rule and Christian conversion.