CII. SAMOA, OR THE NAVIGATORS’ ISLANDS…

CII. SAMOA, OR THE NAVIGATORS’ ISLANDS

APPEARANCE--CHARACTER--DRESS--MANUFACTURES.

POSITION OF THE GROUP, AND DERIVATION OF THE NAME -- GENERAL APPEARANCE OF THE PEOPLE -- THEIR CHARACTER FOR GENTLENESS, HOSPITALITY, HONESTY, AND COURTESY -- CARRYING A MISSIONARY AND HIS FAMILY -- AFFECTION FOR CHILDREN -- DRESS OF THE SAMOANS -- THE TATTOO A PARTIAL SUBSTITUTE FOR DRESS -- MODE OF TATTOOING -- TIME OCCUPIED IN COMPLETING THE OPERATION -- THE FINE MATS OF SAMOA -- WIG MAKING -- FEATHER HEADDRESSES -- DRESS OF THE WOMEN -- DANCING COSTUME -- ADVICE TO FAA-SAMOA -- MODE OF DRESSING THE HAIR -- TREATMENT OF WOMEN -- MODE OF MAKING CLOTH -- THE PROFESSIONAL AND HEREDITARY MANUFACTURER.

North of the Tongan group, and a little to the eastward, lie the NAVIGATORS’ ISLANDS, more property called by their native name of SAMOA, or HAMOA. The former of these names was given to them by Bougainville, in consequence of the skilful seamanship of the natives. There are eight islands comprehended in this group, the largest of which is Savaii.

As is often the case among these island groups, no single king or head chief is recognized, each island having its own ruler; under whom are subordinate chiefs of different ranks. This mode of government is so similar to that of the Tongans that we need not expend any time upon it.

The Samoans are a fine race of people, much exceeding the English in average stature, and peculiarly well made. Their skin is smooth, soft, and a warm reddish-brown in color, and the hair, though copious, possesses none of that woolliness which distinguishes the hair of the Papuan races, but is long, straight, and, in a few cases, possesses a slight wave. Naturally there is but little beard, and the Samoan takes a pride in extirpating every sign of a hair upon his chin. He is quiet, composed, and stately in manner, so that in all things he presents a bold contrast to the black, harsh-skinned Fijian, with his frizzed and woolly hair, his copious beard, and his quick, restless, suspicious manner.

Being savages, the Samoans have many of the imperfections which necessarily accompany savage life, but at the same time they approach nearer to the “noble savage” of the poet than most races of men. They are hospitable, affectionate, honest, and courteous, and have well been described as a nation of gentlemen. Toward strangers they display a liberality which contrasts greatly with the cruel and bloodthirsty customs of the Papuan tribes. The Fijians, for example, do all in their power to repel strangers from their shores, either driving them off, or killing and eating them. The Samoans, on the contrary, welcome strangers, allot to them their best houses, give them the best food, and make them feel that they are honored guests.

They are singularly affectionate in their disposition, and as parents are rather too fond of their children. As a rule, a Samoan parent cannot bear to thwart a child, and allows it to do what it likes. In consequence of this absence of discipline, many a child dies through the mistaken kindness of its parents, who have allowed it to eat food that was unsuitable to it, or to engage in games for which it had not sufficient strength.

The honesty of the Samoans is really wonderful. When a number of them were on board of an English vessel, they scrupulously refrained from stealing. Property which to them was equivalent to unbounded wealth lay within reach of their hands, but not even a nail or a needle was touched. In one instance, an European vessel went ashore on the rocks. The whole of its cargo was at the mercy of the Samoans, but not a man went on board of the vessel, and the whole of the property was reserved for the rightful owners. There are many civilized countries where the vessel would have been ransacked within an hour of her striking on the rocks.

Once when a great chief, named Malietoa, went on board an English vessel, accompanied by a younger brother, he examined everything with great attention, but asked for nothing, only requesting the white men to come on shore and visit him. This they did, bringing with them a present of axes, mirrors, beads, knives, scissors, needles, and similar articles. When the present was offered, Malietoa took up each article separately, laid it on his head, and returned thanks for it, and after he had gone through the whole of the present in detail, he made a complimentary speech, in which he thanked the donors for the entire gift. His brother, to whom a similar present had been offered, at first refused to take the basket, priceless as were its contents, but passed it on to his elder brother, saying that he would take whatever his brother did not happen to want.

“At the close of this important and interesting interview, Malietoa informed his people, who had been gazing with wonder upon the novel proceedings, that a large quantity of valuable property had been given to him, and that the English chiefs, to whom he was indebted for it, would want something to eat on their return. ‘For,’ said he, ‘there are no pigs running about upon the sea, neither is there any bread-fruit growing there.’ Upon hearing this, the whole company instantly rose and scampered away; and in about an hour they returned, bringing with them fifteen pigs of various sizes, with a large quantity of bread-fruit, yams, and other vegetables, the whole of which the chief presented to us.” This extract, from the journal of Mr. Williams, the well-known missionary, gives a good idea of the hospitable nature of the people.

Courtesy is, among the Samoans, reckoned as one of the duties of life. They address each other by titles of honor, and it is considered as an essential point of etiquette that, when one man addresses another, he should use a title rather higher than that to which his interlocutor has any claim. Should he be ignorant of the rank of the person whom he addresses, he uses the term chief, as a safe one.

The earlier voyagers have all been struck with the Samoans, whose gentle demeanor, perfect honesty, scrupulous cleanliness, graceful costume, gigantic stature, and polished manners, made a strong impression upon them. When Messrs. Williams and Barth visited these islands, they were received in the most hospitable manner. As they went on shore, the former happened to mention that he was tired, when a young chief addressed a few words to the people, and in a moment the visitor was lifted off the ground by a number of gigantic young men, who seized him, “some by the legs, and others by the arms, one placing his hand under my body, another, unable to obtain so large a space, poking a finger against me; and thus, sprawling at full length upon their extended arms and hands, I was carried a distance of half a mile, and deposited safely in the presence of the chief and his principal wife.”

Several children were on board, and were carried off by the natives in great glee. One or two of them were missing for several hours, causing their parents great anxiety. However, they were all brought back in safety, their absence being due merely to the exuberant hospitality of the Samoans. The natives were so delighted at their good fortune in having the charge of a white child that they could not make up their minds to restore it to its parents, but took it home, killed and baked a pig and other food, feasted the child to the fullest extent, and then, having kept it as long as they dared, restored it to its parents. This anecdote carries out the statement already made, that the Samoans are exceedingly fond of children. Mr. Pritchard mentions that on one occasion, when he was witnessing a native dance, which is a performance requiring the greatest exertion, the chief’s wife sat as a spectator, with two fine twin children in her lap. The chief, engaged as he was in the absorbing amusement of the dance, could not keep himself away from his children, but every now and then left the dance to caress them. The mothers nurse their children for several years, and a child of five or six years old may often be seen to pull away its younger brother or sister and take its place.

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The dress of the Samoans varies considerably, according to the rank of the individual and the occasion on which it is assumed. The usual dress of the men is a sort of small apron, about a foot square, made of the green leaves of the Dracæna tree, but on occasions of ceremony they generally wear a flowing robe called the lava-lava. This is made of bark cloth, and is beautifully fine and soft, the Samoans excelling in such manufactures, which will presently be described. This robe is gathered round the waist into folds, and reaches down to the ankles.

Small as may be the ordinary dress of the Samoan men, they always seem to be fully dressed, in consequence of the tattooing with which they are carefully decorated. Even to European eyes the tattooing conveys the same impression, and has been mistaken for a dress by some of the early voyagers, who described the people as being clothed from the waist downward, with fringed lace “made of a silken stuff, and artificially wrought.”

The reader will remember that the New Zealanders tattoo no part of the body except the hips, and that even in that case a semblance of dress is produced. The Samoans tattoo the whole of the body from the hips to the knees, covering the skin so completely with the pattern that it looks at a little distance exactly as if the man were wearing a tight pair of ornamental drawers.

Even European eyes become so accustomed to the tattoo that they are rather shocked at its absence; and, according to Mr. Pritchard, an untattooed Samoan does in truth look unmanly, looks even naked, by the side of one who is tattooed. So completely is this feeling realized by the natives that chiefs who have arrived at middle age frequently undergo the process of tattooing a second time, in order to renew the patterns, as they become dim and uncertain by lapse of years; for, though indelible, the tattoo does fade in the course of years, as I can testify from personal experience. When a very young boy, I read of the custom of tattooing, and must needs try it on my own arm. I did not do much of it, but the whole arm swelled up to the shoulder, and was useless for some time. At first the marks were bright blue, clear and well-defined, but now the blue is of dull indigo, and the outline very undecided.

The production of this elaborate decoration is a work of considerable time, the operation being, in the first place, too painful to be continued for any long time; and, in the second, it is apt to cause so much disturbance in the general system that the result would be fatal if the whole were executed at once. The operation is generally performed in company, a number of young men keeping company with the son of the chief. When, for example, a chief’s son arrives at the proper age, i. e. about eighteen, all the lads of his tribe assemble to partake with him of the tattoo, which is to transform them from boys into men.

There is quite a ceremony, or rather a series of ceremonies, for the occasion. The tattooer or Matai, is a man of great influence, and his services have to be requested in regular form, accompanied by a present of fine mats. His acceptance of the mats ratifies the bargain, though no regular charge is made. On the appointed day, the lads and their friends meet in a house set apart for the ceremony, and more mats are presented to the Matai. Should the youth be wealthy, he sometimes gives a canoe. The friends of the lads are also bound to supply provisions as long as the operation lasts.

The tools are simple enough, being a set of five “combs” and a little mallet. The combs are made of human bone, and are an inch and a half in length, varying in width from the eighth of an inch to an inch, and looking very much like little bone adzes with the edges cut into a number of teeth. These blades are attached to handles about six inches in length. The pigment which is introduced into the wounds is made from the ashes of the cocoa-nut.

All being ready, the young chief lies on his face in front of the operator, and lays his head in the lap of his sister or some other female relation, while three or four young women hold his legs, and sing at the tops of their voices, in order to drown any groans or cries that he may utter. This is done out of consideration for his reputation, as it is thought unworthy of the state of manhood to utter a sound. Still the pain is so intense that the lads often do utter groans, and now and then actually yell with the pain. In one or two instances they have been so utterly overcome with the agony that, after they have been released they have not dared to submit themselves again to the operation, in which case they are despised for life as cowards.

Having traced out his pattern, the operator begins his work, driving the teeth of the comb through the skin by sharp and rapid taps of the mallet; there is an art even in holding this instrument, the handle of which passes under the thumb and over the fore-finger, and is used with wonderful rapidity and regularity. “The rapidity with which the Matai works his fingers,” writes Mr. Pritchard, “the precision with which he moves the instrument and punctures exactly the right spot, and the regularity of tapping with the mallet, are astounding.” By the side of the patient are placed several assistants, furnished with strips of white masi, whose duty it is to wipe away the blood as it flows from the punctures of the comb, and to leave the skin clear for the operator. Between every two or three strokes the toothed end of the comb is dipped into the pigment, which is mixed with water.

The pattern is in its main elements alike throughout all the Samoan Islands; but there are usually slight variations which denote the island in which the man lives, and others which mark the family to which he belongs. Sometimes, after a man has slain an enemy, he will make an addition which corresponds to a grant of arms among ourselves. The form of some animal is the ordinary pattern for such a badge of honor.

About an hour is occupied in executing a patch of tattoo not quite three inches square, and when this is done, the lad rises and another takes his place. In a week or so, the turn of the first lad comes round again, and so the process is continued for three or four months, according to the number of the patients, not more than five being operated on in a single day. When the pattern is about half completed, the Matai has another present; but the great payment is only made when the last finishing touch is put to the work. Should the Matai feel dissatisfied with his fees, he will not go on with the work, and, as an unfinished tattoo is thought to be most disgraceful, the friends of the youths get together what property they can, and make up the deficiency.

During the time engaged in the operation, the patients look most miserable beings, the wounded parts swollen and inflamed, and displaying as yet none of the elegant pattern which has been traced on them. The lads hobble about in all sorts of contorted attitudes, fanning away the flies with flappers made of white masi, and doing all in their power to alleviate the pain. At last, however, comes the reward of all their sufferings. As soon as the wounds are healed, their friends get up a grand dance. As the costume of the male dancers is nothing but the little apron of leaves which has been already mentioned, the pattern of the tattooing is freely displayed; and the lads, now admitted among the men, think themselves well repaid for their former sufferings by the honor and glory of being ranked as men, and by the admiration of the opposite sex.

An illustration on the preceding page represents the process of tattooing. In the centre is lying the patient with his head in his sister’s lap, and his legs held by her companions, who are singing, in order to cover his groans, should he utter any. Near him are two assistants with their white masi cloths, and at his side kneels the operator, busily at work with his mallet and comb. The little vessel of pigment is by his side. Ranged round the wall of the house are the young men who are waiting their turn. Painful as is the operation, and expensive as it is, involving not only the fees to the operator, but a constant supply of provisions, all the lads look forward to it with the greatest anxiety, knowing that they will never be considered as men unless they can show a complete tattoo.

Both men and women wear mats, called in the native language “je-tonga.” One of these mats is in my collection, and is a beautiful piece of work. It is made of very narrow strips of leaf scraped thin, each strip being about the fifteenth of an inch in width. These are plaited together with beautiful regularity, and the whole is edged with a very fine and almost silken fringe of the same material.

Some of these mats are decorated with the red feathers of the parrot tribe, and increase in their value by age, being handed down to successive generations, and having legends attached to them. My own specimen has been adorned in a way which doubtless was very imposing to a Samoan eye, though not to that of an European. The native maker had evidently treasured up some scraps of English calico, and some blue and yellow paper such as is used for wrapping parcels. These treasures she has fastened to the mat, to which they give a most ludicrous appearance.

Samoan chiefs, when full dressed for war or state, may be known at a great distance by the splendid headdress which they wear. In the first place, they increase the apparent size of their heads by enormous wigs made of their own hair, which is suffered to grow long for this express purpose. When it has attained sufficient length, it is cut off, and is stained red, and frizzed out, until it assumes as large dimensions as the woolly head of a Papuan. They also wear great plumes of feathers, sometimes towering to the height of nearly two feet above their heads; so that the height of a Samoan chief, measured from the top of his plume, is not far from nine feet.

One of these headdresses in my collection is made of a vast number of feathers, tied by the stems in little bundles, and carefully arranged so that they shall droop evenly. There are about ten feathers in each bundle. These tufts are arranged closely together in circles composed of leaf stems and cocoa-nut fibre, and there are four of these circlets placed one over the other, so that several hundred feather tufts are employed for this single dress. The maker has ingeniously, though ignorantly, copied the peacock, the egret, and other birds which are furnished with trains. In them, the tail feathers are short and stiff, so as to allow the long train of feathers to droop gracefully over them. In a similar manner, the Samoan artificer has employed the shortest and stiffest feathers in the lower-most circlet, while in the uppermost are placed the longest and most slender plumes. The headdress is really very handsome, and even when worn by an European gives a most martial aspect to the countenance, especially when the war mat is worn, and the huge Samoan club carried on the shoulder.

The dress of the women is made of the same material as that of the men, but differently arranged. Their work costume is a petticoat of Dracæna leaves, but instead of being, like that of the men, a mere short apron, it is much longer, and completely surrounds the body. On occasions of state or ceremony, however, they wear lava-lavas of siapo like those of the men, only put on rather differently, and of much larger size. A woman of rank will often have this garment so long that it trails on the ground far behind her.

Captain Hood, in describing an entertainment given in honor of the white visitors, writes as follows. After the men had danced “a number of girls entered, who went through a somewhat similar set of evolutions, with infinite exactness and grace. It may seem incredible to our fair sisters in England, that a young lady arranged in no other garment but a mat tied round her waist should look handsomely dressed; but could they see these Samoan belles enter the circle in their full evening costume, with their coronets of nautilus shell and scarlet hibiscus, and their necklaces of red and yellow flowers, I believe they would admit that their appearance is highly imposing.

“Some wore beautifully plaited fine mats, which are so highly prized that they cost more than a rich silk or satin dress. Others had white shaggy dresses, made from the inner fibres of the hibiscus, the amplitude of which would satisfy the most extensive patronesses of crinoline, and indulged in trains equalling in length that worn by those dames of England in former days, while their carriage and air plainly showed that, whatever we might think, they felt themselves superior beings.” To judge from the photographed portraits of these Samoan beauties, Captain Hood is perfectly right; they not only look well dressed, but, if anything, over dressed.

That this opinion was not a rare one is evident from Mr. Williams’s account of Samoa, which he visited more than thirty years before Captain Hood. The missionaries’ wives had endeavored to persuade the Samoan women to wrap their abundant mantles over the whole of the body, but without success. On the contrary, the Samoan belles in their turn tried to convince the white visitors that it would be much better for them to faa Samoa, i. e. to do in Samoa as the Samoans do. Garments that covered the whole of the body might do well enough in the white woman’s country, but when they came to Samoa they ought to dress themselves like the Samoans, tie a shaggy mat round the waist, coquettishly looped up on one side, and anoint themselves with scented oil and color themselves with turmeric; wear a flower on the head instead of a bonnet, and a necklace of flowers by way of a bodice. Thus accoutred, they might faa-riaria, i. e. strut about in the consciousness of being well dressed, and certain of admiration. There is much to be said on both sides of the question.

The women wear their hair differently from the men, generally cutting it rather short, and combing it back. It is then powdered with fine lime made of burning coal, which has the effect of staining it of a reddish purple hue, which is thought to be the most fashionable color. After this is done, a Samoan belle merely twists a wreath of scarlet hibiscus flowers among the hair. In both sexes great pains are taken about the hair, and in order to promote its growth in after years the head is kept shaved in childhood, the boys having a single lock of hair on one side, and the girls one on either side.

There is a slight distinction of dressing the hair in the different islands of the Samoan group. In some of them the women separate the hair into multitudinous ringlets, each bound with cocoa-nut fibre, and cut square at the bottom, much like the ancient Assyrian fashion. As if to carry out the resemblance still further, the men preserve their beards, and dress them almost exactly like those of the figures on the Nineveh marbles.

In bodily form the women are by no means equal to the men, the latter being truly magnificent specimens of humanity, while the former are rather short, and stoutly made, with features that are pleasing in expression, but have otherwise little beauty. They are as well treated as in Tonga, and are not expected to do hard work. In fact, the men seem to take a pride in assisting the weaker sex. Mr. Pritchard writes on this subject as follows:--“We saw several women sitting quietly in their canoe, whilst their cavaliers swam alongside, towing them through the surf, not because they are at all less at home in the water than their husbands and brothers, as we saw this afternoon, when a large number of girls were alongside, who were as often swimming about, laughing and talking, for about half-an-hour at a time in the water, or sitting in their boats, which they are constantly upsetting.”

When the husband of a Samoan wife dies, his widow is not sacrificed at his funeral, but is usually taken by his brother, after the ancient Jewish custom. It is remarkable, by the way, that many of the Mosaic laws still exist in full force among the Samoans. In time of war no male captives are taken, all being killed. Their female relatives, whether wives or sisters, are considered as the property of the victors, and mostly become their wives. Thus it often happens that women are related to both sides, and, as they are by courtesy allowed to visit their relatives, all the designs of one side are speedily told to the other. So, whenever the principal chief prepares any plan of action, some of the women who have relations on the opposite side, immediately go off and tell them about the proposed movements. Still, the Samoans seem to make it a matter of honor not to take advantage of this knowledge, and to allow the enemy to execute his movements without interruption.

The women seem quite at their ease in warfare, and mostly accompany their husbands to the wars, in order to supply them with necessaries, and to nurse them if they should be wounded. Mr. Pritchard says that he has seen them in the heat of action, carrying water to the wounded, and seeming to care less for the thickly flying bullets than the warriors themselves.

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Before passing to another subject, we will complete our notices of dress. The reader may remember that on page 977 was given a full account of the various processes by which the inner bark of the paper mulberry is made into garments. The Samoans employ the same method as the Tongans, but are even more careful in the manufacture of the cloth, which is in great request throughout many parts of Polynesia, and can be recognized at once by a skilful eye.

The women are the sole manufacturers, and are wonderfully skilful and patient over their work. In the first place, for the finest cloth they always employ very young trees, not more than fourteen to fifteen months old, and only two or three inches in diameter. They begin their work by cutting down the trees, peeling off the bark, and steeping it for eight and forty hours in water, so as to enable the rough outer bark to be removed from the thin and delicate inner bark. The well-known “bass,” with which gardeners tie up flowers, is a familiar instance of “liber,” or inner bark, procured from the lime tree. By constant beating, this substance becomes greatly increased in width and reduced in thickness, and, like gold leaf, it can be beaten out to almost any extent.

As the strips of bark are only ten or twelve inches wide, a number of them are united by overlapping the edges and putting between them arrow-root dissolved in water. The united pieces, while still wet, are again beaten, and after a while the two pieces become incorporated into one, and all signs of the junction disappear.

When a piece of sufficient size is made, printing and staining are the next processes. The dyes are generally of three kinds, red, brown, and yellow. The two first tints are obtained from clays, and the third from the ever useful turmeric. The women who make and print the cloth do not prepare the dyes, that being a separate occupation, and in these islands the different professions are strictly limited to certain families, just as is the case with the castes in India. The printing is done on exactly the same principle that is employed in rubbing brasses in this country. The pattern is made by fastening the flexible ribs of the cocoa-nut leaf on a board. When the ribs are quite hard and dry the cloth is stretched over them, and the dye rubbed over it with a stiff brush, so that it only adheres to those parts of the cloth which press against the raised pattern below. For patterns of a larger description a softer bark is used, which holds a quantity of color.

There are in my collection several specimens of Samoan bark cloth; one is very fine, pure white, six feet long, by two wide, and ornamented with a fine fringe all round it. Another is thicker and stronger, being made of four layers of bark, one placed upon the other. In some places the junction has not been completed, and the different layers are quite distinct. It measures rather more than seven feet in length and three feet ten inches in width. It has a deep-colored border about eighteen inches in width, composed of a diamond pattern impressed upon a number of perpendicular parallel lines and dots. This border is a light red in color, and upon it are several circles of dark brown. Circles of a similar kind are scattered over the uncolored portion of the robe, which is of a creamy yellow hue.

The third specimen is still thicker, and larger. It is seven feet square, and has been completely covered on the outside with the clay pigment, which has been put on so thickly as to make the fabric comparatively stiff. Two broad bands of deep black are drawn across it so as to divide it into three equal portions, and in each division are four patterns also drawn in black, very much resembling the “broad arrow” used in the government mark of England.

In the second illustration on page 1012 are shown the successive processes of converting the bark into cloth. In the foreground and at the right hand are seen some women kneeling in the stream, engaged in scraping the liber to free it from every particle of the outer bark. One woman is examining a piece against the light, to see whether it is quite clean. Behind them, and toward the left centre of the illustration are more women, some of them beating and scraping the bark with the square mallets which have been already described when treating of Tonga, and another is busily employed in joining two pieces with arrow-root. Just above them is another woman engaged in the more skilful part of the manufacture, i. e. printing by rubbing dye over the cloth when laid on the pattern board, and one or two of the boards themselves are given, in order to show the cocoa-nut leaf pattern upon them. In the distance, the other women are seen hanging the still wet cloth up to dry.

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CIII. SAMOA, OR THE NAVIGATORS’ ISLANDS--Continued

WAR.

CAUSES OF WAR IN SAMOA -- THE MALO, AND STRUGGLES FOR ITS POSSESSION -- THE CHIEF’S VENGEANCE -- FIRE-ARMS PREVENTIVE OF WAR -- SAMOAN WEAPONS -- THE CLUBS -- PATTERNS OF CLUBS THROUGHOUT POLYNESIA -- STRANGE MODE OF USING THE SPEAR -- THE SHARK-TOOTH GAUNTLETS -- SUITS OF ARMOR -- GETTING TOGETHER AN ARMY, AND MODE OF FIGHTING -- UNPLEASANT POSITION OF NEUTRALS -- THE SEA-FIGHT -- DISTINGUISHING PENNANTS -- THE DEFIANCE BEFORE BATTLE -- TROPHIES OF WAR, AND ELATION OF THE VICTOR -- DISPOSAL OF THE BODIES -- THE HEAD PILE -- SINGLE COMBAT BETWEEN CHIEFS -- SAMOAN LAW -- PUNISHMENT FOR MURDER AND LESSER OFFENCES -- CANNIBALISM -- NATIVE LAWYERS -- THE PLAINTIFF DEFEATED WITH HIS OWN WEAPONS.

It was mentioned on page 1014, that women when captured in war become the absolute property of those who take them; we will therefore devote a short space to warfare among the Samoans, omitting those characteristics in which it resembles war among the other Polynesian tribes, which have already been described.

The causes of war may mostly be reduced to four; namely, the desire of political supremacy, disputed succession to chieftainship, revenge for the murder of a chief, and infringement of the strange marriage laws of the Samoans.

The first of these causes is always rankling. Each island is divided into several districts, and when one begins to show signs of special prosperity, another is sure to take umbrage at it and go to war in order to secure the “Malo,” or political supremacy. One example of such a war occurred only a few years ago in the island of Apolo.

Manono, one of the three districts into which it is divided, held the supremacy, and the chiefs felt indignant because another district, Aâna, was prospering under the teaching of the missionaries. The chiefs of Manono therefore began to oppress Aâna by making continual demands of property and food. Still, in spite of their exactions, the district would persist in flourishing; it made and sold more cocoa-nut oil, and sold it for more hatchets, calico, and other European treasures, than the other districts. The Manono chiefs were naturally indignant that when they went to a subject district they found it better cultivated and richer than their own, and construed the inferiority which they could not but feel into an intentional insult on the part of Aâna. So they proclaimed the people of Aâna to be rebels, and made war against them.

Such a cause of war, absurd as it may be, and subversive of all real progress, is intelligible, and to be explained by the petty jealousies of human nature, which is too prone to feel itself personally hurt at the prosperity of another. Vengeance for a murdered chief is intelligible, and so is a war for succession; but the last cause needs some explanation.

By the laws of Samoa, a woman once a wife is always a wife, even though she may be put away by her husband. The Samoan chiefs claim the right of marrying as many wives as they choose, and putting them away as often as they like. Indeed, a man often marries a girl merely for the sake of her dower of mats and other property. But even after he has put away a wife, he still considers her as his own chattel; and if any other chief takes her to his house, war is at once declared against him. It is a curious fact that the original husband cares nothing about the morality of the wife whom he has put away, but only for the insult offered to himself by taking his property. Such cast-off wives mostly attach themselves to the Fala-tele, or visiting house, leading most immoral lives, and may do so without incurring any resentment from their former husband. But let them marry another, and vengeance immediately follows the insult.

Before the introduction of fire-arms, the principal weapons of Samoa were the spear and the club. The older chiefs have a rooted objection to the musket, and, like Hotspur’s fop, have not been particularly willing to take the field since that “villanous saltpetre” has come into vogue. Muskets, say they, are weapons for boys; clubs for men. They have some reason to complain of the bullets, which, as they say, do not know chiefs, because their towering headdresses make them so conspicuous that they afford excellent marks to the enemy; and if by chance one of their opponents should have even a moderate notion of taking aim, their chance of coming safely out of the battle would be a very small one.

The clubs used in Samoa are remarkable for the excellence of their make, and the polish and finish with which the native carver loves to ornament them. Some of them are short, used for one hand, and made just like the steel maces of European chivalry. Others are almost exactly like the club No. 1, figured on page 949. The example which is given in the illustration entitled “Club,” on page 1018, is drawn from a specimen in my collection, and belonged to the same chief who owned the war mat and feather headdress which have been described. It is five feet in length, and very heavy, so that none but a very powerful man can use it. As it has seen much work, it has been battered about, the wood of the head cracked, and the carving defaced. I have therefore had it drawn as it was when new.

As a rule the clubs of Tonga, Samoa, Fiji, and other Polynesian groups can hardly be definitely referred to any one of them. The commerce which passes between them has caused an interchange of weapons as well as of peaceful commodities, so that the two distinct races which inhabit Fiji and the Tongan and Samoan group use weapons which are almost identical. Thus the serrated club which has just been mentioned is equally used in New Guinea, Fiji, and Samoa, the pattern having been found a convenient one, and so transmitted from one island to the other.

The spears, again, have a great similitude, and are armed with barbs, the best being tipped with the tail-bone of the sting-ray. In former days, when a warrior had pierced an enemy with his spear, he tried to lift him from the ground upon it; and if he were unable to do so, he was generally assisted by several of his comrades, who all thrust their spears into his body, lifted him in the air, and bore him aloft in triumph, not caring whether he were alive or dead.

One weapon, however, seems to be peculiar to Samoa, and has been mentioned by Mariner. It consists of a pair of gauntlets made of cocoa-nut fibre, on the inside of which are fixed several rows of sharks’ teeth, set edgewise. In fact, this weapon is made exactly on the principle of the terrible “tiger-claw” of India, and is intended for the purpose of ripping up an adversary, the abdomen being the part that is always attacked, both by the Samoan and the Hindoo.

One chief, who was of gigantic dimensions, even for a Samoan, always fought with these terrible gauntlets. He used them, however, in a different manner, and disdained to tear open the body of his antagonist. As all the points of the teeth are directed backward, it is impossible for any one who is grasped by these gauntlets to tear himself away. The gigantic chief was accustomed to rush at one of the enemy, seize him with his gauntleted hand, fling him on his face, place one foot on the small of his back, grasp him by the head and bend him forcibly upward so as to break his spine. This was his mode of dealing with able-bodied men. If, however, he seized a small man, he merely threw the victim across his knee, broke his back, and flung his dying foe on the ground. The illustration on page 1025 is taken from a beautiful specimen in the collection of the United Service Museum.

In order to guard themselves against these weapons, the Samoan warriors gird themselves with a very broad and thick belt, made of cocoa-nut fibre, wide enough to reach from the arm to the hip. It is not quite long enough to encircle the body, but is worn mostly on the left side, that being the side most exposed to the enemy.

One of these belts, in my collection, is two feet nine inches in length, so that when fastened round the waist it leaves a considerable portion of the right side exposed. It is made by taking a number of plaited cords, and passing them over two sticks, so that all the cords are parallel to each other. They are then bound firmly together by strings of twisted fibre, which pass under and over each alternately, and make a very strong armor, through which the dreaded sharks’ teeth cannot make their way.

Sometimes the Samoan warrior seems to have been mistrustful of the efficacy of the belt, and to have feared the effects of the shark’s teeth on his naked arms and legs. There is in the collection of the United Service Museum a complete suit of armor, most ingeniously made out of fibre, and so formed as to cover the greater part of the body and limbs. It is in two portions, the upper being put on as a coat, and the lower as trousers. By the sides of the armor, on p. 1018, are two small sketches, showing on an enlarged scale the patterns of the plaiting.

There is no definite army among the Samoans, each man being considered as a soldier, and having his weapons always at hand. He is liable at any time to be called out by his chief, and, as a rule, he troubles himself very little about the cause of the war, only concerning himself to fight in the train of his chief. The Samoans are a brave race, and, if properly led and taught the veriest rudiments of discipline, would make good soldiers. As it is, however, no Samoan warrior fights with the knowledge that his movements are directed in accordance with a definite plan, or that he will be supported by others. He does not feel himself a simple unit among many, but has to look out for himself, to select his own adversary, to advance when he thinks he can do so with advantage, to run away when he feels himself getting into undue peril.

Whenever a few Samoans have put themselves under the guidance of a white man, they have always repelled their foes. In one such case, twenty men drove off a body of five hundred enemies, flushed with success and bloodshed. Both parties were armed with muskets, but the regular though insignificant volleys of the twenty men so completely disorganized the five hundred undisciplined foes, that the latter dared not attack the little stone wall, five feet high and twenty-five yards long, behind which the defenders were lying.

Had the latter been left to their own devices, they would have fired all their pieces at once, and been left with unloaded muskets at the mercy of their foes. But being taught always to keep half their muskets loaded, they had always a volley ready for their enemies, who were utterly discomfited at their reception, and at last were only too glad to escape as they best could, with the loss of many men.

The position of a neutral is not at all a pleasant one in Samoa, as, in case either side should appear to be likely to win the day, those of the losing side who happen to be friendly with the unfortunate neutral make a point of stripping him of all his property, to prevent it from falling into the hands of the enemy. Those Europeans who know the native customs always erect barricades whenever war parties come near them, knowing that they stand in equal danger from friends or foes.

When a chief decides on going to war, he calls out all the warriors in his district. Though there is no real discipline of the soldiers, there is at all events some semblance of order in their arrangement. Each town has its definite place, and the inhabitants would resent any attempt on the part of another town to take the place which they consider as their own. The most honorable post is in front, and, though it is a post of danger, it is so honorable that if a man belonging to any town privileged to lead the war were placed in the rear, he would probably desert to the enemy. In fact, a vast amount of desertion does take place, and by means of the deserters and the women, both parties know tolerably well the designs of their antagonists. The idea of conceiving, maturing a plan, keeping it secret, and then suddenly acting on it, seems never to have entered the mind of the Samoan chiefs.

Though the vanguard is the post of danger as well as of honor, it is greatly coveted, for it is also the post of profit both in peace and war. The inhabitants of the privileged towns claim the largest share at the feasts, and generally rule the district in which they live. As all the Samoans dress much alike and speak the same language, they are obliged to wear a sort of uniform, by which they shall know friends from foes. In the case of warriors, the hair is dressed in some strange way, or a white shell is hung round the neck, or a strip of cloth tied round the arm, these symbols being changed every three or four days, in order to prevent the enemy from imitating them.

When canoes unite under one leader, they hang out symbols of a similar character, such as bunches of leaves, strips of matting, or even a sort of flag made of native matting, and having painted on it the rude figure of some animal, such as a pig, a dog, or a bird. True to the independent nature of Samoan warriors, the two men who respectively command the land and the sea forces never think of consulting together, and acting in concert together, but each does what he thinks best on the spur of the moment. In the case already mentioned, where twenty Aâna men repulsed five hundred of the Savaiis, the latter might have been cut off to a man. While they were kept in check by the twenty disciplined warriors, a fleet of Aâna canoes appeared off the shore; and, if the commander had only landed his men, a most thorough example would have been made of the invaders. But he had nothing to do with the land force, and so allowed the enemy to escape without even attempting to stop them.

The student of anthropology always finds that human nature is much the same in different parts of the earth, and that manners and customs wonderfully resemble each other in principle, though they may be modified in detail by the accident of time and place. It has already been mentioned that many of the Samoan laws are identical with those given by Moses, though there is no possibility that any geographical connection could ever have taken place between Polynesia and Sinai.

Warfare is carried on at the present day in Samoa just as the scriptures tell us it used to be in Palestine and Syria, and as Homer tells us it was waged on the plains of Troy. When two opposing bodies meet, the leaders challenge and abuse each other in good set terms, each boasting of his own prowess, depreciating that of the adversary, and threatening after he has killed his enemy to dishonor his corpse in some way. Thus, we find that when David had accepted the challenge of Goliath, before they proceeded to action they reviled each other, Goliath threatening to give David’s flesh unto the “fowls of the air and the beasts of the field,” and David retorting in almost the same words, but adding that he would do the same by the bodies of the whole army.

Thus, in the old Homeric story, where Ulysses flings his spear at Socus, he uses almost exactly the same formula of words:--

“Ah, wretch! no father shall thy corpse compose, Thy dying eye no tender mother close; But hungry birds shall tear those balls away, And hovering vultures scream around their prey.”

Thus, the Fijian warrior defies his enemy in words before he proceeds to blows, threatening to bake and eat his body and make a drinking-cup of his scull. Thus, the Samoan war parties always think it necessary to pause and defy each other in words before they proceed to blows. For example, when the Manono and Aâna men fought in the struggle which has just been described, they exchanged threats and injurious epithets wonderfully like the “winged words” of the Homeric warriors, the sentiment being identical, though the imagery is necessarily different. The illustration No. 1, on page 1027, shows these Samoan warriors exchanging defiance with their foes.

“You banana-eating Manono men, be your throats consumed by Moso.”

“Ye cocoa-nut eating Aâna men, be your tongues wasted.”

“Where is that Savii pig that comes to his death?”

“Roast that Atua king who is about to die by my spear;” and so on ad infinitum.

These war parties afford excellent opportunities of studying the dress and ornaments of the Samoans. It is thought a point of honor with them, as with the American Indians, to go into action in the fullest dress and decorated with every ornament that can be procured, so that the headdress and general accoutrements of a chief when engaged in war are sure to be the best examples that can be seen.

The proceedings that take place after a battle are well described by Mr. Pritchard. “After a fight, the heads of the slain warriors are paraded in presence of the assembled chiefs and people, when the heroes are individually thanked, and their general prowess and daring publicly acknowledged. The excitement of the successful warrior is intense, as he passes before the chiefs with his bleeding trophy, capering in the most fantastic evolutions, with blackened face and oiled body, throwing his club high in the air, and catching it behind his back or between his legs; sometimes himself carrying his dead enemy’s head, sometimes dancing round a comrade who carries it for him, all the while shouting in his loudest voice, ‘Ou te mau tangata! Ou te mau tangata!’ (‘I have my man, I have my man!’)”

To a young Samoan this is the realization of his highest ambition, to be thus publicly thanked by the chief for slaying an enemy in mortal combat, as he careers before his comrades with the reeking head of his foe in one hand, and his club in the other.

“Then, again, when the war is over, and he returns to his village, to hear his companions rehearse the exploit, and the girls pronounce him ‘toa’ i. e. brave; then it is you see in their very perfection the complacent dignity and latent pride that lurk within that brown-skinned islander. As he assumes an air of unconscious disregard of the praises his deeds evoke, you see the sublime and the ludicrous neatly blending, when he turns to the girls, and mildly exclaims, ‘Funa mai si rului!’ (‘Woman, hand me a cigar.’) This modest little order is at once pretty and pert, dignified and careless, when it falls from the lips of a hero or a beau. And proud is the girl who hands it to him; she has but one ambition then, to become his wife, even with the certainty of being cast off in less than a month for another.

“After the heads have been paraded before the chiefs, they are piled up in the malae, or open space in the centre of the town, the head of the greatest chief slain being placed uppermost. If among the visitors there are any relatives of the slain, they claim the heads and bury them, or send them back to the comrades of the deceased. The unclaimed heads are buried together in the malae. Any bodies that may be recognized are also buried by their friends, while those who have no relations among the visitors are left to rot and make food for the dogs.

“The relations are careful to bury the bodies they identify, lest their spirits should haunt them or wander about the field of battle, disconsolate and mournful, lamenting the fate which left their bodies to rot or to be eaten by the dogs. I have often heard the natives say, ‘Hear that spirit moaning, I am cold! I am cold!’ when a stormy night has thrown its darkness and poured its torrents of rain and gusts of wind over the battle-field. It was vain to tell them that the noise they heard was merely the creaking boughs or the pelting rain; to them it was nothing else than the spirit of the unburied dead enemy.”

The feelings of vanity are so acute in a Samoan warrior that he will do almost anything to procure applause at these meetings after a battle. One man who had failed to kill an enemy was greatly annoyed with himself at having missed the public applause which he had hoped to gain, and hit upon another mode of obtaining a sort of celebrity. He cut off the great toes of a dead enemy whose head had already been taken, and with these toes in his mouth paraded before the chiefs as if he had taken a head. Finding that this novel act excited admiration, he became so excited that he ate the toes, even without cooking them, in the presence of all the people.

Such an act as this might induce the reader to suppose that the Samoans, like many Polynesians, are cannibals. In the ordinary sense of the word, they are not so. After a battle they will sometimes cook and eat a human body, but this is done as an act of disgrace, and not as a gratification of the appetite. In one instance, a young woman whose father had been killed in battle obtained a scalp that had belonged to the enemy. She first burned it to ashes, then beat it to powder, and scattered the dust on the fire over which she cooked her provisions.

After a decisive battle, the chiefs of the beaten side come humbly before their victorious antagonists, carrying firewood, stones and pieces of bamboo. They lay their burdens before the principal chief, and prostrate themselves on the ground, lying there in silence. Should, as is generally the case, the victors be willing to accept the submission, the prostrate chiefs are told to rise and return home; but if they should not be satisfied, the men are clubbed where they lie, while the people whom they represent suffer all the horrors of savage warfare.

The firewood, stones, and bamboo are considered as emblems of the utterly abject state to which the bearers have been reduced. The stones, being the material with which the native ovens are made, signify that those who deposit them at the feet of the victors give themselves up to be baked and eaten by the conquerors. The firewood represents the material with which the ovens are heated, and the bamboo serves as a double symbol. In the first place, the knives with which the Samoans cut up their food were always made of bamboo before the use of iron was introduced by Europeans; and in the second place, the instruments by which torture was inflicted on prisoners by cruel captors were made of the same material.

When the conquered party are pardoned, they enter the house of the chief, kiss his feet, and present him with fine mats, bark cloth, food, and similar property. This ceremony is called Ifonga, and is sometimes employed on other occasions. For example, during the war between Manono and Aâna, two of the most influential chiefs of the latter party took umbrage at some slight, either real or fancied, and deserted to the enemy. Desertion of this nature is quite a common event in Samoan warfare, inasmuch as the chiefs are almost entirely independent of each other, and are bound together by the slightest of ties. In fact, the condition of these islanders much resembles that of the Scottish Highlanders in the old times, when it was hardly possible to wage a regular war on account of the rival jealousies of the different chiefs, besides the internal dissensions among the members of each clan.

Besides, as in the old Scottish clans, there is no discipline by which even the men are bound together. Each man serves as long as he chooses, and no longer. If he thinks himself slighted, or if his crops at home have to be got in, he has no hesitation in shouldering his club, and going off to his own village; nor is there any law by which he can be punished for so doing. In the war to which we are now alluding, a vast number of the Savaii allies of Manono had gone off to their own plantations.

In order to carry out the principle of obtaining the Malo, or sovereignty, it was necessary that the deserters should do homage to Manono, and be replaced in state in their homes, which they were supposed to hold under Manono as vassals in charge. If they could take possession without being attacked by the opposing party, they were supposed to have asserted their rights.

Accordingly, a great ceremony was projected. The Manono chiefs recalled all the allies who had escaped from the war, ostensibly to look after their plantations, but in reality because they had a strong objection to bullets, and summoned them to bring the produce of their plantations to a great “fono,” or discussion. Accordingly, they all came back, allured by the prospect of the feast which accompanies such a “fono.” The two deserting chiefs were introduced to the assembly, and went through the ceremony of Ifonga as a matter of form. Next they had to be safely installed in their own villages. With one of them this was a comparatively easy matter, as the whole district was deserted. So the chief was taken there in triumph, escorted by thirty or forty canoes, and formally installed in his own domains, as vassal to Manono, and therefore acknowledging the right of Malo to belong to that district. He had no followers with him, and in a day or two he left the place and returned to Manono. Still, the transaction had been completed, the time during which he held his domain not being of any importance. The reader may be glad to know that this chief suffered the usual fate of renegades, being received at first with great ceremony, and made much of, and afterward sinking into utter obscurity.

As to the other chief, there was a difficulty respecting the installation. It so happened that, he having been one of the most influential leaders, all the united forces of the two districts, Aâna and Atua, were encamped in and about the place, and if he had been taken there he would not only have been attacked, but the invading party would probably have been repelled by the united forces of the other two districts. So, after much deliberation, it was determined that he should be installed at a convenient season, but that the precise time for performing the ceremony need not for the present be fixed upon.

Sometimes a couple of chiefs quarrel, and, instead of going to war, fight it out themselves with their clubs. They display great dexterity in fencing and guarding, as well as striking, and are watched intently by the spectators. They are usually parted before they do any serious harm to each other, because in case either were killed, or even seriously injured, a war of vengeance would be the inevitable result.

* * * * *

Comparatively little is known of the native laws of Samoa, which, like all similar institutions, are always on the change, and of late years have been almost forgotten by reason of the presence of Europeans in the islands. We find, however, from several travellers, especially from those who have lived among the Samoans as missionaries, that a tolerably well-defined code of laws is recognized, and administered by the chief and his councillors.

Murder, for example, was punishable by death; and this was so well known that when one man murdered another, he and all his family generally fled to another district, where they were sure of protection. It was necessary that all the family should accompany the murderer, because the relatives of the slain man might wreak their vengeance upon any relation of the murderer. Practically, the punishment for murder resolved itself into a heavy fine. The fugitive necessarily left behind him his plantations, his house, and other property, all of which was seized by the chief. Sometimes the whole of the property was confiscated, the house burned down, the plantation devastated, and a message sent to the murderer that he might never return to his own village. Generally, however, this extreme punishment was commuted for a heavy fine, part of which consisted in giving a feast to the entire village.

Damaging a fruit tree was held to be a crime deserving of heavy punishment; and so was speaking disrespectfully to a chief, destroying a fence, or behaving rudely to strangers. For several offences the Samoans had a curiously graduated scale of punishments. Sometimes, when the offence was a light one, the offender was sentenced to seat himself in front of the chief and his council, and take five bites of a cruelly pungent root. Sometimes he was obliged to toss and catch a certain number of times one of the prickly sea-urchins, which are covered with slender spikes, as sharp as needles and as brittle as glass. Sometimes he had to beat his head with sharp stones until his face was covered with blood.

These punishments were usually inflicted, but there was a severe set of penalties for graver offences. In some cases the offender was hung by the feet to the branch of a tree, or stripped of all his clothes, and set in the burning rays of the mid-day sun. One of the severest, as well as most degrading punishments consisted in taking a pole cut from a very prickly tree, tying together the culprit’s feet and hands, slinging him on the pole as pigs are slung when they are being taken to the oven, and carrying him to the house or village against which he had offended.

The degrading part of this punishment consisted in likening the offender to a pig going to the oven. It is always held as a deep insult to a Samoan to compare him to a pig; while the very idea of being baked in the oven is most repulsive to the feelings of the people, who have the same contempt for any of the processes of cookery that prevails throughout New Zealand, Fiji, and Tonga. So utterly humiliating is this punishment, that when the culprit is laid helpless at the feet of those whom he has injured he is almost invariably released and forgiven, the extreme degradation being accepted as an atonement for almost any offence, no matter how heinous. This is the reason why the ceremony of Ifonga is considered as so degrading.

Indeed, it is in consequence of this feeling that cannibalism is occasionally practised, though, as has already been mentioned, it exists in a very modified form. Formerly, the women always attended upon the warriors for the sake of obtaining the bodies of the slain foes, which they dragged out of the field, and then cooked, by way of expressing the utmost contempt for them. The priests used also to accompany the warriors, and pray to the gods for success. They had good reason for wishing for victory, as their portion of the food was only the hands of the slain warriors, and as long as the struggle lasted they were not allowed to eat any other food except these hands. The priests of the losing side have sometimes been obliged to fast for several days in succession.

When the body of a chief was carried off to the oven, great rejoicings were made, and every one was expected to eat a piece of it, no matter how small. On such occasions, even the women and little children had a share, the question being frequently asked whether all have tasted. Sometimes, when a captive has been taken alive, the Samoans have been known to tie him up to a tree, dig a hole in front of him, line it with stones, heat it before his eyes, and then throw him into it.

According to the accounts of the natives, wars were formerly much more common than is now the case, the musket having almost driven the club and spear out of the field, and rendering useless the strength and skill of the warriors, who prided themselves on their dexterity of handling their weapons. How well they fence with the club has already been described, and that they were equally efficient in the use of the spear is evident from an anecdote told by Mr. Williams.

A chief named Matetau had come on board an English vessel, and the captain, wishing to test the skill of his visitor, painted on the foresail a ring about four or five inches in diameter, and asked Matetau to throw his spear at it. The chief retired to the quarter-deck, about eighty feet from the mark, poised his spear for a moment, and sent it through the middle of the ring. Warriors thus skilful in the use of their weapons might well feel indignant at the introduction of fire-arms, which equalize the weak and the strong, and enable a mere boy only just tattooed to kill the greatest chief.

When cases are brought before the council for adjudication, both plaintiff and defendant exhibit the greatest ingenuity in stating their case, and are wonderfully fertile in inventing new arguments. The Samoan litigant is as slippery as an eel, and no sooner has he found one post untenable than he has contrived to glide away from it and establish himself in another. Mr. Pritchard gives a very amusing instance of this characteristic of the Samoan.

The property of an English resident, who was popularly called “Monkey Jack,” had been wantonly destroyed, and the injured man referred the case to the council. As at that time two ships of war arrived, the matter was by common consent referred to the senior officer, and the plaintiff, accompanied by his friends, proceeded to the spot. The chiefs were convened, and, though they could not deny that the property had been destroyed, they put forward a series of excuses for refusing to pay any indemnity.

Firstly, they said that the plaintiff had joined the enemy, and that they were therefore entitled to wage war on him. This accusation being refuted, they shifted their ground from the man to his wife, saying that she was related to the enemy, and that her husband necessarily partook of the relationship. Fortunately, the woman happened to be related equally to both sides, so that the defendants had to abandon that plea.

Their next count was, that the destruction of the property was accidental, and that therefore the owner had no claim on them. As their own previous admissions contradicted them, there was no difficulty in disposing of this allegation. Their next line of defence was a very ludicrous one, and showed that they were nearly brought to bay. It so happened that “Monkey Jack” was something of an armorer, and used to repair for the natives the muskets which their rough hands had damaged. His opponents suddenly recollected this and turned it to account, saying that his charges for repairs were so much heavier to them than to the enemy, that in self-defence they had taken his property in compensation. Evidence was brought that his charges were always the same to any natives, no matter to which party they belonged, and so the defendants were again beaten.

Like wise men, however, they had reserved their weightiest argument to the last. It has already been mentioned that in time of war either party has no scruple in destroying or confiscating the property of a friend, on the plea that it is better for them to have the use of the property than for the enemy to take it. The defendants brought forward an argument based on this custom, saying that they only acted in accordance with national custom, and that they had destroyed the property of the plaintiff, in order to keep it out of the hands of the enemy.

This was by far the most formidable argument they could have employed, but “Monkey Jack” was as clever as his opponents, and replied with crushing effect, that for several weeks the opposite party had been able, if they had desired to do so, to destroy all his property, but had refrained from touching it.

When the chiefs saw that they had met with men more skilful than themselves in argument, they were sadly perplexed, and some of the younger chiefs hit on a mode by which they thought that they might escape from paying the indemnity. They agreed quietly to surround the spot where the captain and the consul were sitting, and suddenly carry them off, and retain them as hostages until the indemnity should be given up. Fortunately, Mr. Pritchard detected their plot, and contrived to slip back to the boats, where he arranged a counter plot.

Before very long, the Samoans surrounded the place where the intended captives were sitting, and, just as they were about to seize them, Mr. Pritchard called out to them, and showed them that they were covered by the levelled muskets of the sailors and marines, who had accompanied the captain and the consul to the spot. Knowing that, unlike themselves, the English warriors had an inconvenient habit of hitting when they fired, the Samoan chiefs acknowledged themselves conquered, and agreed to pay the indemnity.

Another case, much more petty, was a very ludicrous one, the Samoan absolutely granting himself to be defeated by the logic of his opponent.

There was a certain West Indian negro, who had taken up his residence in Samoa, and had attained in a neighboring tribe the rank of chief, together with the name of Paunga. A native chief, named Toe-tangata (called, for brevity’s sake, Toe), had a dog, which was in the habit of stealing from Paunga’s house. The latter had often complained to the owner of the animal, but without success, and at last, as the dog continued to steal, Paunga shot it. Now in Samoa to insult a chief’s dog is to insult the owner, and so Toe considered himself to have been shot by Paunga.

The case was at last referred to the captain of an English man-of-war, but Paunga refused to appear, saying that he was a Samoan chief, and not under the jurisdiction of a foreigner. A file of armed marines was at once sent for Paunga, who ingeniously took advantage of the proceeding, placing himself at their head, and telling the people that they might now see that he was a chief among the white people as well as among natives, and had his guard of honor, without which he would not have stirred out of the house.

Both being before the captain, Toe made his complaint, and was instantly crushed by Paunga’s reply. He admitted that the property of a chief was identical with the owner. Consequently, when Toe’s dog ate Paunga’s food, he, Toe, ate Paunga. Therefore, when Paunga shot Toe in the person of his dog, he only balanced the account, and neither party had grounds of complaint against the other.

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CIV. SAMOA, OR THE NAVIGATORS’ ISLANDS--Concluded

AMUSEMENTS--MARRIAGE--ARCHITECTURE.

SAMOAN AMUSEMENTS -- PIGEON CATCHING -- THE DECOY BIRDS, AND MODE OF USING THEM -- TRAINING THE BIRDS -- FISHING: THE NET AND THE LINE -- DARING MODE OF SHARK CATCHING -- A BOLD FISHERMAN -- CURIOUS ACCIDENTS TO THE DIVERS: THE SHARK AND THE CORAL -- THE BOAR HUNT -- A DANGEROUS FOE -- SAMOAN COOKERY -- THE PALOLO -- ITS CURIOUS APPEARANCE, MODE IN CAPTURE, AND WAY OF COOKING IT -- MARRIAGE IN SAMOA -- CEREMONIES IN THE MARRIAGE OF A CHIEF -- THE WEDDING FEAST AND DANCES -- SAMOAN ARCHITECTURE -- DIVISION OF THE HOUSE BY MOSQUITO CURTAINS.

The amusements of the Samoans are in many respects identical with those of other Polynesians, and therefore only those will be described wherein is anything characteristic of these islanders. One of the principal sports is pigeon shooting, which is carried on in certain parts of the wood expressly prepared for it. The principle on which the sport is followed much resembles that of the rat shooting practised by the Tongans. Several chiefs agree to go off on a pigeon-catching expedition, and at the appointed time the fowling ground is cleared of bush, a large circle is marked out by stones, and just outside the circle are made a number of ambushes, formed from leaves and branches, which are cut fresh daily.

The sport is preluded by a drink of kava, and when this indispensable preliminary is over, the chiefs repair to their stations, each having a net and a trained bird. The net is small, and is fixed to the end of a bamboo, thirty or even forty feet in length. The bird is perched on a stick near its master, and is attached to its perch by a string forty or fifty yards in length.

At a given signal, the birds are thrown into the air, and, following the instructions they have received, wheel round and round for some little time. The wild pigeons see them from a distance, and fancying from their movements that they are hovering over food, fly to join them. As they wheel to and fro with the decoy birds, the chiefs raise their nets and dexterously capture them. He who takes the greatest number of pigeons wins the game, and receives from each of the other players a stake which has been previously fixed upon. Generally the stakes consist of food or kava roots, and in such cases the winner practically gains nothing but the honor of winning the game, as the food is cooked and distributed by the winner to all his companions, and the kava is converted into drink.

These bird-catching parties last for a very long time, the players sometimes remaining on the spot for a month. Huts are consequently run up around the open space on which the birds are flown. The second engraving on the next page illustrates this sport very accurately.

The decoy birds are most carefully trained, the object of the trainer being to make them rise at the word of command, fly to the end of the string, wheel round in graceful circles for some time, and then return to the perch. When a bird will remain on the wing for five minutes and return to its perch at its master’s call, it is considered as having been highly trained, and is held in great estimation. The natives may be often seen engaged in training the birds in the open space in the centre of the village. The birds are encouraged in their flight by a peculiar mode of jerking the string.

Fishing is a very favorite amusement with the Samoans, who display a wonderful amount of skill and often of courage in their sport. The latter quality is chiefly brought into play when the natives are occupied in shark fishing. Whenever a great feast is to be held, the fishermen go off in search of sharks, the flesh of this fish being one of the principal dainties of Samoa. The fishermen go off in canoes, each canoe being manned by two or three fishermen, who are supplied with a strong rope, having a noose at one end and a quantity of animal offal.

Going to the edge of the lagoon, where the sharks lie under shelter of the rocks, the men throw the offal overboard, for the double purpose of attracting and gorging the sharks. They then peer into the water, and when one of the fishermen sees a shark lazily stretching itself on the sand that lies under the overhanging rocks, he lets himself very quietly into the sea, dives down with the rope in his hand, slips the noose over the shark’s tail, and rises to the surface. As soon as he gets into the boat, the men drag the shark out of his retreat, and haul away until the creature’s tail is raised out of the sea, when it becomes nearly helpless. A sudden jerk brings it into the canoe, where it is instantly killed.

Sometimes the shark lies in a deep submarine cave, with only its head out of the opening. The Samoan fisherman, however, is not to be baffled by this attitude, but dives down to the shark, and taps it gently on the head. The fish, replete with food, feels annoyed at the interruption, and turns round, exposing as it does so its tail to the daring fisherman, who slips the noose over it in a moment.

One young man, mentioned by Mr. Pritchard, was celebrated for his daring in this sport. He disdained assistance, and used to go out alone in a little canoe, dropping bait overboard in order to attract the sharks, and throwing his noosed rope over their tails. On one occasion the rope broke, but the brave fellow had no idea of losing both shark and rope. He leaped overboard among all the sharks, seized the rope, scrambled into his canoe again, and, after a long and severe struggle, succeeded in killing his shark and towing it ashore.

Sometimes the hook is used in shark fishing. The fishermen bait a hook, carry it out in a canoe in twelve feet or so of water, and bring the line back to land. Before very long a shark is nearly sure to seize the bait; and when the fish is fairly hooked, several men haul at the rope and drag the shark into shallow water, where it is allowed to flounce about until it is exhausted, and is then killed without difficulty.

Such a sport as this is necessarily attended with much danger, but the Samoan fisherman is nearly as much at home in the water as the shark itself, and treats his dangerous game with the same easy indifference which a Spanish matador displays toward a furious bull. Accidents certainly do happen in both cases, but they are the exception, and not the rule.

Another of their amusements which is dangerous is pig hunting. As the swine are allowed to run loose in the woods, they have reverted to their wild modes of life, and are sly, swift, active, and ferocious. It is thought a point of honor for a chief to challenge a wild boar, and to receive no assistance except in case of extreme need. The hunter is armed with his knife and tomahawk, or sometimes with a whale spade, which makes a very formidable weapon if the edges are kept sharp.

To kill one of the animals is no easy task. In the first place, a wild boar is so quick that nothing but the greatest activity can save the hunter from its tusks; and were the fight to take place on an open plain instead of among trees, behind which the hunter can jump when hard pressed, the beast might probably get the better of the man. Then the boar is wonderfully tenacious of life, and has a skin so tough that a sharp weapon and a strong arm are needed to inflict a mortal wound. Even when the animal has fallen, and is apparently dead, an experienced hunter always drives his knife into its throat, as boars have an awkward way of suddenly reviving, leaping on their legs, and dashing through their foes into the bush.

The sows are even more dangerous antagonists than the boars. They are, as a rule, lighter, thinner, and more active, and, although they have no long tusks wherewith to rip up their foes, they can bite as sharply and as quickly as wolves. Indeed, were it not for the dogs which are trained to boar-hunting, and are wonderfully courageous and skilful, though very ugly and most unpromising to the eye, they would seldom be brought to bay.

Mr. Pritchard gives an account of an adventure of his own with a boar, which gives an excellent idea of the ferocity, cunning, and activity of the animals. The boar had actually received two rifle bullets in his left shoulder, inflicting wounds which would have disabled, if not killed, most animals, but seemed only to irritate the boar by the pain.

“The fury of the beast was intense, with its two wounds and the worrying of the dogs. He stood grinding his teeth and frothing at the mouth, looking first at one and then at another of us, as if measuring an antagonist for fight. The chief suggested that one of us should tackle him, while the others looked on without interfering. Of course I had to claim the privilege to do so after such a challenge; though, in truth, this being the first boar I had ever encountered, I felt as if I had somewhat rashly undertaken the combat, for, even with his two wounds, I fancied he might possibly hold out longer than myself, and, if I failed to kill him, the failure would be fine sport for my comrades, and not soon forgotten in their jokes.

“However, I stepped out in front of the infuriated beast, and no sooner was I there than he was there too--quite promptly enough, I thought. He made a furious charge at me, which I received with the butt end of my rifle, trying to throw him over on his wounded side, but ineffectually. A second time he came at me, and a second time I checked him. As he drew up for the third charge, his long bristles standing on end, grinding his tusks and tossing the froth from his huge mouth, I drew my tomahawk. On he came, swifter than ever; the tomahawk fell deep into the thick part of his neck, and my boy Atamu did the rest with his long knife.

“It was rather hot work, for these boars have immense strength and no little dogged pluck, and their skins are so tough that often a spear will break short off without leaving even a mark where it struck.”

The same boar had previously forced the writer to employ rather a ludicrous manœuvre. He had fired at the shoulder of the animal, thinking that, if the bullet did not reach the heart, it would at all events disable him. But the boar made at him almost as it received the shot, and sprang on him so quickly that he was forced to jump over its head upon its back, and roll off toward the nearest tree. The smaller pigs are killed in a different manner. The dogs are trained to catch them by the ears, shoulders, and tail, and when the hunters come up they place a stick across the animal’s throat, and press it down until the pig is dead.

As to the cookery of the Samoans, there is little to distinguish it from that of the Tongans and other Polynesians of the same race. They have a great abundance of dishes, being able to produce almost as great a variety in that respect as the Fijians, and many of their dishes are extremely palatable to an European. Vegetables form the staple of the Samoan’s food, and of those he has abundant choice. Putting aside those vegetables which have been imported from Europe, he has yams, taro, bananas, bread-fruit, cocoa-nuts, and plantains. Sometimes these are cooked separately and sometimes mixed, in order to produce a compound more palatable to native taste. As a rule, the simpler specimens of Samoan cookery please even the English palate, but when the native cooks dress compound dishes the natives are generally the only persons who can eat them.

For instance, there is nothing better in its way than the young cocoa-nut, which is entirely different from the hard, indigestible state in which we see it in England. But when the milk is poured out, its place is supplied with salt water, and the contents allowed to become putrid, the compound is offensive to more senses than one. Some of their compounds are, however, excellent. Such is a sort of pudding made by pouring the juice of cocoa-nuts over bananas, and baking them together. Even the very young kernel of the cocoa-nut makes a very rich dish when baked.

The strangest diet of the Samoans is the annelid called the Palolo (Palolo viridis). Mr. Pritchard gives an excellent account of this curious being and the mode of cooking it.

It appears only in certain strictly defined and very limited localities in each group (i. e. in Fiji, Tonga, and Samoa); a month earlier, about the first week in November, in Samoa than in the two other groups. It rises directly from the bottom of the sea to the surface, appearing first about four o’clock in the morning, and continuing to increase in number, until about half an hour after sunrise, when it begins to dissolve, and gradually disappears. By eight o’clock not a trace of the palolo remains in the sea. They look just like so many worms, from an inch to a yard in length, showing every conceivable color as they wriggle about, and are soft to the touch.

“The time of their appearance is calculated by the old men of the various tribes, and is known by the sun, moon, and stars having a particular bearing to each other. A month before the great appearance, a few are found in each of the localities where they rise. Parties go out in their canoes to watch for this first appearance, for by it the calculation as to the second and great appearance is verified.

“When that time comes, whole villages, men, women, and children, crowd the scene; by two o’clock the sea is covered with canoes, the outriggers getting foul and breaking adrift without distracting the attention, as by four o’clock all are busied scooping up the palolos and pouring them into baskets made for the occasion. The noise and excitement from four to six o’clock is something astonishing, and the scrambling most amusing. And when, with canoes landed, the crowd disperses, the next thing is to prepare the ovens to cook the palolos, which are merely wrapped in bread-fruit leaves. They are sent round with much formality to friends at a distance, and sometimes kept three or four weeks by being occasionally warmed in an oven.

“I never could muster courage to do more than merely taste them, so repulsive is their very appearance as they roll and coil together, though Englishmen and even English women there are who eat them, and professedly with a relish, for which I suppose one cannot but accept their word. One lady in particular there is, as described by Dr. Seeman, a ‘strong-minded individual,’ who eats palolo with a remarkable gusto. I think she will not be deprived of her fancy dish by many of her visitors.”

There has been much discussion about the palolo, many persons having doubted whether it was ever an annelid, and believing the worms to be mere strings of spawn. The question has, however, been settled, and there is an elaborate paper on the palolo in the “Transactions of the Linnæan Society,” vol. xxii. p. 237.

The worm is allied to the well-known Nereids, several species of which are so plentiful on our own shores. It is flattish, about the sixth of an inch in width, and consists of a vast number of segments. The entire specimen has never been secured, so delicate and fragile is the creature, and it is with the greatest difficulty that a head can be discovered. Among the specimens first sent to the British Museum, not a single head could be found, and among a large bottle full of palolo collected expressly for scientific purposes, only one head was discovered. The head is a little narrower than the joints which compose the neck, and is furnished with two little eyes on the upper surface, between which are placed three tentacles, of which the middle is the longest.

The normal color of the annelid is green, and it is remarkable for the regularly dotted appearance of the back, one black dot being placed on the middle of each segment. So regularly does the palolo make its appearance, that among the Fiji group the months of October and November are known by the names of the Little Palolo and Great Palolo, the former being the month in which it is first seen, and the second that in which it makes its grand appearance.

* * * * *

Marriages in Samoa are conducted much like those of Tonga, the latter group of islands having borrowed many of the Samoan customs. It is thought rather below the dignity of a chief to court a wife for himself, and that office is generally undertaken by his friends, who praise him in the most unmeasured terms, and do all in their power to induce the girl to yield. When her consent has been given, the chief sends property to her father, and receives in return fine mats and other articles, this exchange being considered as the betrothal.

On the day of marriage, the bride, well anointed with oil, colored with turmeric, and dressed in large quantities of the finest mats, is placed in the malae, or open space in the centre of the village, attended by her young friends, who are arrayed in all the gorgeousness of savage finery, with wreaths of flowers and nautilus shells on their heads. She is also accompanied by the two duennas who have had charge of her, and who chant her praises and extol her virtue. The object of this public assembly is to prove whether the girl be worthy to be the wife of a chief. Should the verdict be in her favor, she is presented to the people as the chief’s wife, and, amid their acclamations, is taken into the house by her duennas and attendants. Should, as is very seldom the case, the verdict be adverse, all the male members of her family, even her fathers and brothers, rush on her with their clubs and kill her on the spot, in order to take away the disgrace which she has brought on her house.

After the bride has been led away there is a grand dance. This differs somewhat from the dances which are usually seen among the Polynesians. The spectators being seated in a circle round a cleared space, and keeping up a monotonous chant, the men first enter the circle, led by a young chief, and clothed merely in the little leaf apron, so as to show off the tattoo to the best advantage. Their leader goes through a vast number of steps, sometimes leaping high in the air, and sometimes executing movements of a slower and more graceful character, while every step is watched and criticised as it is danced by the leader and imitated by his followers. After the men have danced for some time they retire, and a number of girls enter, who go through evolutions of a similar character, and afterward both men and women dance together.

* * * * *

The houses of the Samoans are all built on the same model. They are very conservative in some of their ideas, and follow implicitly the plan which was adopted by the chief who, according to their traditions, first built a dwelling. At a distance, the appearance of the house has been compared to a large mushroom.

The first process is, to make a large platform of rough stones, covered with gravel, extending some twenty feet on every side beyond the walls of the house. In the centre are planted three posts, standing about twenty-five feet out of the ground. Upon these central posts are supported the rafters of the roof, one end of each rafter being fixed to them, and the other end to the tops of short posts about four feet high, which form, or rather which do duty for, the walls of the house. Real walls there are none, but at night the space between the posts is closed by blinds made of plaited cocoa-nut leaves. The whole framework of the roof is made in several sections, so that it can be removed.

The thatch is made of the leaves of the sugar-cane, nailed by the women to reeds with spikes made of the ribs of the cocoa-nut leaves. About four thousand leaves are required for thatching a house, and they are lashed carefully with cocoa-nut fibre.

The floor of the house is strewn with very fine gravel and covered with mats. There are no separate chambers, but at night the house is divided into a number of sleeping places by means of the mosquito curtains which are attached to the central post, and let down when required. It is a point of etiquette that all guests should be supplied with clean mats. The pillow used in Samoa is like that of Fiji, and is nothing more than a stick supported on a foot at each end.

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CV. HERVEY AND KINGSMILL ISLANDS

APPEARANCE--WEAPONS--GOVERNMENT.

POSITION OF THE HERVEY ISLANDS -- FIERCE AND TREACHEROUS NATURE OF THE INHABITANTS -- THE CHIEF MOUROOA, AND HIS VISIT TO THE SHIP -- SKILL IN CARVING -- THEIR BEAUTIFUL PADDLES AND CANOES -- THE MANGAIAN ADZE: ITS CARVED HANDLE AND STONE HEAD -- THE MANY-BARBED SPEAR -- THE CLUB AND SLING -- THE FOUR RANKS IN BATTLE -- FEROCITY OF THE WOMEN -- FEUDS AND THEIR CONSEQUENCES -- A MANGAIAN HOUSE -- FOOD -- PROCURING AND COOKING IT -- A RAT HUNT -- IDOLS OF THE MANGAIANS -- THE KINGSMILL ISLANDERS -- LOCALITY AND GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE KINGSMILL ISLANDS -- APPEARANCE OF THE NATIVES -- ARCHITECTURE -- DRESS AND TATTOOING -- WARLIKE NATURE -- THE TERRIBLE WEAPONS OF THESE ISLANDS -- THE SWORD AND SPEAR -- MODE OF GOVERNMENT -- BURIAL OF A DEAD CHIEF.

Eastward of Samoa, and rather southward, lie the Hervey, or Cook’s Islands. The group includes seven islands, the principal of which is Rarotonga, an island between thirty and forty miles in circumference. This island is remarkable for the lofty mountains of the interior, and round it extends a large reef of coral. Some of the islands are entirely coral, and all of them are surrounded by the dangerous coral reefs, at which the coral “insects” are still working.

In general appearance the people bear much resemblance to the Samoans, but seem to be of a more warlike and ferocious character. Indeed, so quarrelsome and bloodthirsty are the natives of this group, that when Mr. Williams visited Hervey’s Island he found that only sixty of the population survived, and a few years later they were reduced to five men, three women, and some children, and these were on the point of fighting among themselves, in order to ascertain which should be king.

One of the principal islands of this group, namely, Mangaia, was discovered by Captain Cook in March 1777. The natives were very unwilling to come on board the vessel, but at last two men put off in a canoe, their curiosity overcoming their terror. The name of one of them was Mourooa, and he was distinguishable by a large scar on his forehead, the result of a wound received in battle.

“Mourooa,” writes Captain Cook, “was lusty and well-made, but not very tall. His features were agreeable, and his disposition seemingly no less so, for he made several droll gesticulations, which indicated both good nature and a share of humor. He also made others which seemed of a serious kind, and repeated some words with a devout air before he ventured to lay hold of the rope at the ship’s stern; which was probably to recommend himself to the protection of some divinity.

“His color was nearly of the same cast common to the most southern Europeans. The other man was not so handsome. Both of them had strong, straight hair, of a jet color, tied together on the crown of the head with a bit of cloth. They wore such girdles as we perceived about those on shore, and we found they wore a substance made from the Morus papyrifera, in the same manner as at the other islands of this ocean. It was glazed, like the sort used by the natives of the Friendly Islands, but the cloth on their heads was white, like that which is found at Otaheite.

“They had on a kind of sandal made of a grassy substance interwoven, which we also observed were worn by those who stood upon the beach, and, as we supposed, intended to defend their feet against the rough coral rock. Their beards were long; and the inside of their arms, from the shoulder to the elbow, and some other parts, were punctured or tattooed, after the manner of the inhabitants of almost all the other islands in the South Sea. The lobe of their ears was pierced, or rather slit, and to such a length that one of them stuck there a knife and some beads which he had received from us; and the same person had two polished pearl-shells and a bunch of human hair loosely twisted hanging about his neck, which was the only ornament we observed.”

After some time, Mourooa ventured on board the ship, but seemed very uneasy at his position, his feelings of curiosity being overcome by those of alarm at finding himself in so gigantic a vessel. He showed little curiosity about the ship and the various objects which it contained, but the sight of a goat entirely drove out of his mind any emotion except wonder, he never having seen so large an animal. He wanted to know what bird it could be, and, as soon as he could get ashore, he was seen narrating to the people the wonders which he had seen on board the great canoe.

All the Hervey Islanders are gifted with a natural appreciation of art, and the inhabitants of Mangaia seem to be pre-eminent in this respect. They lavish the most minute and elaborate carving on various objects, the handles of tools and the paddles seeming to be their favorite subjects. The beautiful paddle which is shown on the 1018th page, is drawn from a specimen in my own collection. It is nearly four feet in length, and the blade is eleven inches wide in the broadest part. The pattern is given as well as can be done, considering the minute elaboration of the original. The opposite face of the blade is even more carefully decorated, and perhaps with a more artistic design. The squared shaft of the paddle is covered with carving, as is also the peculiarly shaped handle.

Another paddle is made in a similar manner, except that the shaft is rounded instead of squared, and decorated at the handle with a row of ornaments which seem to be conventional imitations of the human face (see fig. 2). The wood of which these paddles are made is light, though strong and elastic; and, as the implement is sometimes used as a club, both these last-mentioned characteristics are needed.

Captain Cook noticed the peculiar shape of these paddles, though he does not appear to have handled them, or to have examined them carefully. “The canoe they came in (which was the only one we saw) was not above ten feet long and very narrow, but both strong and neatly made. The fore-part had a board fastened over it and projecting out, so as to prevent the sea from getting in on plunging ... but it had an upright stern about five feet high, like some in new Zealand, and the upper part of this stern-post was forked. The lower part of the canoe was of white wood, but the upper was black, and their paddles made of wood of the same color, not above three feet long, broad at one end and blunted.”

Another paddle was brought to England by the late Admiral Young, and presented to me by his daughter. It is not so large as the specimens which have been just described, but is the most delicately carved specimen I have ever seen. The wood of which it is made is a very rich dark brown, and takes a high polish, so that the effect of the carving is peculiarly good. The blade is covered with a vast number of stars, wonderfully well carved, seeing that the native maker had no compasses by which to take his measurement, and that his only tools were sharks’ teeth and bits of stone. The maker has spared no pains over this trophy of his skill, and, as if to show his own fertility of invention, he has not covered the whole of the shaft with the same pattern, as is the case with the two paddles that have just been described, but has changed the pattern every few inches. I have also a much smaller and shorter paddle, not quite three feet in length, which is made with equal care, but which is not intended so much for use in propelling boats as for ornament in dancing.

The love of ornamentation is displayed in all their manufactures, which are decorated in a manner equally elaborate and artistic. Even their drinking cups, which are made from cocoa-nut shells, are covered with carved patterns of a nature similar to those of the paddles.

The reader will remark that many Polynesians adorn with carving the handles of their tools and weapons, examples of which have been given in the preceding pages. The Hervey Islanders, however, leave no portion of the implement without carving, and, in many instances sacrifice utility to ornament. This is generally the case with the adze handles, many of which are so extremely ornamental that it is not easy to see how they can be useful.

The specimen which is represented on page 1018 (adze magnified), is a good example of such an adze. The lower part of the handle is completely hollow, the native manufacturer having contrived to cut away the wood through the intervals between the upright pillars. As these intervals are not quite the third of an inch in width, the labor of removing the interior of the handle must have been very great, and the work exceedingly tedious. Even with European tools it would be a difficult piece of workmanship, and its difficulty is greatly enhanced by the fact that the native who carved it had nothing but a sharp stone or a shark’s tooth lashed to a handle by way of a knife. This particular specimen has been in England for many years, and must have been made before the introduction of European tools among the natives.

The head of the adze is made of stone, and is lashed to the handle in a way exactly like that which is employed by the New Zealanders, except that it is far more elaborate. As if desirous of giving himself as much trouble as possible, the maker has employed the finest plaited sinnet, not wider than packthread and quite flat, and has laid it on the tool in a manner so elaborate that to give a proper idea of it the artist must have occupied an entire page with his drawing. Suffice it to say that the illustration gives a good general idea of the mode in which the head is lashed to the handle. The sinnet is laid as regularly as if wound by machinery, and the native artist has contrived to produce the most extraordinary effects with it, throwing the various portions into a simulated perspective, and making the lashing look as if there were four distinct layers, one above another.

Between the stone of the adze head and the wood of the handle is placed a piece of very strong tappa cloth, which seems to have been laid on while wet, so that the bands of sinnet have pressed it well together, and aided in strengthening the junction. The end of this tappa is seen projecting on the upper part of the head, just where it is joined to the handle. That such an implement as this should have been intended for use seems most unlikely, and I believe that it has only been constructed as a sample of the maker’s skill. Sometimes adzes of a similar character are made, the handles of which are from four to five feet long, and carved with a pierced pattern throughout their entire length, so that they could not have been intended for hard work.

A similar elaborate ornamentation is found upon the Hervey Islanders’ spears, one of which is shown in the illustration entitled “Spear,” on the 1018th page.

The spear, which is in my collection, is rather more than ten feet in length, and beautifully made. The shaft is very straight, very slender, and highly polished, but without any carving; indeed, it is so slight that it could not bear any pattern to be carved upon it. The ornament is therefore confined to the many-barbed head, which is a beautiful specimen of savage art.

By referring to the illustration, the reader will see that just below the first set of barbs the wood of the spear swells into a slightly oval form. This portion of the head is covered with carving, necessarily very shallow, but sufficient for ornament. Between the various sets of barbs the spear is wrapped with very narrow strips of some reed, which is highly polished and of a bright yellow color, so that the contrast between the dark wood of the barbs and the shining yellow of the wrapping is very striking. In spite of the large size of the head, the spear is well balanced, the length of the slender and elastic shaft acting as a counterpoise; and altogether the weapon is as formidable as it is elegant.

Their clubs are ornamented in a similar manner. Mr. Williams describes one of a very curious form. It was carved like the club, fig. 1, on page 949, but was bent nearly at right angles, rather beyond the junction of the handle with the head, and was ornamented with a great bunch of long and slender feathers. Slings of great length and power are used by these people.

According to the accounts of this missionary, the inhabitants of Mangaia can use their weapons with great skill and courage. They do not try to hide behind trees and bushes, and take their foes by surprise, but boldly meet them in the open field. When two parties meet, they form themselves into four lines. The warriors who compose the first row are armed with the long spears which have just been described, the second rank carry clubs, the third are furnished with slings, and the fourth rank is composed of the women, who carry additional weapons, in case the men should be disarmed, together with a supply of small stones for the slingers. This arrangement of forces is represented in the battle scene given on the opposite page.

Sometimes the women take an active part in the fray. One young chief told Mr. Williams that in one battle he was fiercely assailed by the wife of his antagonist. He told her to desist, as he had not come to fight with women. However, she would not listen to him, and exclaiming, “If you kill my husband, what shall I do?” flung a stone at him, which struck him to the ground. Had it not been for the prompt assistance of his own people, who came to the rescue, he would assuredly have lost his life through this woman’s fury.

The people are apt to be ferocious in battle, and Mr. Williams mentions that several of his converts forgot the maxims of Christianity in the excitement of battle, and killed their vanquished enemies in spite of their entreaties for mercy. In all probability, these people were carrying out some feeling of vengeance, according to the custom of these islands.

Throughout the greater part of Polynesia the friends or relatives of the murdered man are bound to avenge his death by killing the murderer, if they can secure him, or at all events by killing one of his family. The family of the victim then retaliate in their turn, so that when a man goes into battle he mostly has a number of feuds on his hands. Like the Corsican Vendetta, if such a feud cannot be carried out in a man’s lifetime, he bequeaths it to his son, so that it may be carried on for any number of generations.

This savage custom has stood greatly in the way of the missionaries. They found no very great difficulty in persuading the people that to harbor malice against another, who might be totally innocent, was exceedingly wrong, and that they ought to abandon the feud. But the new converts argued that it was very unfair to demand that they should abandon their feuds against others while the feuds against themselves were still in operation.

In their architecture the Mangaians display the same love of carving which has already been mentioned. Mr. Williams thus describes a building which had been erected for him, and which was large enough to hold sixteen hundred persons:--

“It was a fine building, of an oval shape, about one hundred and twenty feet in length. The large posts which supported the roof (eight in number), the ridge-pole, and the rafters were most beautifully carved, and tastefully colored with various native preparations.

“It is impossible, however, so to describe them as to enable the reader to form a correct idea of their appearance, or of the taste and ingenuity displayed in their execution. These posts were twenty-five feet high, and from twelve to eighteen inches square, and when we considered the tools with which the work was done, which were principally old nails, pieces of iron hoop, and a few chisels, we were amazed both at the patience and skill of the carvers. The effect on entering the place was very striking.”

On the shores of this island fish appear to be less plentiful than is generally the case, and the inhabitants are obliged to have resort to various modes of procuring and preserving food. For example, when they have caught a large quantity of flying fish, they do not eat them at once, but dry them in wood smoke, much as herrings are cured among ourselves. They have an ingenious method of catching these fish by night. The boatmen go out in their double canoes, supplied with torches and large ring nets fastened to the end of handles ten or twelve feet long. They stamp on their canoes so as to make a noise, which is communicated to the water and alarms the fish, and at the same time wave their torches about. According to their instinct, the flying fish dart out of the water toward the light, and are easily captured in the nets.

Rats form a most valued portion of their diet. When the missionaries first visited Mangaia, the natives were so fond of this food that they measured all other kinds of diet by comparison with rats’ flesh. Indeed, the flesh of these animals is far better than is generally supposed. Several English rat-catchers have learned by practical experience the value of rat’s flesh, which is said by those who have tried it to be equal to that of the squirrel and better than that of the rabbit. The Mangaians caught the rats by digging a hole in the ground, and throwing bait into it. When a sufficient number had entered the hole, a net was thrown over the mouth of it, and the inmates easily secured.

* * * * *

In RAROTONGA, another island of this group, the rats swarmed in such numbers that they were not only a nuisance, but an absolute pest; and, if it had not been for the pigs which were introduced by the Europeans, and allowed to run wild, the rats would probably have driven the natives out of their villages. At every meal one or two persons were detailed for the sole purpose of keeping the rats from the provisions. When the people sat down in their houses the rats ran over them, and when they lay down to rest the rats had made a settlement in their bed.

At last warfare was declared against the rats, and a number of baskets were made to contain the bodies of the slain, each basket being five or six feet in length. The inhabitants then armed themselves with sticks, and in an hour no less than thirty of these great baskets were filled with dead rats. Even then no diminution seemed to have taken place among these pests. Next, the missionaries tried the introduction of cats, and with some success, but the most fortunate introduction that was made was that of the pig. These animals were brought to Rarotonga for the purpose of supplying the sailors with meat which should supersede the flesh of the rat, and the pigs repaid their introducers by eating every rat which came across them.

When the natives were converted to Christianity, they consulted the missionaries, wishing to know whether the flesh of rats was unlawful food for Christians. They evidently asked this question because they saw that their teachers abstained from these animals. The missionaries returned a very judicious answer to this question, by saying that in their own country rats were not eaten, because the white man had a repugnance to them, but that there was nothing unlawful in eating them, and that the Mangaians might do as they pleased. The people were satisfied with this answer, and contented themselves with passing a law that all Christians should catch and cook their rats on Saturdays, so as to avoid working on the Sunday.

The idols of the Hervey Islanders are very odd-looking things, and would scarcely be recognized as objects of worship. It might naturally be imagined that if these people bestow such pains upon their weapons and implements, they would at least take equal pains with their gods. Yet the gods of the Hervey Islanders are the rudest possible specimens of native workmanship. They consist principally of a staff about sixteen or seventeen feet in length, the upper part of which is carved into a rude representation of a human head. On the staff are laid a few red feathers and a string of beads, which are called the soul of the god. Round the staff and the beads is wrapped a vast quantity of native cloth, so as to form a slightly conical roll about a yard in diameter, and ten feet in length. One of these idols is placed at the bow of every canoe, and whenever the natives are out on a fishing excursion they always make offerings to this strange deity.

THE KINGSMILL ISLANDS.

North-west of the Samoans is a group known by the name of Kingsmill Islands. It consists of about fifteen islands, all of coral, and all lying very low, so that they might easily escape the attention of voyagers. As is always the case with coral islands, the navigation among them is very dangerous. They are mostly very long in proportion to their width, the largest of the group, called Taputeonea or Drummond Island, being nearly forty miles in length, and in many places not a mile in width.

The inhabitants of these islands have a character for ferocity which is not often to be found among this race of Polynesians, and are said to be lower in the human scale than any whom we have hitherto described. Those of one of the group, called Pitt Island, are said to be less liable to this charge than any other, being quiet, peaceable, and not so perpetually at war as is the case with the inhabitants of the other islands.

Their color is approaching nearer to black than that of the inhabitants of Tonga and Samoa, and the people are of more moderate stature than those of the latter group of islands. They are well made and slender, and have black and glossy though rather fine hair. The mouth is large, but has nothing of the negro character about it and the teeth are kept very white. The nose is mostly aquiline, and the hair of the beard and moustache black, and by no means coarse.

It is rather remarkable that the people of Pitt Island are not only more quiet and peaceable than their neighbors, but are also of a lighter hue, approaching in this respect the naturally peaceful though courageous inhabitants of Tonga. Their faces are oval and neatly rounded, and their features delicate. It may be that they have been modified by the mixture with the Samoans or Tongans, who have been blown out of their course by gales, landed on the island, and gradually became absorbed in the community.

Architecture among the Kingsmill Islands is rather distinguished for strength and massiveness than for beauty, the natives preferring to employ their artistic powers on smaller objects, such as swords, spears, and similar articles. The houses vary much in size and form according to their uses. For example, the ordinary dwelling-house of the Kingsmill Islanders consists of two stories, the upper part being used as a sleeping-house, and the lower entirely open. In fact, the houses of the Kingsmill Islands are exactly similar in principle to those of Nicobar, which have been described on page 903.

Some of the houses wherein the chiefs sit and talk among themselves and receive visitors are mere sheds, being nothing more than roofs supported on poles. As is usually the case in Polynesia, there is in every village a central council house, in which the people assemble on stated occasions. It is of enormous dimensions, having a lofty roof thatched with leaves and lined with matting. Several examples of their houses are illustrated on the 1035th page, and the reader will see that the lower part affords a complete and yet an airy refuge from the sun in the heat of the day, while the upper part, which is too hot to be comfortable during the daytime, forms comfortable sleeping-rooms at night.

Dress varies much according to the particular island. Tattooing is practised by both sexes, but the women are far less decorated than the men, the lines being very fine and far apart. The men are tattooed at the age of twenty, the process being always left in the hands of professional tattooers, who, as in other islands of Polynesia, are paid according to the celebrity which they have attained, in some cases obtaining very large fees. They dress chiefly in mats made of the pandanus leaf cut into narrow strips, and dyed brown and yellow. These strips are plaited together in a very ingenious fashion so as to form diamond or square patterns. A small cape, worn, in poncho fashion, with a slit in the middle, through which the head passes, is worn over the neck, and a conical cap of pandanus leaf is worn on the head.

The dress of the women consists of a petticoat of leaf-strips reaching from the waist to the knees, and fastened by a thin rope, sometimes five or six hundred feet in length, made of human hair. On the rope are strung at intervals beads made of cocoa-nut and shells, ground so as to fit closely together, and strung alternately so as to form a contrast between the white shell and the dark cocoa-nut.

* * * * *

It has already been mentioned that the Kingsmill Islanders are a warlike people. War, indeed, seems to be their chief business, and indeed their whole thoughts appear to be given to fighting. Even their principal amusement is of a combatant character. There is nothing which delights the Kingsmill Islanders so much as cock fighting, and large groups of the people may be seen seated in a circle, eagerly watching the progress of the combat which is taking place in the midst. Cock fighting is largely practised in many other countries, but is almost invariably accompanied by betting. The Malays, for example, are passionately fond of the sport, and wager whole fortunes upon it. Betting, however, has no charms for the Kingsmill Islander, whose martial soul is utterly absorbed in the fight, and does not require the additional excitement of betting.

This being the nature of the people, it is natural that their weapons should be of a formidable character. They are indeed exactly suitable to the fierce and bloodthirsty people by whom they are made. Instead of contenting himself with a club or a spear, the Kingsmill Islander must needs arm his weapons with sharks’ teeth, which cut like so many lancets.

The spears and swords which are shown on the 1041st page are drawn from specimens in my collection, and are admirable examples of these extraordinary weapons.

For want of a better word, we must use the name of sword for these weapons, as they are constructed with edges, and are meant more for striking than thrusting. I have often wondered that in none of these weapons that I have seen is the point tipped with a sharp bone, such as that of the sting-ray, or even with a shark’s tooth. Perhaps they are formidable enough even for these ferocious islanders, as the reader may easily infer by looking at the illustration. By the side of each figure is a specimen of the shark’s tooth drawn on an enlarged scale, partly to show the nature of the tooth itself, and partly to exhibit the principal methods by which it is fastened in its place.

On referring to these illustrations, the reader will see that the teeth are not merely sharply edged and pointed, but that their edges are finely and regularly serrated, so that their cutting power is greatly increased. Indeed, the weapons armed with these teeth have such a facility of inflicting wounds that they must be handled with the greatest caution. I have cut myself more than once with them, and visitors who insist upon handling them generally suffer for their curiosity.

Although these teeth are fastened to the blade of the weapon on the same principle, the makers vary the detail according to their own convenience. In the weapon represented in fig. 1, a slit runs along each edge, into which the bases of the teeth fit rather tightly. A hole is bored through the tooth, and a corresponding one through the edge of the sword, and each tooth is fixed in its place by a piece of fine sinnet passed repeatedly through the holes, drawn tight, and neatly finished off. A plaited loop of broad sinnet serves to suspend the weapon round the wrist, and a piece of the hard, ivory-like skate-skin holds it in its place.

The next, fig. 2, shows a much more elaborate weapon, which, instead of consisting of a single piece, has one central blade and three auxiliary blades. Moreover, as the reader may see by carefully examining the illustration, there are four rows of teeth instead of two on each blade, and the teeth are larger and more deeply serrated than those of the other weapon. In this case the maker has most ingeniously contrived to spare himself the trouble of making a fresh tie for every tooth, which, as upwards of two hundred teeth are employed, would have been a very tedious business.

Firstly, he has shaped the wooden blades with four bold ridges, and cut a slight groove along each ridge, so as to keep the teeth straight. Instead of troubling himself to bore holes in the sword as well as in the tooth, he has laid along the edges of each groove a strip of elastic wood obtained from the rib of the palm leaf, which is as hard and elastic as whalebone. The sinnet has then been passed through the holes in the teeth, and over all them palm-leaf strips, so that one piece of sinnet serves to fasten four teeth. As in the other case, the sinnet is exceedingly fine, and is passed several times round the sword. It is observable that in this weapon the teeth have been most carefully selected and graduated, the largest and longest being near the handle, and diminishing equally to the point, where they are comparatively small.

The auxiliary blades diverge more than is shown in the illustration, and it is hardly possible to imagine a more formidable weapon, especially when employed against the naked skin of a savage. In actual warfare the Kingsmill Islander has a mode of protecting himself, which will be presently mentioned; but in a sudden skirmish or a quarrel the sword would be used with terrible effect. As may be inferred from its shape, it is not merely used as a striking weapon, but is driven violently backward and forward against the body of the antagonist, one or more of the blades being sure to take effect somewhere.

The next sword, fig. 3, has the teeth fixed exactly in the same manner as those of the many-bladed sword, as may be seen by reference to the single tooth, where is seen not only the tooth but the strips of leaf stem between which it is placed, and the mode of fastening off the sinnet. The wooden blade of this weapon is quite unlike that of the others, being marked with a rich black graining, to which the glittering white teeth form an admirable contrast.

The last of these swords, fig. 4, is remarkable for the cross-guard. I cannot but think that the maker must have seen an European sword with a cross-guard, and made his own in imitation of it. Otherwise, without the least idea of the object of a guard, it is not easy to see why he should have armed the guard with teeth, especially in the centre, or where they come against the handle, and must be quite ineffectual.

The Kingsmill Islanders do not restrict the sharks’ teeth to the swords, but also use them as armature to their spears. One of these spears, also in my collection, is fifteen feet in length, and about as formidable a weapon as can well be imagined. It is made of a very light wood, so that it may be wielded more easily, and at the butt is nearly as thick as a man’s wrist, tapering gradually to the point. The butt is unarmed, and rounded for about four feet, so as to act as a handle, but from this point to the tip it is rather flattened, like the sword blades, for the more convenient reception of the teeth, which are fixed along each edge nearly to the point of the weapon. The teeth are fastened by means of the leaf ribs. In order to render it a more dangerous weapon, it is furnished with three projections, also armed with teeth, and made exactly like the auxiliary blades of the sword, though much smaller.

This remarkable spear is shown in the illustration No. 2, on the next page, accompanied by sections and a portion drawn on a larger scale, so as to show the mode of its construction. Fig. a represents the method in which the teeth are fastened to the weapon by the sinnet passing through the hole in the teeth and bound down by the cross loop under the little strips of wood. At fig. b is a section of the spear, showing the oval shape of the weapon, and the mode in which the teeth are supported by the wooden strips at each side. It is worthy of notice, that if the jaw of a saw-fish were to be cut through the section would present a wonderfully similar appearance.

In order to show more clearly the source whence the natives obtain such vast numbers of sharks’ teeth, I have introduced a drawing of a shark’s mouth on same page, taken from a specimen in my collection. The reader will see that the jaws are furnished with row after row of teeth, all lying upon each other, except the outer teeth, and constructed so that when one tooth is broken or falls out of the jaw, another takes its place.

In the jaw which is here figured, the teeth lie in five rows, and altogether there are three hundred of them--largest toward the middle of the jaw, and becoming gradually smaller toward the angles of the mouth. The native, therefore, has no difficulty either in procuring the requisite number of teeth, or in selecting them of the requisite shape and dimensions.

That they may look more imposing in battle, the chiefs wear a cap made of the skin of the diodon, or porcupine fish, which, when inflated, is covered with sharp spikes projecting in every direction, and upon this cap is fixed a bunch of feathers. Both sexes fight in battle, and both are killed indiscriminately, women and children being slaughtered as well as the warriors.

The chiefs, of whom mention has just been made, are the principal persons in the islands. With one exception, there is no chief who is looked upon as a king, ruling over subordinate chiefs, each being independent of the other. Government is carried on by a council of chiefs, the eldest taking the first place, and the others being reckoned by seniority. To this council are referred crimes of great importance, while those of lesser moment are left to be punished by the offended person and the relatives. The solitary exception to the independence of the chiefs is in the three islands Apamama, Nanouki, and Koria, which are governed by the chief of Apamama.

Each chief has a mark peculiar to himself, and when a stranger arrives, and can place himself under the protection of a chief, he receives the mark of his protector. The symbol is a very simple one, and consists of a patch on the forehead, made of some colored paint, and a stripe drawn down the middle of the face as far as the chin. Next in rank to the chiefs come the land-holders, and the slaves form the third and last division of the people.

In order to accommodate the council of chiefs and the people in their public assemblies, there is in every village a central town-house, called the Mariapa. It is built very much after the fashion of the Samoan houses, having an enormous arched roof, and the walls being composed of posts and matting. It might be thought from their warlike and ferocious character that the Kingsmill Islanders are cannibals. Such, however, is not the case. It is very true that in some instances portions of a human body have been eaten. For example, if a celebrated warrior is killed, the victors sometimes cook the body, and each eats a small portion of it. This however is done, not from any predilection for human flesh, but from a feeling of revenge, and probably from some underlying notion that those who partake of such food also add to themselves a portion of the courage which once animated the body. Animated by the same spirit, they preserve the skulls of such warriors, and use them as drinking vessels.

The skulls of the dead are always preserved by their friends, provided that they have died natural deaths, or their bodies been recovered in battle. The body is first laid out on mats for eight days, being every day washed, oiled, and laid out in the sunshine at noon, while the friends mourn, dance, and sing praises of the dead. The body is then buried for a time, and lastly, the skull is removed, cleaned, oiled, and stowed away. Each family preserve the skulls of their ancestors, and, occasionally, bring them out, oil them afresh, wreathe them with flowers, and set food before them. When a family change their residence, they take the skulls with them.

In one portion of the Kingsmill group, Pitt Island, or Makin, there exists the most extraordinary funeral ceremony in the world. The body is washed, oiled, exposed to the sun, and wailed over, as already related. But, after the first wailing, it is laid on a new mat spread over a great oblong plate or tray made of tortoise-shell sewed together. A number of persons seat themselves opposite each other on the floor of the house, and support the plate on their knees as long as they are able. When they are tired, they are relieved by others, and thus the body is borne by friends and relations for two years, the bearers relieving each other at intervals. During this time a fire is kept burning in the house, and is never extinguished night or day.

After the two years have expired, the head is removed, and the skull cleaned and preserved, as has been already mentioned, and not until that time are the bones wrapped up in mats and buried. The place where the warriors have been interred is marked with three stones.

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CVI. THE MARQUESAS ISLANDS

DRESS--AMUSEMENTS--WAR--BURIAL.

ORIGIN OF THE NAME -- APPEARANCE OF THE NATIVES -- THEIR DRESS -- THE ELABORATE TATTOO OF THE MEN -- DIFFERENCE IN STATURE BETWEEN THE SEXES -- CARE OF COMPLEXION -- A BLEACHING PROCESS -- A MAN IN FULL DRESS -- MODES OF WEARING THE HAIR -- THE CHIEF’S NECKLACE -- CLOSE SHAVING -- PECULIAR HEADDRESS -- METHOD OF OBTAINING FEATHERS -- ARCHITECTURE IN THE MARQUESAS -- AMUSEMENTS -- DANCING AND STILT-WALKING -- THE AMPHITHEATRE OR PAHOOA -- WAR -- TROPHIES OF VICTORY -- MODE OF WARFARE -- DESTRUCTION OF PROPERTY -- ETIQUETTE OF WAR -- REPLACING A PRISONER -- CANOES AND FISHING -- FLY-FISHING IN THE MARQUESAS -- BURIAL CUSTOMS.

We now come to that very interesting group of islands called the MARQUESAS, or MENDANA ISLANDS. Both these names derive their origin from the Spanish navigator Mendâna, who discovered them nearly two hundred years ago. The discoverer named them Los Marquesas de Mendoça, in compliment to the then Viceroy of Peru, and by many succeeding voyagers the islands have been called by the name of their discoverer.

The character of the islands is rather peculiar, and very picturesque. They are craggy, mountainous, and volcanic, having exceedingly lofty peaks in the centre, which look at a distance as if they were the ruins of vast buildings. Being situated near the equator, their temperature is warm, and, as at the same time they are well watered, the vegetation is peculiarly luxuriant. Like most of the Polynesian Islands, the Marquesas are surrounded with coral reefs; but these are not so large as is generally the case, so that, although the navigation among them is not so difficult as in many islands, the ships do not find that protection from storms which is afforded by the great coral reefs of other islands.

The inhabitants are splendid specimens of humanity, the men being remarkable for their gigantic size, great strength, and fine shape, which emulates those of the ancient Greek statues. One of the chiefs was measured carefully, and was found to be six feet eight inches in height, and said that he knew another chief who was at least a foot taller than himself.

In general they wear but little raiment, a slight piece of bark cloth round the waist being the only garment which they think needful, the place of clothing being supplied by the tattoo. There are many nations where this decoration is worn; but there are no people on the face of the earth who carry it out so fully as do the Marquesans, every part of their bodies, even to the crown of the head and the fingers and toes, being covered with the pattern. The “Tattooed chiefs” on the opposite page illustrate the extent to which the Marquesans carry this custom. This extreme elaboration is only to be found in the men, the women contenting themselves with a bracelet or two tattooed on their arms, and a few similar ornaments here and there. A very interesting description of the tattooing of the Marquesans is given in Langsdorff’s “Travels.”--

“Sometimes a rich islander will, either from generosity, ostentation, or love to his wife, make a feast in honor of her when she has a bracelet tattooed round her arm, or perhaps her ear ornamented. A hog is then killed, and the friends of both sexes are invited to partake of it, the occasion of the feast being made known to them. It is expected that the same courtesy should be returned in case of the wife of any of the guests being punctured. This is one of the few occasions on which women are allowed to eat hog’s flesh.

“If, in a very dry year, bread-fruit, hogs, roots, and other provisions, become scarce, any one who has a good stock of them (which commonly happens to the chief), in order to distribute the stores, keeps open table for a certain time to an appointed number of poor artists, who are bound to give in return some strokes of the tattoo to all who choose to come for it. By virtue of a tapu, all these brethren are engaged to support each other, if in future some happen to be in need while the others are in affluence.

“The same person may be a member of several of these societies; but, according to what we could learn, a portion must always be given to the priest, or magician, as he is called, even if he be not a member. In a time of scarcity, also, many of the people who have been tattooed in this way unite as an absolute troop of banditti, and share equally among each other all that they can plunder or kill.

“The figures with which the body is tattooed are chosen with great care, and appropriate ornaments are selected for the different parts. They consist partly of animals, partly of other objects which have some reference to the manners and customs of the islands; and every figure has here, as in the Friendly Islands, its particular name. Upon an accurate examination, curved lines, diamonds, and other designs are often distinguishable between rows of punctures, which resemble very much the ornaments called à la Grecque.

“The most perfect symmetry is observed over the whole body. The head of a man is tattooed in every part; the breast is commonly ornamented with a figure resembling a shield; on the arms and thighs are strips sometimes broader, sometimes narrower, in such directions that these people might be very well presumed to have studied anatomy, and to be acquainted with the course and dimensions of the muscles.

“Upon the back is a large cross, which begins at the neck and ends with the last vertebra. In the front of the thigh are often figures which seem intended to represent the human face. On each side of the calf of the leg is an oval figure, which produces a very good effect. The whole, in fact, displays much taste and discrimination. Some of the tenderest parts of the body--the eyelids, for example--are the only parts not tattooed.”

As may be seen by the illustration No. 2 on the 1046th page, even the hands are tattooed with the same minute care that is bestowed on the body. Each finger has its own pattern, so that the hand looks as if enclosed in a very tight-fitting glove. The reader will notice the great length of the nails. Among the Marquesans, as among the Chinese, very long nails are esteemed as a mark of rank, being a proof that the wearer is not obliged to do any hard work.

This elaborate ornamentation answers the purpose of dress, and is considered as such. Indeed, it would be useless to undergo so much pain, and to pay the operator such costly fees, if the tattooing were to be hidden by clothing. The men, therefore, wear nothing but a slight cloth round their waists, and the women of rank a similar garment, with the addition of a larger piece which they throw over their bodies to keep off the darkening rays of the sun.

Few phenomena struck the earlier travellers more than the difference in appearance and stature between the men and the women; and the same writer who has just been quoted remarks more than once that it was difficult to believe that the undersized, stumpy, awkward women could have been the parents of the magnificent, gigantic, and graceful men. There is, however, a great distinction between the women of rank and those of the lower orders. As was afterward discovered, the better class of women, who for some time kept themselves aloof from the strangers, being well developed, and of a fair complexion, about which they were very careful, enveloped themselves in their bark cloths, and never ventured into the sunshine without holding over their heads a bunch of leaves by way of parasol.

So careful are they of their complexions, that if they find themselves getting sunburnt they have a mode of bleaching themselves again, which they adopt before all great ceremonies, though at the cost of much time and trouble. They take the sap of three trees, with which they anoint the whole body. The immediate effect of the mixture is to dye the skin of a deep black. The pigment is allowed to remain on the skin for six days, during which time the woman remains within the house. At the expiration of that time she bathes, when all the black dye comes off, and the skin is left beautifully fair.

A woman who has just undergone this process, and who has dressed herself in all her native finery, is a very striking object, her body being gracefully enveloped in bark cloth, her hair adorned with flowers, and her fair skin almost without ornament except upon the feet, hands, and arms, which appear as if she were wearing boots, gloves, and bracelets.

The mode of tattooing is almost exactly like that of the Samoan islanders, except that the “comb” is made of the wing-bone of the tropic bird. The operation is always conducted in certain houses belonging to the professional tattooers, who lay on these buildings a tapu, which renders them unapproachable by women. As is the case in Samoa, the best tattooers are men of great importance, and are paid highly for their services, a Marquesan thinking that he is bound to be liberal toward a man to whom he is indebted for the charms which he values so highly. These men gain their skill by practising on the lower orders, who are too poor to pay for being tattooed, and who would rather wear a bad tattoo than none at all. A considerable amount is generally exacted at each operation, which lasts from three to six months; and so elaborate is the process, that a really complete tattoo can hardly be finished until the man is thirty years old.

By the time that the last piece of tattoo is executed, the first generally begins to fade, and if the man is rich enough he has the pattern renewed. Some men have been tattooed three times, and, as the patterns cannot be made to coincide precisely with each other, the result is that the whole skin becomes nearly as dark as that of a negro. In this state it is greatly admired, not because the effect is agreeable to the eye, but because it is an indubitable mark of wealth. The pigment used in the tattooing is the well-known aleurita, or candle nut, burned to a fine charcoal and mixed with water.

The ornaments worn by the men are more imposing than those of the women. In the first place, they allow the hair to grow to a considerable length, and dispose of it in various ways. For a number of years it is tied in a bunch on the top of the head; but when the man is rich enough to be entirely tattooed, he shaves all the head with the exception of a patch at each side, in order to allow the pattern of the tattoo to be extended over his head. In such a case, the tuft of hair at each side is still suffered to grow long, but is twisted into a conical form, so as to make a sort of horn projecting outward over each temple. Examples of this curious mode of wearing the hair may be seen in the illustration No. 1, on page 1046.

Sometimes a man may be seen wearing the whole of his hair in curled ringlets. Such men are cultivating a crop for sale, as the Marquesans are very fond of decorating with these ringlets the handles of their spears and clubs, and of making them into ornamental figures which are worn on the ankles. The most valued of these decorations are long white human beards, which are grown for the express purpose, and sold at a very high price. The purchaser uses them either as plumes for his head or as ornamental appendages to his conch-shell trumpet. One of these beards is now always reckoned as equivalent in value to a musket, and before fire-arms were introduced was estimated at an equally high rate.

The ear ornaments of the Marquesan men are very curious. An univalve shell, of a dead-white color, is cut into a circular shape, and filled with a sort of cement made of the resin and wood of the bread-fruit tree. Into this cement is pressed an ivory stem, carved with figures in relief, so that the whole ornament looks like a very large white headed nail. The stem is pushed through a hole in the lobe of the ear, so that the head of the nail projects forward, as seen in the right-hand figure of “tattooed chiefs” on page 1046. The name of the ornament is “taiana.”

Ornaments made of whales’ teeth are as fashionable among the Marquesans as among the Polynesians, and are worn by the chiefs suspended round their necks. Wooden ornaments bleached white are also used, and others are cut from shells. One ornament of which they are very fond is made from wood, wax, and seeds. It is in the form of a horseshoe, the framework being made of wood, which is thickly covered with wax. Into this are pressed the pretty black and scarlet seeds of the Abrus precatorius, arranged in rows radiating to the circumference. One of these ornaments is shown in the illustration No. 3, on the same page and is drawn from a specimen in my collection. It measures eight inches in diameter, and is slightly concave on the outside, and convex on the inside. Very great pains have been taken in arranging the seeds; they are placed in a regular series of double rows, the black portion of each seed being pressed into the wax, so that only the brilliant scarlet portion is visible. Upward of eight hundred beads have been used in making this ornament, so that the trouble which is taken by the natives is very great.

Some of the chiefs wear a very curious ornament, which seems to take the place of the hair which they shave from their own heads, and is nothing more than a large bunch of hair cut from the head of a wife. As a rule, the Marquesan removes all hair from the body, except from the head, only one or two of the very old men allowing a few straggling hairs on the chin.

In Langsdorff’s travels an amusing incident occurred, illustrative of that feeling. In those days close shaving was the custom in Europe, so that when the officers went on shore they were found to have conformed to the fashion of the islands. They were talking very amicably together, when suddenly a chief stared intently into the face of one of the officers, and, with horror depicted in his features, rushed forward, and grasped him tightly. The officer naturally thought that he was going to be murdered; but the fact was, that the Marquesan had actually discovered a hair on his face, and was going to pull it out with his shell tweezers.

When they wish to be considered as wearing full dress, the better class of men wear a most elaborate cap, made of fibre, feathers, and shells. First, a broad fillet is plaited from cocoa-nut fibre, so as to pass round the forehead, after the manner of a cap without a crown. On the centre of this fillet is fixed a large plate of mother-o’-pearl, decorated with carving. In the middle of this plate is fixed a smaller but similarly shaded plate of tortoise-shell, and in the middle of that a still smaller disc of pearl shell. Some headdresses have three of these ornaments, as is the case with that which is figured in the Marquesan chief on the 1046th page.

In the fillet are also fastened a number of feathers, either from the tail of the cock or from that of the tropic bird, so that when the fillet is bound on the forehead the feathers will stand upright. The feathers of the tropic bird are greatly prized by the natives, who use them for various ornaments, and display great ingenuity in procuring them. Instead of killing the birds, and so stopping the supply of feathers, they steal upon them when they are asleep, and dexterously twitch out the two long tail-feathers. In process of time the feathers grow again, and so the supply is kept up. I mention the custom because it is contrary to the recklessness respecting the future which is usually found among savages.

The houses of the Marquesans are rather peculiar, especially those of the better kind. The native builder begins with making a platform of large stones, many of them being so enormous that ten or twelve men are required to move them. This platform is from ten to eleven feet high, and about thirty feet long by twelve wide. Upon this is erected the house, which is built with the back very much higher than the front, so that the roof slopes considerably, the back being perhaps twelve or more feet in height, and the front only five feet. The door is naturally small, and no one can enter without stooping. The walls at the end are no higher than that of the front, so that a considerable portion of each end is left open. As, however, the climate of the Marquesas is so equable, this is rather an advantage than otherwise.

The interior of the house is divided into two portions, one of which is left bare, with no covering to the stony floor, while the other part is considered as the dwelling-place, and the floor is covered with mats. The walls are also covered with matting. Near the back wall is the strangely made family bed. Two horizontal poles are placed about six feet apart, and a foot or so from the ground, and the space between them is filled with dry grass covered with mats. The sleepers lie on the mats, resting the back of their heads on one pole, and their feet on the other, and pass the night in this position, which seems to have been invented for the purpose of making the sleepers as uncomfortable as possible. Round the walls are hung the weapons and implements of the owner, such as spears, clubs, stilts, drums, slings, axes, and similar articles. The houses are always placed near trees, so that they may have the advantage of shade.

The Marquesans have a curious custom of erecting small and highly decorated buildings in honor of the children of great chiefs. These buildings are considered as acknowledgments of the legitimacy of the children; and if they were omitted, the parents would consider themselves insulted. They are protected by tapu, and after they are made are not repaired, but allowed to decay. Dr. Bennett, in his “Whaling Voyage round the Globe,” thus describes those edifices:--

“This compliment had been paid to Eutiti’s daughter at Vaitahú a few weeks before our arrival. It consisted of two small huts, neatly built with peeled hibiscus rods, which were covered with white tappa (bark cloth) and stained cocoa-nut sinnet. The interior was occupied by many of the same rods ranged vertically, graduated in height, and entwined with bunches of herbs. The face of the building was ornamented by a few boards, painted with mystic figures in black and red.

“The white and delicate appearance of the hibiscus rods, the fluttering pennants of fine tappa, and the various gaudy hues employed, gave the entire edifice a fantastic and imposing appearance. A low stone wall enclosed the two huts, and within its precincts were several bundles of cocoa-nut leaves placed upright, and intended to represent the tutelary deities of the spot. A striking edifice of the same description had been erected in honor of Eutiti’s son at Anamaihai, the territory of his guardian. It differed from that dedicated to his sister in being placed on an elevated stone platform, as well as in having a long wicker basket placed at the entrance.”

In every village there is a sort of amphitheatre, in which the dancing and similar amusements are conducted. For this purpose the natives choose a sheltered and level spot, surrounded on all sides with rising banks. The middle of the amphitheatre is carefully smoothed and covered with mats, and the rising banks serve as seats for the spectators.

When a dance is to be performed, the mats are laid afresh, and a large amount of food is prepared. The spectators take the food with them, and, seated on the banks, remain there throughout the greater part of the day. The dances are not very graceful, consisting principally of jumping, without moving from the same spot. Various ornaments are used by the dancers, the most curious of which are the finger-rings, which are made of plaited fibre, adorned with the long tail-feathers of the tropic bird. When women dance they are not allowed to wear clothing of any description, and this for a curious reason. None dance except those whose husbands or brothers have been killed in war or taken prisoners, and the absence of clothing is accepted as an expression of sorrow on their part, and of vengeance on the part of the spectators.

They have several other amusements, which are conducted in this theatre, or pahooa, as it is called. The Marquesans are most accomplished stilt-walkers, and go through performances which would excite the envy of any professional acrobat. One of the games in which they most delight is a race on stilts, in which each performer tries, not only to distance his opponents, but to cross their course and upset them. They are such adepts at this pastime that they walk over the rough stones of the house platform with ease and security.

* * * * *

If the reader will refer to the portrait of the Marquesan chief, he will see that the head is not only decorated with the feather fillet, but is also covered with a veil that falls on either side of the face. This is a mark of war, and is worn when chiefs go into battle. The Marquesans do not use the bow and arrow, but they throw spears, sling stones, and use clubs. The slings are made of plaited grass, and are very powerful, often exceeding five feet in length, and carrying stones of a considerable size. The spears are generally about ten feet long, and the clubs are carved out of hard wood, which is made harder by burying the weapons for a considerable time in the mud.

They are fierce in war, and are never satisfied until they have gained a trophy of victory. When a Marquesan kills an enemy, he cuts off the head of his fallen antagonist, tears open the skull, and eats the brain. He then cleans the skull very carefully, adorns it with tufts of bristles, and slings it by a cord to his girdle. When he goes to battle again he always carries this trophy with him, partly on account of the respect in which it is held by his comrades, and partly in order to strike awe into the enemy by the sight of so redoubtable a warrior.

According to most travellers, the Marquesans are a quarrelsome people among themselves, and much addicted to making raids in each other’s districts. These districts are generally divided from each other by natural boundaries, such as mountain-spurs and ridges, many of which are of enormous height, and so steep and precipitous as to be almost inaccessible. The worst part of their mode of warfare is not the cruelty exercised on the vanquished warriors, but on the destruction to property, and the distress indicted on non-combatants.

When one chief intends to make war upon another, he tries to steal by night into the district of his enemy, and silently damages all the bread-fruit and cocoa-nut trees he can find. The former are stripped of their bark, and, though their vitality is so great that they are not absolutely killed by the injury, they bear no more fruit for five years, and thus the whole population are deprived of an essential article of diet, and for a long time are reduced to great straits for want of food.

The cocoa-nut trees are killed after a different manner. The destroyer walks up the tree after the mode employed by these islanders; namely, by applying the palms of his hands to either side of the trunk, and so ascending the tree in monkey fashion. He then bruises with a stone the central shoot, or “cabbage” of the palm, and descends the tree, knowing that it must soon die. The reason for the fatal nature of the injury is, that the tree is an endogenous one, and consequently the destruction of the central bud involves the death of the tree. Sometimes the tree is killed in another way, a sea-slug (bèche-demer) being laid at the root of the “cabbage,” killing the tree as it decays.

Quarrelsome as they are and cruel to the persons and property of the vanquished, they have yet some slight etiquette in war, one rule of which is so curious that it must be given in the relator’s own words:--

“June 18.--Captain Riggs of the General Gates, just arrived from the Marquesas, informs us that he has had a narrow escape of his life there. At the island of Nukahiva, as he was attempting to go on shore, a native chief, assisted by a posse of dependants, seized and carried him off, stripped him of his clothing, and then presented him to the king, an infirm old man, who took him under his protection. That protection, however, could have little availed him, for the sovereign had not power to set the prisoner at liberty unless a suitable ransom were paid for him.

“The captors first demanded five muskets and five barrels of gunpowder, which being agreed to, they rose in their violent extortion, and required more; and this also being conceded, they still refused to liberate him unless their rapacity was still further gratified. The captain then resolutely stood out, and insisted on being set at liberty, at the same time having but small hopes of obtaining it, or any other issue of his captivity except to be killed and eaten by these cannibals, some of whom had conspired to spear him, but the king’s authority restrained their violence.

“At length, however, the terms of ransom being settled, he was ordered to be released; but here an unexpected difficulty arose. The law of the land requires that whoever captures another on board of a boat must, when the prisoner is at liberty, carry him down to the water again, and reinstate him in the same situation as he was found. This the cowardly and treacherous chief, who had readily acted the part of kidnapper, was unwilling to do, lest he should be shot from the ship. The obligation, however, being indispensable, he obtained the captain’s assurance that no harm should be attempted against him, and then performed the ungracious office. When Captain Riggs had reached his vessel, the natives on the shore gave three hideous howls, which were returned by three hearty cheers of the crew.”

Finding that their captive had been so profitable to them, the natives tried boldly to take the ship, and displayed equal ingenuity and daring in their attempt. On the same evening a native was detected in trying to cut the cable, and was shot for his temerity. Finding that an open assault of this kind was useless, the natives, who are wonderful divers, swam off to the ship, carrying with them a rope, one end of which they fastened to the rudder, well under the water, the other end being carried ashore. Fortunately this trick was discovered in time to save the ship, and, had not the rope been seen, the natives would have waited until the vessel weighed anchor, and then have dragged her ashore.

In the above narrative the Marquesans are described as cannibals. It is, however, very doubtful whether they can be justly charged with this revolting custom.

* * * * *

The canoes of the Marquesans are furnished with outriggers, after the custom of all Polynesia, and are well-built and swift vessels. They have, besides the outrigger, a small stage projecting over the stem, on which the steersman stands when the vessel is under sail. The bow of the canoe is much turned up in front, probably for the purpose of acting as a defence to the rowers, when advancing against an enemy.

They are very skilful in the fishing art, both with line and net. They have different modes of using both these implements. When they fish with the line, they sometimes bait the hook, pass the line over the side, and angle in the mode adopted in this country. But when they fish for the albacore, they employ a totally different method, which bears some resemblance to fly fishing, except that the bait is not made to represent an insect, but a fish.

A very ingenious imitation of a flying fish is made by cutting the shape of the fish out of a mother-of-pearl shell, and inserting a long tuft of hog’s bristles at either side to represent the wing fins, and another at the extremity to do duty for the tail. This is armed with a hook, and fastened to one end of a line, the other end of which is attached to the top of a long bamboo rod planted in the stern of the canoe. Sail is hoisted, and the vessel is driven over the waves at full speed, the sham flying-fish leaping and bounding through the air in a manner that wonderfully resembles the action of the living fish. The albacore naturally takes the bait for a real fish, leaps at it, and is caught before it has time to discover the imposition.

Net fishing is carried on in several modes, but the most curious and perhaps the most sportsmanlike plan is that which compels the fisherman to pursue his occupation under water. He takes with him a hand-net and a stick about two feet in length, jumps into the water, and dives among the coral, holding his net over the nooks and crevices with one hand, while with the stick he drives the fish out of their hiding places into the net.

By this mode of fishing great numbers are captured, but the fisherman is always exposed to two dangers. In the first place, there is a chance that a shark may come up unobserved, and carry off a limb, even if it does not kill the man. The Marquesans are such excellent swimmers that they care little for a shark as long as they can see him, and it is only when the terrible fish darts unexpectedly out of a hiding place that they know any real fear.

Sometimes a rather strange circumstance occasions the death of the diver. It has already been mentioned that up to the time when a man can afford to have his head tattooed he wears his hair very long, and tied up in a knot on the crown of his head. Before going into the water, the natives untie the fillet, and allow the hair to float down their backs. It has occasionally happened that a diver, who has thus prepared himself, finds, when he tries to rise to the surface of the water, that his long floating hair has become entangled in the branching coral; and, as he has already remained under water nearly as long as his breath will last, he is sometimes drowned before he has time to extricate himself.

When a Marquesan dies a natural death, his relatives make great preparation for his funeral, including the usual accompaniment of feasting. They send for a “tana,” or priest, who makes a long oration over the corpse, which is then delivered to the relatives, who have a long and disagreeable task before them. They first wash the body thoroughly, and then rub it with cocoa-nut oil, laying it in the sun, and turning it continually. Several times daily the corpse is newly anointed, until at last the combined effects of the sun and oil reduce it to a mummy. Wrapped in cloth, it is laid on a bier, and deposited in the cemetery.

Each district has its cemetery or “morai,” which is adorned with gigantic human figures carved in wood, and similar decorations. It is surrounded by a wall, and held in great respect by the inhabitants of its district. Unfortunately, the inhabitants of other districts hold it in no respect at all, and, when war is declared, try to steal out of the morai the body of any man of rank. When, therefore, war seems to be imminent, the bodies are carried away and hidden, or sometimes buried. A similar custom prevails in many parts of Polynesia, and Mr. Williams mentions an instance where a man climbed an apparently inaccessible precipice with a corpse lashed to his back, placed the body on a lofty shelf, and descended in safety.

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CVII. NIUE, OR SAVAGE ISLAND

ORIGIN--COSTUME--LAWS--BURIAL.

REASON FOR THE NAME OF THE ISLAND -- SINGULAR LEGEND -- THE SAILOR AMONG THE SAVAGES -- APPEARANCE OF THE NATIVES -- A SAVAGE WAR DANCE -- MODE OF DRESSING THE HAIR -- COSTUME OF THE MEN -- A CURIOUS WEAPON -- PRESUMED ORIGIN OF THE SAVAGE ISLANDERS -- DEFEAT OF THE TONGANS -- CODE OF LAWS AND PUNISHMENTS -- CANOE MAKING -- SAILING -- NIUAN ARCHITECTURE -- DISPOSAL OF THE DEAD.

Between the Hervey and the Tongan groups, there lies an island which was called by Captain Cook “SAVAGE ISLAND,” on account of the behavior of the natives, who not only declined his overtures of peace, but attacked him “like so many wild boars.” The native name of the island is Niue.

This ferocity of theirs is due to an ancient custom of putting to death all strangers who land on their shores, a fate from which even their own people do not escape, if they have been absent for any length of time. The history of this strange people has of late years become better known, owing to the exertions of the missionaries, who have discovered that fear rather than ferocity was the cause of this savage custom. They had an idea that their island was naturally free from disease, and that all ailments were brought by foreigners, and they in consequence had a law that all foreigners should be killed as soon as they could be captured.

On one occasion a native teacher narrowly escaped death in consequence of his absence. He was obliged to exert all his powers of eloquence to persuade his countrymen to spare him for a time, so that he might keep himself far away from their residence, and purify himself by the healthy air of Niue.

When Mr. Williams visited the island, he contrived to induce two lads to go off with him for the purpose of being instructed. They were at first very miserable on board, and howled incessantly for the first few days, thinking that the white sailors were cannibals and that they were only carried off to be fattened and eaten. Finding, however, that the sailors were eating pork, and not human flesh, they became reconciled to their lot, and were even pleased at the prospect of seeing new lands. These lads were taken to Raietea, and, having been educated for their task, were sent home again. Unfortunately, soon after their arrival, an epidemic disease spread over the island, and the natives, naturally attributing it to the two travellers, killed them both.

The first white man who landed there since the time of Cook met with a singular fate. A ship was lying off the island, and bartering with the natives. Just as the ship got under weigh, the master flung one of the sailors overboard among the savages, who took him on shore, and held a great debate as to the course to be pursued. Some were for keeping up the old custom, and killing him, but others argued that the man had not landed of his own free will, and that he ought not to be liable to the usual penalty, even though salt water was in his eye--this being the mark of a shipwreck.

After a vast amount of discussion they agreed to a compromise, put him into a canoe, gave him a quantity of bananas and cocoa-nuts, and sent him out to sea. The man contrived to slip on shore again without being seen, and, after hiding in caves for some days, he succeeded in getting on board a whaler that was passing near the island.

The appearance of the natives as they were before the missionaries came to them was anything but prepossessing. Mr. Williams gives a graphic account of an old chief who was induced, after much trouble, to come on board. “His appearance was truly terrific. He was about sixty years of age, his person tall, his cheek-bones raised and prominent, and his countenance most forbidding. His whole body was smeared with charcoal, his hair and beard were long and gray, and the latter, plaited and twisted together, hung from his mouth like so many rat’s tails. He wore no clothing except a narrow strip of cloth round his loins, for the purpose of passing a spear through, or any other article he might wish to carry.

“On reaching the deck the old man was most frantic in his gesticulations, leaping about from place to place, and using the most vociferous exclamations at everything he saw. All attempts at conversation with him were entirely useless, as we could not persuade him to stand still for a single second. Our natives attempted to clothe him, by fastening round his person a piece of native cloth, but, tearing it off in a rage, he threw it upon deck, and, stamping upon it exclaimed, ‘Am I a woman, that I should be encumbered with that stuff?’

“He then proceeded to give us a specimen of a war dance, which he commenced by poising and quivering his spear, running to and fro, leaping and vociferating, as though possessed by the spirit of wildness. Then he distorted his features most horribly by extending his mouth, gnashing his teeth, and forcing his eyes almost out of their sockets. At length he concluded this exhibition by thrusting the whole of his long grey beard into his mouth, and gnawing it with the most savage vengeance. During the whole of the performance he kept up a loud and hideous howl.” On the preceding page the artist has given the reader an illustration of this singular war dance of the Niuans.

These islanders do not use the tattoo, though they are fond of decorating their bodies with paint. Those who come on board European vessels are delighted to be adorned with streaks and spots of red and green paint, especially the latter, which is a novelty to them, and for which they are willing to pay highly. At a little distance, they look much as if they were suffering from some cutaneous disease, but a closer inspection shows that their appearance is partly due to the salt of the sea crystallizing on their oiled bodies, and partly to the multitudinous flies which settle upon them.

The hair is sometimes seen very short and sometimes very long, and this is the case with both sexes. They allow it to grow to a considerable length, and when it is a foot or eighteen inches long, they cut it off, and plait it into thin bands which are worn round the waist. The men prize these ornaments highly, and Captain Hood thinks that the love-locks are exchanged, and are valued accordingly. The younger men do not wear their beards, but the elders suffer them to grow to a great length, plait them, and adorn them with pieces of oyster or clam shell. They know the art of coloring the hair a yellowish red by the application of lime.

As to dress, the men think it quite needless, and wear nothing but the belt round the waist. Some, however, wear a very small apron, only ten or twelve inches square, and this is considered rather in the light of ornament than of dress. They are of moderate stature, rather under than over the middle height, thus forming a strong contrast to the gigantic Marquesans and Samoans. The natural color of the skin is a clear brown, and their limbs are round and well shaped.

In weapons, they use the spear, the club, and the bow, all made well and neatly. They do not seem to invade other islands, and their warfare is therefore waged mostly among themselves. It seems rather strange that in an island only thirty miles in circumference war should exist, but in Niue, the usual Polynesian custom exists of dividing an island into several districts, among which is perpetual feud.

They use a very curious weapon. On their island are a number of caves in the coral limestone, similar in character to that which has been described in page 1006, though not approached in the same curious manner. From the roof hang vast numbers of stalactites, from which water continually drops. Indeed, the natives owe their fresh water almost entirely to these caves, and since the missionaries came to reside among them have learned to collect it by digging wells in the caves, into which the water flows, and so insure a certain instead of a precarious supply. The floor of the caves is covered with stalagmitic masses, and from these the natives make oval balls about the size of cricket balls, which they hurl from the hand with wonderful force and accuracy, not using the sling, as is the case with so many Polynesian tribes. Specimens of these balls are in the Christy collection.

These caves are evidently due to the character of the island, which is partly coral and partly volcanic, the coral having been upheaved by volcanic force, leaving the surface fissured and broken by the sudden violence of the shock. The native legend respecting the origin of the island points to the same conclusion. They state that the island was raised to its present elevation by two of their ancestors, named Hananaki and Fao, who swam there from Tonga, and found the island only just above the waves. They stamped twice upon it, the first stamp elevating the island to its present height, and the second clothing it with trees and plants. They made wives for themselves out of the Ti tree, and so the island became peopled. We may easily see in this tradition a record of the two facts that the island was elevated suddenly from the sea, and that the inhabitants are not aborigines, but emigrants from some other part of Polynesia, probably from Tonga. Though they believe themselves to be derived from this origin, they have been subject to invasion from the restless and daring Tongans, whom they repulsed by an ingenious stratagem. The Tongans, possessed of far better weapons and better disciplined than the Niue islanders, and being equally courageous, were rapidly completing the conquest of the island, when the natives took advantage of the peculiar formation of their country.

The reader will remember that Niue is rocky, and covered with deep and narrow clefts, the result of the upheaval which elevated the island above the sea. Across one of these the Niuans laid small branches, which they covered with banana and cocoa-nut leaves, and then strewed over all a slight covering of earth, which they arranged so as to look exactly like the surrounding soil. They then executed a sham retreat, and slipped round to the further side of the chasm, so that the Tongans, flushed with victory, rushed on their retreating enemies with yells of triumph, and a great number of the foremost and best warriors were hurled down to the bottom of the cavern. Before the survivors could recover from their surprise, an attack was made upon them in overwhelming numbers, and of the whole Tongan expedition not a man escaped alive.

It was formerly thought that the Niuans were cannibals, but, as far as can be ascertained, the natives have never eaten human flesh. They do not even care for animal food of any kind; and, though at the present time they have pigs in abundance, they use them almost entirely for the market to European ships, contenting themselves with bananas, yams, taro, and fish. Strangely enough, they have not imported into Niue the custom of kava drinking, and they stand almost alone in their non-use of tobacco.

Polygamy is still practised among the inhabitants of Niue, though it is fast dying out under the influence of the missionaries, who have further conferred a vast boon on the people by their discouragement of infanticide, which at one time prevailed to a terrible extent. The mere check which they have placed on this custom has already raised the number of the population by more than three hundred--a considerable increase when the small size of the island is taken into consideration.

Even before the missionaries came, a tolerably comprehensive and just code of laws was in existence, so that the Niuans were in reality much less savage than many of their neighbors, and the missionaries had a better ground to work on than in other islands of more promising aspect. Their standard of morality was much higher than is usually the case among savages, infidelity among women being severely punished. So great was their horror of this crime that illegitimate children were always thrown into the sea until the missionaries taught the people that, though the parents might be liable to punishment, the innocent children ought not to suffer.

Their punishment consisted generally in deprivation of food. For example, for some offences, the criminal was tied to a post, and allowed no food except bitter and acrid fruits, while for more serious offences he is lashed hand and foot to a bamboo for a considerable length of time, only sufficient food being given to save him from actually dying of starvation. For these punishments the missionaries have induced the natives to substitute forced labor in well sinking, road making, and other useful works.

The Niuans are good canoe-makers, constructing their vessels very neatly, and ornamenting them with devices in shells and mother-of-pearl. They manage these canoes well, and as a rule are excellent swimmers. There are, however, some families living in the interior of the island who, although they can be barely four miles from the sea, have never visited it, and are greatly despised by their neighbors because they can neither swim nor sail a canoe.

The native architecture is not particularly good, but it has been much improved by the instructions of the Samoan teachers, who have instructed the Niuans in their own mode of building houses, upon which the Niuans have engrafted their own mode of adornment, so that altogether the effect of a modern Niuan house is quaint, and at the same time artistic. The natives seem to be wonderfully quick at learning, and have even acquired the use of the pen, so that a Niuan can now be scarcely better pleased than by the gift of a pencil and a supply of white paper.

Nothing shows the wonderful advance that these people have made more than the fact that they have not only utterly discarded their old habit of murdering foreigners, but that they display the greatest eagerness to be taken as sailors on board European ships. They contrive to smuggle themselves on board without the knowledge of the captain and crew; and whereas in former times it was scarcely possible to induce a Niuan to venture on board an European ship, the difficulty is now, to find a mode of keeping them out of the vessels.

The method of disposing of the dead is twofold. When one mode is followed, the body is laid on a bier and left in the woods until all the flesh has decayed, when the bones are removed to the family burying-place, which is usually a cave in the limestone rock. When the other method is employed, the body is laid in a canoe, and sent adrift in the sea to go wherever the wind and tides may carry it.

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CVIII. THE SOCIETY ISLANDS

APPEARANCE, DRESS, AND SOCIAL CUSTOMS.

DISCOVERY OF THE ISLANDS, AND REASONS FOR THEIR NAMES -- THE ISLAND OF TAHITI OR OTAHEITE -- CONFORMATION AND CLIMATE OF TAHITI -- THEIR EFFECT UPON THE INHABITANTS -- EFFEMINATE APPEARANCE OF THE MEN, AND BEAUTY OF THE WOMEN -- SOCIAL CONDITION OF THE SEXES -- GENERAL MODE OF LIFE IN TAHITI -- SEPARATE TABLES FOR THE MEN AND WOMEN -- POMARÉ’S CRUCIAL TEST, AND ITS RESULTS UPON IDOLATRY -- DRESS OF THE SOCIETY ISLANDERS -- MODES OF WEARING THE HAIR -- TATTOOING IN TAHITI -- MEANS EMPLOYED BY THE MISSIONARIES TO ABOLISH THE PRACTICE -- HOSPITALITY OF THE TAHITANS -- MODE OF MAKING PRESENTS -- SOCIAL USE OF PRESENTS -- THE BAKED PIG AND THE CLOTH -- DISTINCTIONS OF RANK -- REASONS FOR OMAI’S FAILURE -- EXTERNAL INDICATIONS OF RANK -- DEPORTMENT OF TAHITANS TOWARD THEIR SOVEREIGN -- AMUSEMENTS OF THE TAHITANS -- THEIR SONGS AND MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS -- SURF RIDING -- BOXING AND WRESTLING MATCHES.

This interesting group of islands was originally discovered in 1605 by De Quiros, and has derived the name of the Society Islands from the liberality of the Royal Society, which, in 1767, sent an expedition under Captain Cook for the purpose of observing the transit of Venus over the sun. There are many islands of this group, the best known of which is TAHITI, or OTAIIEITE, as the word was given in Cook’s Voyages. This island forms one of a portion of the group which is distinguished by the name of the Georgian Islands, in honor of George III.

Tahiti is singularly picturesque when viewed from the sea, in consequence of its mountainous character, the island being so filled with lofty peaks and crags that the only way of reaching the interior is by following the courses of the valleys. Sometimes the rocks shoot up into sharp and spire-like peaks, sometimes they run for miles in perpendicular precipices, several thousand feet in height; sometimes they are scarped and angular like gigantic fortresses, sometimes they are cleft into ravines of terrible depth, and sometimes they are scooped out into hollows like the craters of extinct volcanoes.

Down these craggy steeps dash torrents that fertilize the soil, and so equably genial is the temperature that every shelf and ledge is covered with luxuriant foliage and gorgeous flowers. Tahiti indeed, as has been well said, is the gem of the Pacific. Our business, however, lies not so much with the island as with its inhabitants--not the semi-civilized people of the present day, but the uncivilized people of 1769, when Captain Cook visited them. In the following description, we will take Tahiti as the typical island of the Society group, merely introducing the lesser islands by way of illustration of the manners and customs which pervaded the whole group.

In consequence of the superior fertility of Tahiti, and the consequent supply of food without the need of labor, the Tahitans are more plump and rounded of form than are the inhabitants of most other Polynesian islands. In the case of the men, the fair skin and plump rounded forms give them an effeminate appearance, and the earlier voyagers have all noticed the strong contrast between the dark, nervous, and muscular frames of the Tongan men, and the fair, smooth limbs and bodies of the Tahitans. The men, too, wear their hair long, and, if it were not that they permit the beard to grow to some length, they would well deserve the epithet of effeminate.

Not only is this smoothness and fairness one of their distinguishing marks, but they also are characterized by a sort of languor in their movements and timidity in their carriage, very unlike the demeanor of the bold and warlike Tongans and Samoans. “This observation,” writes Captain Cook, “is fully verified in their boxing and wrestling, which may be called little better than the feeble efforts of children, if compared to the vigor with which those exercises are performed at the Friendly Islands.”

They are so careful of their complexion that when they think their skins are becoming darkened by exposure to the sun, they have a mode of bleaching themselves. Captain Cook merely mentions that they remain within doors for a month or two, wear great quantities of clothing, and eat nothing but bread-fruit, this diet being supposed by them to have a strong bleaching power. It is probable, however, that besides the diet and the confinement within the house, they also employ some preparation similar to that which is used by the Marquesan women under similar circumstances.

The Tahitans place such reliance on the effect of food on complexion, that they believe themselves to change the hue of their skins several times in the year, owing to the kind of food on which, owing to the change of season, they are obliged to live. They do not, however, like many nations, think that corpulence is a mark of rank and wealth.

That fairness of skin and roundness of form which detract from the manly beauty of the male sex only add to the feminine charms of the women, who are far more beautiful even than those of Tonga, while they infinitely surpass the short, thickset women of the Marquesans. A Tahitan woman would be reckoned beautiful even among Europeans, the skin being fairer than that of many a Spanish girl, and the large full eyes and rich hair having a fascination peculiar to themselves, a charm which many travellers have endeavored to describe, and all, according to their own statements, have failed to convey in words.

Yet the lot of the Tongan women is far superior to that of the Tahitan. As we have already seen, the woman of Tonga is by no means the mere slave of the despotic husband, but is often his true helpmeet and best adviser. Among the Tahitans, however, we find that the effeminate, smooth-limbed, long-haired, fair-skinned man, who would not abide the charge of a Tongan boy, is a very tyrant at home, having no idea that women can be anything but chattels, and beating his wives, his dogs, or his pigs, with equal disregard of their feelings.

The women are not allowed to eat of various kinds of food, as they would offend the gods by so doing, and it is a remarkable coincidence that the gods do not permit the women to eat exactly those articles of food which the man likes best, such, for example, as turtle, and certain kinds of fish and plantain.

Neither are the women allowed to eat with their husbands, but take their meals in a separate part of the house. This prohibition is the more galling because, in a well-to-do Tahitan’s family, eating goes on all day with very short intervals. The family breakfast at eight, and have a first dinner or luncheon at eleven. Thus invigorated, they are able to wait until two, when they take their first dinner. This is followed by a second dinner at five and supper at eight, after which they retire to rest. But as it is manifestly impossible to go without food for twelve hours, they awake at two, take another meal, or “rere-supper,” and sleep again until daybreak.

As to the turtle, a certain sort of sanctity is attached to it. When one of these reptiles is caught, it is always sent to the king, who, however, does not cook so sacred a creature in his own house, but sends it to the temple, where it is offered to the idol. It is cooked in the marae, or sacred enclosure, and, after a portion has been taken by the priest for the idol, the remainder is sent back to the king. Unless this offering were made, the offender would immediately suffer from the vengeance of the offended god.

This custom was exploded by Pomaré about 1820. The king had long believed that the idols were nothing more than images, and that the gods were but human inventions, and determined to try the subject by a crucial test. He waited until his subjects had caught a turtle, and sent it to him according to the custom of the island. Instead of sending it to the marae, he had the turtle taken to his own kitchen and cooked there. It was then served up, and his whole household sat down with him to partake of it. No one, however, except the king, had the courage to eat a mouthful, and even Pomaré himself was in a state of nervous trepidation, and had very little appetite when he came to apply his test. However, he was a man of great moral courage, and though he could not eat much of the royal dainty, he ate enough to bring down upon him the wrath of the god.

Finding that no harm happened to him, he convened an assembly of the chiefs, and narrated the whole of the circumstances, telling them they were free to act as they liked, but that for his part he abjured idolatry from that time. The consequence was, that of their own accord the people voluntarily abandoned their idols, and either gave them to the missionaries, used them as seats, or put them in the fire with which food is cooked, the last proceeding being the very depth of degradation.

One of these raids on the idols was conducted after a very curious manner.

When the converts had reached the temple in which were deposited the idols that they had so long worshipped, their hearts failed them, and not a man dared to enter the house and lay his hands on the sacred images. They bethought themselves, however, of trying the effect of fire-arms, with which they were furnished, and, in the presence of the terrified population, made ready to fire upon the idols. After calling upon the images, warning them that they were about to be fired upon, and calling upon them to avenge themselves if they could, they fired a volley into the house. Finding that no harm ensued, they advanced more boldly, and burned down the temple together with its occupants.

A curious instance of courage similar to that of Pomaré occurred at the island of Rurutu. A native teacher recommended at a public assembly that a feast should be held, and that the king, his chiefs, his people, and their wives should together partake of turtle and pork, both these articles of diet being prohibited to women in Rurutu. The test was accepted, and the party assembled, having by a curious coincidence selected ignorantly a piece of ground sacred to Oro, the vengeful god of war. That any one should eat on so sacred a spot would have been sufficient to draw upon the delinquents the full terrors of Oro’s anger; but that men and women should eat together on the spot, and that women should absolutely eat both turtle and pork, were enormities almost too great to be conceived.

The feast took place, and, as writes Mr. Bennett, “when the Rurutuans saw that, they said, ‘No doubt they will die for this trespass on the sacred ground,’ and looked earnestly, expecting some one to have swollen or fallen down dead suddenly; but after they had looked for a considerable time and saw no one come, they changed their minds, and said, ‘Surely theirs is the truth; but perhaps the god will come in the night and kill them: we will wait and see.’

“One man actually went in the night to the wife of the chief Auüra, who also ate a part of a hog or turtle on the sacred spot, and said, ‘Are you still alive?’ When the morning arrived, and the Rurutuans found that no harm had happened to any of them, they became exceedingly disgusted at their having been deceived so long by the evil spirit.”

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Like many other Polynesians, the Tahitans are of fair complexions, and very well made. Both men and women are good-looking, and many of the latter may be called beautiful, their graceful robe of bark cloth, and the flowers with which they love to entwine their hair setting off their charms in an admirable manner. It is rather strange, by the way, that the women of Eimeo, one of this group, are very inferior to those of the other islands, being darker, of lower stature, and not so graceful, and, as Captain Cook remarked, if a handsome woman were seen at Eimeo, she was sure to have come from another island.

The men dress in rather a variable manner. All wear the primitive garment of Polynesia, namely, a piece of bark cloth passed round the waist, then through the legs, and the end tucked into the girdle. Over this garment many wear a sort of mantle made of finer cloth, gathered neatly round the waist, and sometimes flowing over their shoulders; while others wear the tiputa, or tibuta, a garment made in poncho fashion, with a hole in the middle through which the head passes, and hanging down in front and behind, but open at the sides. This garment is found in a very great number of Polynesian islands, the material and the form varying according to the locality. The bark cloth is made exactly after the fashion employed in Tonga and Samoa.

Both sexes usually cut their hair short, and sometimes crop it so closely at the crown of the head that it looks as if shaven. They anoint their locks freely with scented cocoa-nut oil, or with a resinous gum, which gives it a moist and glossy appearance, and causes it to retain the shape into which it is twisted. Beside the flowers worn in the hair and ears, and the garlands twisted round the head, the women wear a very elegant and striking ornament. They take the very young stipe of the cocoa-nut palm, peel it into long strips, and dry it. When properly prepared, it is of a glossy, pure white, looking much like white satin ribbon, and is worn twisted into rosettes and similar ornaments. The normal color of the hair is mostly black, but in some cases it takes a lighter and reddish hue. In children it is often light, but assumes a dark hue in the course of a few years.

The Tahitans think that the shape of the head is much improved by being flattened at the back. Accordingly, the mothers have a way of supporting their children during infancy by the heels and back of the head, and, as they think that the shape of the nose can be improved by art, they continually squeeze and press it with the hand while it is tender and plastic.

Tattooing was once much esteemed, and the operation was performed by means of a comb and mallet, as has been described when treating of Samoa. Professional artists executed the tattoo, and were accustomed to travel about the islands, remaining for some months at each spot, and being paid highly for each lad whom they decorated. The face was almost invariably left untouched; the bust, legs, arms, and even hands being covered with the graceful patterns. The women also employed the same decoration, but in a less degree, wearing the tattoo mostly on the arms, ankles, and feet, the latter being tattooed nearly half-way to the knees, so that at a little distance the woman looked as if she were wearing boots or socks fitting tightly to the skin. The missionaries, however, discouraged the tattoo, which by degrees came to be accepted as a mark of a revolutionary spirit, and rendered the offender liable to punishment.

Mr. Bennett mentions two instances where old men were tattooed on the face as well as the body, one of them being a man who had been the high priest of the god Oro, the Polynesian Mars, who was worshipped with every accessory of bloodshed and cruelty. This deity, together with other objects of Tahitan worship, will be presently described.

The means that were employed to put an end to the practice of tattooing were of a very severe and rather despotic character, It was found that ordinary punishments were of little avail in checking a practice so much in consonance with the feelings and habits of the natives. Even after they had submitted themselves to the laws which the white colonists introduced, they could scarcely bring themselves to obey the edict which forbade the tattoo, and evaded it on every possible pretext. They would even voyage to another island, nominally on mercantile affairs, but in reality for the purpose of being tattooed while out of the reach of the white men and their laws.

As to the punishment which ensued, the delinquents cared little about it--the allotted task of road making or well digging was completed in time, whereas the decoration of the tattoo lasted throughout life. After trying to check the practice by various penal laws, the new legislators hit upon a plan described by themselves as merely disfiguring the pattern made by the tattoo. Dr. Bennett, however, uses more forcible terms. “The ancient practice of tattooing the skin is gradually declining amongst the Society Islanders generally. The missionaries have been much opposed to the custom, and among the laws framed for these islands was one which made tattooing criminal; but this has since been repealed, or continues in force only in the islands of Huahine, Raiatea, and Tahaa.

“When viewed in connection with the habits of the natives, tattooing is not, certainly, so innocent a display of savage finery as most Europeans imagine it to be; nevertheless, we felt much regret, not unmingled with indignation, when we beheld, in the house of the royal chief of Raiatea, a native woman of naturally agreeable features, disfigured by an extensive patch of charcoal embedded in her cheek--a punishment inflicted upon her by the judges for having slightly tattooed herself. While we were regarding this spectacle a second female showed us her hand, which afforded a similar instance of judicial severity.”

The various figures employed by the Tahitans have each a separate name, and these figures are imprinted not only upon the skin, but upon the bark cloth garments of both sexes.

The Tahitans are naturally a hospitable people, and have invented a complete code of etiquette for making presents, the most curious of which is that which is employed in giving bark cloth. Captain Cook’s description of this custom is very interesting. It is also illustrated on the 1054th page. “I went with Otoo to his father’s house, where I found some people employed in dressing two girls with a prodigious quantity of fine cloth, after a very singular fashion. The one end of each piece of cloth, of which there were a good many, was held up over the heads of the girls, while the remainder was wrapped round their bodies, under the arm-pits. Then the upper ends were let fall, and hung down in folds to the ground, one over the other, so as to bear some resemblance to a circular hoop-petticoat.

“Afterward, round the outside of all were wrapped several pieces of differently colored cloth, which considerably increased the size, so that it was not less than five or six yards in circuit, and the weight of this singular attire was as much as the poor girls could support. To each were hung two taames or breastplates, by way of enlivening the whole, and giving it a picturesque appearance. Thus equipped, they were conducted on board the ship, together with several hogs and a quantity of fruit, which, with the cloth, was a present to me from Otoo’s father.

“Persons of either sex, dressed in this manner, are called atee, but I believe it is never practised except when large presents of cloth are to be made. At least, I never saw it practised on any other occasion; nor, indeed, had I ever such a present before; but both Captain Clarke and I had cloth given to us afterward, thus wrapped round the bearers.”

These cloths are mostly put on the bearers by laying the end of the cloth on the ground. The girl then lies down on the end of the piece, holds it tightly to her body, and rolls over and over, until she has wound herself up in all the cloth that she is intended to present. When the bearers are taken into the presence of the chief to whom the offering is made, they reverse the process, and unroll themselves, by revolving on the floor in the contrary direction.

Food is presented in another way. The donor sends his servants with the hogs, bread-fruit, and other provisions, to the house of the person to whom the present is made. They do not enter the house, but simply spread leaves on the ground, lay the provisions on them, and then return to their master. The donor then enters the house, and calls upon his friend to come out and look at the present that has been brought for him. The latter signifies his acceptance by ordering his servants to carry the food within his house, but utters no thanks.

In most of these cases, it is expected that a present of equal value should be returned, and, if the recipient should be a wealthy man, he would be thought rather shabby if his return present were not rather more valuable. In consequence of this theory, Captain Cook found that when he purchased provisions he got them much more cheaply than when they were presented to him.

In these islands is found the widely spread practice of selecting friends from strangers. When a ship arrives, each of the officers and crew is selected by a native as his particular friend, and during the time of the vessel’s stay is placed under his charge. Every day, the “apoa” or friend will come on board with his present of cooked bread-fruit and other provisions; and should his visitor go on shore, he takes care that all possible necessaries, and even luxuries, shall be provided for him. It is assumed that when the visitor departs he will in his turn make a present; but there have been many instances where the natives have been so grateful for some kindness that they have refused to accept anything in return for their hospitality.

One very graceful mode of giving presents is by offering them in the name of a child. In this case, whenever provisions are sent, they are always accompanied by the child, who is supposed to present them, and to whom all returns are made.

There is a custom--once very prevalent but now become nearly if not wholly extinct--which is evidently based on the same principle. When a man is in want of something which he cannot obtain, such as a new house, or a quantity of cloth, he bakes a pig, and sends it by his friends to all the population of the place. The bearers offer the pig, and mention at the same time the needs of the owner. All those who partake of it, even though they eat but a mouthful, thereby bind themselves to share in assisting the petitioner, either in building the house or in making the cloth.

Mr. Bennett mentions one instance, where a man wanted thirty-six yards of cloth, and sent a pig after the usual fashion. No one, however, would touch it, and the poor man would have gone without his cloth had not the queen taken compassion on him. She ordered the bearers to leave the pig in her house, thereby assuming to herself alone the task of providing the cloth. A number of women who saw the proceeding, felt rather ashamed that the queen should be left to perform the task alone, so they went into the house, ate the pig, and made the desired cloth.

Among the Society Islands, the distinctions of rank are jealously insisted upon, and no one can command any respect unless he be in the possession of some acknowledged rank. Ignorance of this characteristic was the real cause of Omai’s failure. Most of my readers are aware that this man, the first Polynesian who had ever visited England, was a native of Raietea, one of the Society Islands, and that he was brought to England for the purpose of being educated, so that he might act as a missionary both of Christianity and civilization in his native country.

In Captain Cook’s third voyage, Omai was taken back again, after he had been loaded with presents of various kinds. It was found, however, that all that he really cared for was the possession of weapons, especially fire-arms, by means of which he might make himself master of the island. He had several muskets and pistols, together with ammunition, but Captain Cook remarked in his journal that he fancied Omai would be happier without the fire-arms than with them, and expresses a doubt whether he would not have been happier still if he had never been removed from his island.

The result justified these anticipations. No one, except the lower orders, would have anything to do with a man of no rank, and the nobles, who led public opinion, would not even look at him as he paraded up and down, clad in the suit of armor which had been presented to him with more generosity than prudence. In fact, they felt that his possession of all these treasures was a slight upon themselves, and the natural result was that Omai was soon fleeced of all his property, and speedily sank back again into his original barbarism and idolatry.

Tenacious as they are of their rank, the Tahitan nobles show but few external marks of it. Even at the present day, although they have obtained considerable wealth from trade, and though implicit deference is paid to them by their own people, the chiefs, as a rule, dress and fare no better than the generality of their subjects. The fact is, that every person’s rank is so well known, that there is no necessity for indicating it by outward show or luxurious habits, which would only serve to bring upon them the contemptuous epithet of fahié, or conceited.

In illustration of this principle, Mr. Bennett remarks in his “Whaling Voyage round the Globe,” that it was “usual to see the Queen Aimata clad in a loose cotton gown, bare-headed and bare-footed, mingling with natives of every class. Her meals, too, are equally unostentatious, the bread-fruit, poë, cocoa-nuts, and baked pig, intended for her food, being placed on a layer of fresh leaves spread on the ground; while the partaking party display, by the use of their fingers, a thorough contempt for the modern innovation of knives and forks, in the use of which, however, they are perfectly well versed.” This visit to Tahiti was made in 1834.

Nothing, perhaps, shows the innate respect for rank more than the conduct of the Tahitans toward their queen. Personally she was not in the least respected, nor indeed did she deserve respect. Being the only daughter of Pomaré II., and deriving from her birth the title of Pomaré Vahine, by which she was better known than by the name of Aimata, she became queen in 1827, on the death of her infant brother. Her conduct as queen was at first of the most unqueenly kind. She resisted to the utmost the attempts that were being made to improve the moral condition of the people, and did her best, both by precept and example, to bring back the state of unrestrained licentiousness which had reigned through the land. Yet, in spite of her conduct, the respect for her rank was in no way diminished, and, as has been seen, she could be on familiar terms with the lowest of her subjects without derogating from her dignity.

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The amusements of the Tahitans are much like those of other Polynesians, and therefore need but little description. The Tahitans are fond of singing, and possess good voices and ears, so that they have been apt pupils in European music. As a rule, however, they prefer singing the air, or at most a first and second, the more elaborate movements of concerted music scarcely pleasing them. They excel in keeping time, and exhibit this capacity not only in their songs but in their dances. The native mode of singing is not pleasing to an English ear, being of a monotonous character, nasal in tone, and full of abrupt transitions from the highest to the lowest notes.

The native songs are mostly on two subjects, namely, love and war, the former predominating, as is likely to be the case from the quiet and peaceable character of the people. Sometimes their songs assume a more patriotic cast, and set forth the praises of their island home, the beauty of its scenery, and the fertility of its soil. The singers are usually women, whose sweet voices render pleasing even the nasal intonations. The men sing but seldom, and when they do exert their voices, they almost invariably use the harsh native mode of vocalization.

Their musical instruments are but few. They have of course the drum, with which they accompany their songs and dances, not by beating it violently after the African style of drumming, but gently tapping it with the fingers. The drums are of different sizes, and are all cylindrical, and very long in proportion to their diameter. Like many other uncivilized people, they display a great fondness for the Jews’ harp, partly because it is easy to play, and partly because it reproduces to some extent the peculiar intervals of savage music.

The chief native instrument that is capable of producing different notes is a sort of flageolet or “hoe,” which produces a low, deep tone, something like the “drone” of the bag-pipe. The native musician can tune his instrument in a very simple manner. The mouth-piece is split longitudinally, so that the pieces vibrate like those of any “reed” instrument. Surrounding the mouth-piece is a ring of soft wood, and by pushing this forward, or driving it back, the performer can tune his instrument with some nicety, the former movement producing a sharp, and the latter a graver tone.

The hoe is seldom played alone, and is generally used as an accompaniment to the native dances. The performers, after tuning their instruments, sit in a circle, pressed closely together, and, bending forward so that their heads are bowed over their knees, play in admirable time, though as much praise can scarcely be given to the melody.

Following the instincts of the savage nature, the Tahitans are passionately fond of cock-fighting, and amusements of a similar character. Some of them are of a more harmless character. One of the most manly and graceful of these amusements closely resembles the surf swimming of the Sandwich Islanders, and is thus described by Captain Cook:--

“Neither were they strangers to the soothing effects produced by particular sorts of motion, which in some cases seem to allay any perturbation of mind with as much success as music. Of this I met with a remarkable instance. For on walking one day about Matavai Point, where our tents were erected, I saw a man paddling in a small canoe so swiftly, and looking about with such eagerness on each side, as to command all my attention.

“At first I imagined that he had stolen something from one of the ships, and was pursued, but on waiting patiently saw him repeat his amusement. He went out from the shore till he was near the place where the swell begins to take its rise; and watching its first motion very attentively, paddled before it with great quickness till he found that it overtook him, and had acquired sufficient force to carry his canoe before it without passing underneath. He then sat motionless, and was carried along at the same swift rate as the wave, till it landed him upon the beach, when he started out, emptied his canoe, and went in search of another swell.

“I could not help concluding that this man felt the most supreme pleasure while he was driven on so fast and so smoothly by the sea, especially as, though the tents and ships were so near, he did not seem in the least to envy, or even to take any notice of the crowds of his countrymen collected to view them as objects which were rare and curious.

“During my stay, two or three of the natives came up, who seemed to share his felicity, and always called out when there was an appearance of a favorable swell, as he sometimes missed it by his back being turned and looking about for it. By this I understood that this exercise, which is called chorooe, was frequent amongst them, and they have probably more amusements of this sort, which afforded them at least as much pleasure as skating, which is the only one of ours with whose effects I could compare it.”

Like the Tongans and Samoans, these people are fond of boxing and wrestling matches, not only as spectators, but actors. They do not, however, enter into them with the spirit and courage displayed by the more hardy islanders, and there is little doubt that a boxer or wrestler of Tonga would scarcely be able to find a worthy opponent in the Society Islands.

Of these two sports, the Society Islanders much prefer wrestling, boxing being thought rather too rough an amusement, and being apt to leave unpleasant marks on the face of the vanquished combatant. Wrestling, however, is much more common, and is conducted after the following manner.

The intending combatants first went to the temples of their special gods, and laid offerings before them, asking for their assistance in the approaching struggle. They then proceeded to the spot selected for the sports, which had always a smooth surface, sometimes covered with grass and sometimes with sand. A circle of thirty or forty feet in diameter was left clear for the competitors, and around it sat the spectators, the inhabitants of the island or district on one side, and the visitors on the other. All being ready, the combatants enter the arena, wearing nothing but the simple girdle, and mostly having well anointed their bodies and limbs with cocoa-nut oil. The mode of challenge and wrestling has been so well described by Mr. Ellis that I prefer to give his own words:--

“The fame of a celebrated wrestler was usually spread throughout the islands, and those who were considered good wrestlers, priding themselves on their strength or skill, were desirous of engaging only with those they regarded as their equals. Hence when a chief was expected in whose train were any distinguished wrestlers, those among the adherents of the chief by whom the party were to be entertained who wished to engage, were accustomed to send a challenge previous to their arrival.

“If this, which was called tipaopao, had been the case, when they entered the ring they closed at once without ceremony. But if no such arrangement had been made, the wrestlers of one party, or perhaps their champion, walked round and across the ring, having the left arm bent with the hand on the breast, and, striking the right hand violently against the left, and the left against the side, produced a loud hollow sound, which was challenging any one to a trial of skill. The strokes on the arm were sometimes so violent as not only to bruise the flesh, but to cause the blood to gush out.

“When the challenge was accepted the antagonists closed, and the most intense interest was manifested by the parties to which they respectively belonged. They grasped each other by the shoulders, and exerted all their strength and art each to throw his rival. This was all that was requisite; and although they generally grappled with each other, this was not necessary according to the rules of the game.

“Mape, a stout and rather active though not a large man, who was often in my house at Eimeo, was a famous wrestler. He was seen in the ring once with a remarkably tall heavy man, who was his antagonist; they had grappled and separated, when Mape walked carelessly toward his rival, and, on approaching him, instead of stretching out his arms as was expected, he ran the crown of his head with all his might against the temple of his antagonist, and laid him flat on the earth.

“The most perfect silence was observed during the struggle, but as soon as one was thrown the scene was instantly changed; the vanquished was scarcely stretched on the sand when a shout of exultation arose from the victor’s friends. Their drums struck up; the women and children danced in triumph over the fallen wrestler, and sung in derision of the opposite party. These were neither silent nor unmoved spectators, but immediately commenced a most deafening noise, partly in honor of their own clan or tribe, but chiefly to neutralize the triumph of the victors. It is not easy to imagine the scenes that must often have been presented at one of these wrestling matches, when not less than four or five thousand persons, dressed in their best apparel, and exhibiting every variety of costume and brilliancy of color, were under the influence of excitement. One party were drumming, dancing, and singing, in all the pride of victory and the menace of defiance; while, to increase the din and confusion, the other party were equally vociferous in reciting the achievements of the vanquished, or predicting the shortness of his rival’s triumph. When the contest was at an end, victor and vanquished once more repaired to the idol temple, and renewed their offerings of young plantain trees.

“Although wrestling was practised principally by the men, it was not confined to them. Often when they had done, the women contended, sometimes with each other, and occasionally with men. Persons of the highest rank often engaged in this sport; and the sister of the queen has been seen wearing nearly the same clothing the wrestlers wore, covered all over with sand, and wrestling with a young chief in the midst of the ring, round which thousands of the queen’s subjects were assembled.”

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