"SjU 
 
 CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 
)F THE PACIFIC: 
 
 r, The Children of the Sun 
 
 / Lieut-Col. T. R. St-JOHNSTON 
 
 TE DISTRICT COMMISSIONER OF THE LAU ISLANDS, FIJI 
 
 This is an elaborate and highly interesting work by the late 
 District Commissioner of the Lau Islands, Fiji, and in what he 
 has here written the author has striven always to confine him- 
 self to his own experiences, observations and notes, yet naturally, 
 in dealing with so extensive a subject he has found it impossible 
 to avoid reference here and there to the works of other authors 
 *ho have worked more or less in the same fascinating field. He 
 jives outlines of 
 migrations, na- 
 tive and white, 
 into the Pacific, 
 tells about Sun- 
 worship, Ances- 
 tor-worship, and 
 of sun myths. 
 He describes the 
 ships of the early 
 voyagers, native 
 superstitions 
 about ghosts of 
 the dead, their 
 processes of em- 
 balmment, sun 
 sacrifices and 
 various other 
 forms of sacrifi- 
 ces, their canni- 
 balism, totem 
 deas, and many 
 
The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://archive.org/details/cu31924028635989 
 
Date Due 
 
 Qi&J^JMLQ. 
 
 -1- 
 
 li'O^ ,;i 
 
 , «/. »« ^ 
 
 PRINTED IN U. S. A 
 
 ®r 
 
 CAT. NO. 23233 
 
 DU 22S1 C 4 me " Un ' versity Librar v 
 Islanders of the Pacific- 
 
 3 1924 028 635 989 
 
THE ISLANDERS 
 OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 OR THE CHILDREN OF THE SUN 
 
THE ISLANDERS 
 OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 Or THE CHILDREN OF THE SUN by 
 Lieut-Colonel T. R. St. JOHNSTON 
 
 LATE DISTRICT COMMISSIONER OF THE LAU ISLANDS. FUl 
 .Author of The Lou Islands (Fiji) and their Fairy Tales and Folklore, etc 
 
 WITH MAPS AND 32 
 PAGES OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 
 
 1921 
 
(All rights reserved) 
 
 PRINTED IN GRIAT BRITAIN: 
 
PREFACE 
 
 By unwritten law a preface should consist of apologies, 
 so I shall therefore at least be in the fashion. But, 
 I think, it is seldom an author has to apologize for his 
 Greek accents or his spelling mistakes. For the 
 former, on a few words in Chapter XVI, I candidly 
 confess — if they are wrong, and I should be astonished 
 if they are correct — that my Greek has grown rusty 
 since the days when I wrestled with Xenophon, and 
 I am far from the land of dictionaries. For the latter 
 I can but say that distance has likewise intervened 
 to withhold from me the correction of " proofs," and 
 the spelling of Polynesian words will defy any usual 
 proof-reader, learned though he may be. 
 
 There is another matter. While striving always to 
 confine myself to my own experiences and my own 
 observations and notes, I have yet found it unavoid- 
 able in a book of this sort to make reference at times 
 to the works of other authors who have preceded me 
 in the same field, especially when dealing with the 
 early days in the Pacific. Wherever possible I have 
 made due acknowledgment, and should any have by 
 chance been omitted I would here crave forgiveness 
 for the same. And this also applies to the use of 
 photographs for illustrations. In any case, if I have 
 
6 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 used a strange fact or incident recorded by a previous 
 investigator, I have generally attempted to fit a solution 
 of my own to the problem, and after all it is the solving 
 of the riddle that is important. The solution may 
 not always have been correct, but at all events it may 
 suggest a new train of thought to others, more competent 
 than myself, to work at. I remember once hearing an 
 eminent scientist, in rising to speak on a paper that 
 had just been read by one of our coming men, say : 
 " This paper has the great merit of being ' sugges- 
 tive '." And the lecturer told me afterwards that 
 he felt that this was praise indeed. 
 
 I have tried to work out answers to the natives' 
 problems from the natives' point of view ; to put myself 
 for a moment in their place, to think with their mind, 
 and I feel that my long years of residence among them, 
 in some degree, enables me to do this. To have to 
 attack a native problem, shackled by the convention 
 of our own way of thinking, is a great handicap, of 
 which I have tried whenever possible to divest myself. 
 I may not always have succeeded — many of my answers 
 are no doubt wrong — but we are none of us infallible, 
 and least of all do I consider myself so, for ethnology 
 to me is only a hobby. 
 
 But if my scientific methods do not always follow 
 in the beaten path, my interest in the natives is a very 
 real one, perhaps because they appeal to the child that 
 is present in all of us. They are the " Peter Pans " 
 of humanity, and if in governing them we remember 
 this great will be our ultimate reward. 
 
 T. R. ST.-J. 
 
 Antigua, 
 
 British West Indies. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 To many of us the Pacific conjures up visions of sun- 
 flecked coral islands set in an azure sea, of cloudless 
 skies and scented, off-shore breezes ; or perhaps of 
 warm, tropic nights with some shadowy palm-tree 
 (" that giraffe of vegetables " as Stevenson called it) 
 fantastically bowing to the great silver moon, while 
 the distant drum-taps of some village dance, now 
 quick, now slow, come rhythmically floating across 
 the lagoon. To all who have once been swayed by the 
 intoxicating charm of the Pacific there is a memory 
 never to be forgotten, a voice whose seductive call 
 appeals to all alike. To some the magic of it rises 
 even in the years long after, and draws them irresistibly 
 back. I have known the rough trader, who has made 
 enough to live on, at last board with relief a steamer 
 for " home," a country where " a white man can 
 
 live ; away from these d d natives, the heat, and 
 
 the flies." But he has been back again within twelve 
 months. I have seen the ex-civil servant, who had 
 looked forward through all his service to the time 
 when he could retire on his pension to England, come 
 down the gangway of the incoming steamer with a 
 little apologetic smile, " Just to visit the islands once 
 more " ; but his visit has ended in buying a bungalow, 
 a few acres of ground, and a place in the sun ! 
 
8 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 This is the Pacific as we know it, the Pacific as it 
 appeals to the white man. But there is another Pacific, 
 of the time before the white man set foot in it, a 
 closed-in ocean over which the brooding solitude of 
 untold centuries hung like a cloud. There were men 
 living in that world then, men of a mysterious past 
 and origin that has only in recent years been more 
 than guessed at — and the manner of their lives and 
 the race from whom they sprung I have made a small 
 attempt in this book to disclose. It is only a small 
 attempt, and I am only one of many who have been 
 striving to the same end. The whole subject is so 
 vast that if in these pages I shall at least have given 
 some new ideas, hinted at some fresh possibilities, 
 thrown a new fight, however small, on an old subject, 
 I shall feel that my object has been well attained. 
 For without the impetus of suggestion, without the 
 loosening of discussion, the sum of human knowledge 
 would remain at a standstill. Some of my theories 
 will not be acceptable to all — new theories never have 
 been, or they would not be new — but I would remind 
 those who disagree with what I have written that 
 nothing is easier than a destructive criticism, nothing 
 harder than to construct a system which is feasible, 
 rational, and acceptable to all. But on the whole 
 I do not feel guilty of overturning any main principles. 
 
 Above all, I have endeavoured to avoid the stilted 
 dogmatism, the dry-as-dust phraseology, the micro- 
 scopic inquiries of the narrow pedant. The Pacific, 
 taken as a whole, calls for a wide outlook and broad 
 treatment ; taken in detail it is apt to overwhelm the 
 investigator. Though it must never be forgotten 
 
INTRODUCTION 9 
 
 that without the patient investigator of small side- 
 issues the broader treatment would be impossible. 
 This book does not pretend to be more than a popular 
 treatise — " Ethnology from an Easy Chair," if you 
 will — and dealing, for the first time, I believe, with 
 the Pacific as a whole ; and as such I give it for what 
 it is worth. 
 
 In it at least will be found some of my own experi- 
 ences, and in some of the islands as I have found them. 
 And these may be new to the general reader ; though 
 there are very few islands now that some white man 
 or other has not explored. I remember an amusing 
 story told me by Sir Fielding Clarke, late Chief Justice 
 of Jamaica, who once held a similar post in the Wes- 
 tern Pacific. It appears that a certain captain in 
 the Navy, of a scientific turn of mind, was cruising 
 through those waters, and came upon a small island 
 which was named, but entered up as " ? uninhabited." 
 As they dropped anchor they spied a native in a canoe 
 fishing in the harbour, and some houses peeping from 
 among the trees. " Now," said the captain to his 
 officers, " no one is to go ashore till I do. Here are 
 some new natives not yet recorded, and I hope to be 
 able to get some interesting impressions." The canoe 
 crept alongside, and the native called out in broken 
 English : " What feller ship that ? " The captain 
 was disappointed to think that the people must have 
 met whites before, but cheered up at the suggestion 
 that anyhow they would still be very useful scientific 
 material, fresh, and practically uncontaminated by 
 " civilization." So he called out over the side : " This 
 is 'a man-of-war. Come aboard." The simple native 
 
10 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 gave a start, called back over his shoulder, " No b y 
 
 fear," and paddled hastily away ! 
 
 Yes. I fear the islands have all been " discovered " 
 now, and soon it will be too late to observe the native 
 customs in their original state. The missionary has 
 much to answer for, and such vandalism as the follow- 
 ing is unforgivable, because so unnecessary. " The 
 appearance of the females " (says the Rev. Wm. Ellis, 
 speaking of some new converts who had adopted the 
 ideas — and raiment — of " civilization "), " was equally 
 interesting ; most of them wore a neat and tasteful 
 bonnet ! " 
 
 They smashed the carved stone images to powder, 
 and burned the wooden ones. A few of the stone 
 ones escaped, such as those heard of years afterwards 
 used as seats in the church at Raivaivai Island (Austral 
 Group). (Are they still there, one wonders ?) But 
 when we think things over, the missionaries were not 
 entirely to blame. They felt it necessary to remove 
 all danger of the natives reverting to heathenism 
 (their old religion had decayed and degenerated so 
 much that it was high time a newer and better one 
 made its appearance), and a reversion to heathenism, 
 looked at from every point of view, would have been 
 disastrous. That the views of the missionaries were 
 narrow, and their methods crude, was not so much 
 their fault as that of the period they lived in. Had 
 any other set of white men — government officials, 
 planters, what you will — of that ugly Victorian period 
 controlled the natives they would probably also have 
 dressed them in " neat and tasteful bonnets," and 
 taught them to curtsey ! 
 
INTRODUCTION 11 
 
 But the bonnets were only a passing phase. The 
 customs of their forbears were too strong for such 
 innovations. From a scientific point of view, if not 
 from any other, we can be thankful for that rigid law 
 of " custom " in the Pacific that has kept so many 
 of the ancient habits and rites of the people untouched, 
 or at least recognizable, after so many years of contact 
 with the whites. Because of this we are able still 
 to pick up the clues that, added together, have helped 
 us in reconstructing the picture of the Pacific as it 
 used to be, in ascertaining the history of that particular 
 civilization, a history which, if for nothing else, is 
 valuable because in some small way it helps us to 
 understand the history of the civilization of the world. 
 
 And the history of the Pacific, and especially of the 
 Polynesians, shows us a people who have degenerated 
 from a noble race in the past, and who may be regener- 
 ated again, for it is in our hands to do so. There is 
 nothing more harmful, nothing more weak and 
 criminal, than the canting cry : " The Pacific Islanders 
 are dying out ; what is the use of bothering ? " They 
 need not die out. There used to be a vast population 
 in all the island groups. There is no disputing it. 
 Then the inevitable happened. Over-population and 
 shortage of food (for they have never been a provident 
 race, and have always planted food with no thought 
 for the morrow, and with methods of agriculture 
 wasteful to a degree). Then, in Micronesia, for instance, 
 infanticide was a law of the land. Then, infanticide 
 was a custom. 
 
 Moreover, at first they were a peaceful nation. 
 Then, sometimes due to this overcrowding, sometimes 
 
12 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 to other reasons, they became a war-like one ; Mariner 
 shows how wars started in Tonga. Killing was the 
 order of the day. The tide of national decrease had 
 well set in. 
 
 Then came the white man, and another inevitable 
 result. Measles, whooping-cough, all sorts of trivial 
 complaints, attacked them with fatal violence, as 
 worn-out diseases striking new soil will always do. 
 And the decrease went on more rapidly than ever, 
 though the wars were stopped. 
 
 But now the reaction has come. The " foreign " 
 diseases are beginning to become worn-out diseases 
 with the natives too ; and, moreover, the foreigners' 
 doctors and hospitals, and hygiene are stretching out 
 helping hands, and there is no reason now why the 
 natives should not steadily increase, as they have 
 been doing for the last decade in the well-governed 
 colony of Fiji, of which I am now thinking. That the 
 recent epidemic of influenza has undone much of the 
 good work is regrettable, but not unexpected. It 
 played just as much havoc, if not more, in Europe, 
 and proves nothing. 
 
 No, */ the natives are given their chance they can 
 increase, and can be made good and useful citizens — 
 an asset to the Empire — and the matter lies in our 
 hands. 
 
 Some one, I think it was Sir Basil Thomson, has 
 pointed out that there is no reason why a mixture of 
 English and Polynesian should not produce a good 
 stamp of man. I uphold this in every particular. 
 The half-caste boat builder, mechanic, carpenter, is 
 already the backbone of the artizan class in Fiji. He 
 
INTRODUCTION 13 
 
 has the brains, the skill, and the strength. He is 
 lacking only in initiative, in will power, in energy. 
 Give him the education, the impetus, the incentive, 
 and he will prove a power in the land, a fitting one 
 to carry on the evolution of the colony. 
 
 Thinking of Fiji has made my pen diverge into this 
 channel, but what I have said of Fiji applies to the 
 whole Pacific. And the pages of this book will, I 
 trust, explain why a mixture of Polynesian and European 
 — be he Englishman, Frenchman, American— should 
 produce a better stamp of man than a mixture of 
 white man and African negro, or white man and Chinese. 
 Because the Polynesian and the European had in the 
 remote ages of the past one common ancestry, a kinship 
 of common blood ; slight, it is true, and dating from 
 the days of Sun-worship in England, but still faintly 
 discernible in certain little ways. And as to how this 
 came about I will now endeavour to show. 
 
 T. R. ST.-JOHNSTON. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Preface 5 
 
 Introduction 7 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 Outline of Migrations 21 
 
 Different types in the Pacific — Earliest whites — Native 
 migrations to the Pacific. 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 Primitive Forms of Worship 28 
 
 Sun-worship associated with Fertility — And with Fire — 
 the Sky-god — Cremation — The Sun the home of 
 the dead — Ancestor-worship — Disposal of the dead — 
 Evolution of the Pyramid — Sacrifices — The Phallic- 
 cult — The megalithic race. 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 Early Voyagings of the Pacific Islanders . . 37 
 
 The ships of early voyagers — Knowledge of astronomy 
 — And navigation — Lengthy voyages — " Dropped " 
 colonies. 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 Sun-Myths of the Pacific 50 
 
 Checking the Sun — Night swallowing the Sun — The 
 Sun chased by the Moon. 
 
 16 
 
16 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Son-Myths of the Pacific (continued) .... 62 
 
 Communication with the Sun — The god Tane — The god 
 Tangaroa — The fair race — The theft of fire — The Fire- 
 cult. 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 Glimpses of History 76 
 
 The art of writing — A migration from the east ? — 
 Memory-training — Traditions guarded — Traditions 
 tested and checked — Accounts of voyages. 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 Glimpses of History (continued) 95 
 
 Tahiti to Hawaii — Dispersal from Fiji — Tonga to 
 Cook Islands — Samoa to Tonga — The trilithons of 
 Tonga — Tangiia the wanderer — Polynesians to Easter 
 Island — The Menehune people — Human sacrifices — 
 The king-priests — Melanesians to Easter Island — The 
 Semitic influence — Fate of " drifts." 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 Burial Customs 113 
 
 Ghosts of the dead — Platform exposure — And preser- 
 vation of relics — The sanctity of the head — Secret 
 Societies — Embalming — The Fire-cult — Cremation — 
 Canoe-exposure — The " ferryman." 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 Royalty and the " Tabu " 134 
 
 Insignia of royalty — Fans and feathers — Fillets and 
 breast-plates— The red colour— The " tabu "—The 
 " tama " — Water removes the " tabu." 
 
CONTENTS 17 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 PAGB 
 
 First-Fruit Offerings to the Son . . . .158 
 
 The Sun requires sacrifices and " first-fruits " — May- 
 day in England — The Phallic-cult — Brides secluded from 
 the Sun — " Tatu " — Fire- walking — Perpetual fires. 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 Other Offerings to the Sun 176 
 
 The sacred turtle — And pig — Child sacrifices — And 
 adult sacrifices. 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 Cannibalism . . . . . . . .189 
 
 Origin of cannibalism — A cannibal ceremony in Fiji — 
 Tainted meat eaten — Whites eaten — Cause of whole- 
 sale cannibalism — Huge cannibal feasts — Cruelty — 
 Ceremonial ritual influenced by early Sun-worship. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 Totems — Kava — Names 208 
 
 Totem ideas — Object of Secret Societies — Totems 
 usually personal — Kava — Its preparation — Origin of 
 the custom — From the Mediterranean — The bowls 
 were " tabu " — Its association with the Sun-people — 
 Names and their " tabu " — The Koroi ceremony — 
 Literal elevation of Chiefs. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 Stone Remains ........ 324 
 
 Dolmens as sun-clocks — Found in the Pacific — Sacred 
 " pavements " — Evolution of the Pyramid — The 
 " mara " — Stone causeways — Captain Cook's deifica- 
 tion — Temples at Hawaii. 
 2 
 
18 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Stone Remains (continued) 241 
 
 Huge buildings possible by unlimited labour — Stone 
 vaults — Trilithons — Stone house-foundations — Corona- 
 tion stones — Stones animated by the gods — Generative 
 power in stones — Cromlechs — Common likeness of 
 images in the Eastern Pacific — Gods in Central Pacific 
 of unhewn stone — Samoan gods. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 Language and Place-Names ..... 259 
 
 Polynesian language of Turanian type — And the same 
 throughout Polynesia — An " Armenoid " people in- 
 vaded India — And passed on to the Pacific — In 
 Western Asia they had come under Semitic influence — 
 Dialects — Various words traced through to Europe — 
 And Africa. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 Partly Anthropological ...... 274 
 
 Both Polynesians and Melanesians reached America — 
 Geological possibilities — The Dravidians — Connection 
 with the Melanesians — Melanesian evidence in the 
 Eastern Pacific — The Menehune. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 Conclusions ........ 283 
 
 Both Melanesians and Polynesians were Sun-worship- 
 pers — Migrations to America — The Peruvians — The 
 " fair people " — Semitic strain — The " dark people " — 
 Migrations to New Zealand — Migrations from China 
 and Japan — The Malays — And the Europeans. 
 
 Appendix ......... 297 
 
 Brief description of the Island Groups of the Pacific. 
 
 Index .......... 305 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 island canoes ...... Frontispiece. 
 
 FACING PAGE 
 
 IMPLEMENTS FROM THE SOLOMON ISLANDS ... 24 
 
 THE CURVILINEAR ART OF NEW ZEALAND AND ONE OR TWO 
 
 ISLANDS ........ 26 
 
 STONE PYRAMID AT TAHITI . .... 34 
 
 MARQUESAN STONE IMAGE ...... 78 
 
 EASTER ISLAND STONE IMAGE IN BRITISH MUSEUM . . 78 
 
 PERUVIAN STONE IMAGE ...... 78 
 
 LONG-EARED STONE IMAGE, EASTER ISLAND ... 82 
 
 " TATU " OF A MAORI CHIEF : HORI GATA OF TAURANGA, 
 
 NEW ZEALAND ....... 84 
 
 A DANCE IN OTAHEITE, SHOWING " THE LACED, SKIN- 
 COVERED DRUMS." FROM A FIRST EDITION OF CAPTAIN 
 COOK'S VOYAGES ....... 94 
 
 ON THE COAST OF TAVEUNI ISLAND (Fiji). THE MOUNTAIN- 
 TOP HIDDEN IN THE MIST ..... 98 
 
 THE HA'AMONGA, THE GREAT TRILITHON AT TONGA . . 102 
 
 AN OLD MANAHIKI LADY WITH HER HUSBAND, THE LATE JOE 
 THOMPSON, THE AMERICAN HERMIT OF VATU VARU 
 ISLAND . . . . . . . . .Il6 
 
 MAORI CHIEFTAINESS BEING SALUTED (THE " HONGI ") BY 
 A RELATIVE, AND HOLDING THE BAT-SHAPED JADE 
 " MERf " IN HER HAND ...... 120 
 
 NEW GUINEA MASKS ....... I24 
 
 RE-MADE HUMAN HEAD FITTED TO ROUGH MODEL OF A MAN. 
 
 NEW HEBRIDES ....... 132 
 
 WOODEN MODEL OF BONITO-FISH CONTAINING A SKULL. 
 
 SANTA ANNA, SOLOMON ISLANDS .... I32 
 
 MOROS IN THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS ARRANGING " SUN- 
 SHADES " FOR A SPECIAL PROCESSION . . . I36 
 19 
 
20 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 FACING PAGE 
 
 MAORI CHIEF HOLDING " HANI " AND WEARING HUIA 
 
 FEATHERS ........ 138 
 
 A PRIEST, MARQUESAS, WITH MUCH TATUED LEGS, ALSO 
 
 WEARING HEADDRESS OF HUMAN HAIR . . . I38 
 
 PAPUAN CHILDREN, PAINTED, AT HANUABATA . . . 168 
 
 A TATUED MAORI CHIEF, WEARING FLAX CLOAK . 1 72 
 
 ONE IDEA OF THE GREAT SUN-GOD, TANGAROA, THE CREATOR, 
 
 FROM THE AUSTRAL GROUP, TO SHOW THE " BUDDING 
 
 OFF " OF MANKIND ...... 184 
 
 AN EASTERN FIJIAN ....... I98 
 
 BIRD AND FISH CARVING. GAMAL AT AHIA. ULAWA, 
 
 SOLOMON ISLANDS ...... 208 
 
 NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN TOTEM POLE . . . . 2IO 
 
 CARVING, PROBABLY TOTEM, FROM NEW ZEALAND . .210 
 
 DOLMEN IN CORNWALL ....... 228 
 
 DOLMEN IN THE NEW HEBRIDES ..... 228 
 
 MAKING SINNET, FIJI ....... 242 
 
 REPRESENTATIVES OF GODS, COOK ISLANDS . . . 248 
 
 WOODEN GOD FROM COOK ISLANDS ..... 252 
 
 LAU ISLAND TYPE. BLEND OF POLYNESIAN AND MELANESIAN 268 
 
 MELANESIAN FROM NEW BRITAIN ..... 274 
 
 MELANESIAN FROM TANNA ...... 274 
 
 NEGRITO GIRL FROM THE PHILIPPINES .... 276 
 
 NEGRITO MIXTURE. FIJIAN ...... 276 
 
 MELANESIAN FROM MALAITA ISLAND, SOLOMON GROUP . 280 
 
 A MAN OF OPA, NEW HEBRIDES ..... 280 
 
 CAROLINE ISLANDER ....... 282 
 
 GILBERT ISLANDER ....... 282 
 
 ELLICE ISLANDER ....... 282 
 
 TAKING UP THE VESSEL TO CATCH THE PALM-SAP FOR 
 
 " TODDY "........ 294 
 
 Maps. 
 
 SUGGESTED TRACK OF THE " SEA-FARERS ' 
 THE PACIFIC ISLANDS . 
 
 TO POLYNESIA 296 
 AT END 
 
The Islanders of the Pacific 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 AN OUTLINE OF MIGRATIONS, NATIVE AND 
 WHITE, INTO THE PACIFIC 
 
 Every traveller in the Pacific, whether on the beaten 
 routes of the mail-steamers or on the wandering byways 
 of the private yacht, cannot but notice the contrasting 
 types of the islanders he meets, as his ship calls at 
 each of the palm-clad reef-encircled groups set like a 
 string of jewels in that warm tropic sea. Island after 
 island is the same, a faint shimmering haze on the 
 horizon, clearing to a line of black dots with tufted 
 palms against the sky-line, and then merging into a 
 solid mass of cool green with white beaches and scat- 
 tered houses ; with finally the rattling of the hawser 
 as the ship glides to her resting-place in the deep 
 blue waters. But how different are the dwellers on 
 the shores, how different the faces that greet you. 
 Should you be journeying from West to East you find, 
 with certain exceptions, the little dark negroid men, 
 sullen and unapproachable ; then the taller and less 
 dark men, who will show a higher degree of intelli- 
 gence, and finally the tall handsome Polynesians, a 
 
 31 
 
22 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 race of chiefs, fair of countenance and frank in mien, 
 who are among the most hospitable nations in the 
 world. No question of climate, no consideration of 
 fertility of soil in islands such as these, which are 
 practically the same, can be held to account for such 
 striking differences, and the origin of these different 
 peoples has been one of the puzzles of the scientific 
 world since the white man first burst into the confines 
 of the Pacific. I use the word " burst " here as the 
 natives use it, for with their poetical ideas they — 
 so some philologists say — have coined a word for 
 the white man, " Papalangi," J or those who burst 
 through or tread down the sky at the far horizon. 
 It will not be out of place here to mention what traces 
 from myth and legend remain to us of the early appear- 
 ances of the white man into this closed-in world. 
 Bancroft's dictum might well be quoted : " It is now 
 a recognized principle in philosophy that no religious 
 belief, however crude, nor any historical traditions, 
 however absurd, can be held by the majority of a people 
 for any considerable time as true, without having in 
 the beginning some foundation in fact." But we can 
 go further than this in the Pacific, for the oral 
 traditions of the natives are wonderfully full. and com- 
 plete — as they should be when the memorizing of them 
 was a science (nay, more, a part of an intricate system 
 of religion taught by the priests) — and have been 
 found, by tests which will be described in a later 
 chapter, to be extraordinarily accurate, even when 
 
 1 I regard the alternative explanation, given by some people, 
 that the word was a corruption of " Far, far land " which the 
 early whites told the natives they came from, as childish. 
 
LEGENDS OF "EARLY WHITES" 23 
 
 carried back for many generations. There is, by the 
 way, a beautifully carved and polished Maori staff, 
 decorated with symbolic devices, now in the British 
 Museum. This staff was associated with the science 
 of genealogies, and used by the priests in connection 
 with the study of this subject, each protuberance 
 upon it having a special significance. 
 
 Now, Fornander, the famous ethnologist and judge 
 of Hawaii, who lived for nearly half a century among 
 the natives, and married a Hawaiian princess, care- 
 fully studied these traditions and genealogies, and 
 testing them one against another (as the Polynesian 
 Society of New Zealand are now doing), and working 
 backwards along the known pedigrees he found fairly 
 conclusive evidence that about the twelfth century 
 a ship, with whites on it, arrived at Oahu Island ; and 
 this is probably the same ship in which, in another 
 " national historical legend of Hawaii," Paumahua 
 of Oahu " brought back two white gods or priests." 
 Such an unusual event naturally burned itself deep 
 into the memories of these people, and the shadowy 
 tradition of it has been preserved in the priest-lore 
 through all these generations. 
 
 Now whence came these two mysterious white 
 " gods," too early for adventurous Spaniards ? From 
 the West, North, or East ? There was another legend 
 of the Hawaiians that their well-known deity " Lono " 
 was a white god who had left them, but with a promise 
 to return again in a big ship ; and when Captain Cook 
 came — the first white man for many generations — 
 in a big ship, such as they had lost all ideas of, they 
 regarded him with awe as this " Lono " returned 
 
24 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 again to them. (In just the same way in North 
 America there were faint memories of whites who 
 promised " some day to return " ; and these are 
 thought to have been early Vikings.) 
 
 In later, more historical, times a white man and a 
 woman were saved from the wreckage of a big ship, 
 and the probable period of this, by genealogical reckon- 
 ing, is estimated to be about the sixteenth century ; 
 which corresponds to the records that, I believe, have 
 been unearthed in Spain to show that one of the 
 squadron of Saavedra, the Spanish commander, was 
 wrecked and lost in the Northern Pacific about that 
 time. 
 
 Then Captain Cook, when he first called at Hawaii 
 to " discover " it for the civilized world, found a broken 
 half of a metal sword preserved as a great treasure 
 by one of the chiefs. This, among a nation who knew 
 not metal, was a remarkable discovery. (By-the- 
 way, an illustration in this book shows a wooden 
 sword of Melanesia that might have been modelled 
 on the lines of a Roman sword ; and the well-known 
 wooden " sword-clubs " of Samoa are of much the 
 same pattern. The native immigrants to the Pacific 
 are generally thought to have left Asia about the late 
 Roman period, but I think the pattern is probably 
 only a coincidence.) 
 
 Finally, there is the extraordinary puzzle of the 
 famous Hawaiian helmets. These, made of the sacred 
 red feathers closely sewn on to a network covering, 
 superimposed on a basket-work frame, are very like 
 the peculiar shape of an ancient Graeco-Roman helmet, 
 which again was somewhat copied by the Spaniards 
 

 
 * * "* *»~ %> ^ 3? 
 
 
 nil 
 
 gg 
 
 p— — y 
 
 Hi 
 
 :•'■*:'.' -Vi 
 
 ROMAN-SHAPED WOODEN SWORD, CARVED WOODEN FOOD BOWLS, SACRED 
 ALLIGATOR SKULL, AND TWO MAGIC STONES FROM THE SOLOMON 
 ISLANDS. 
 
 {Photo by Author, by permission of the Melanesia!! Mission,) 
 
 To face p. 24. 
 
END OF LEGENDARY PERIOD 25 
 
 of the Middle Ages. It has, however, been pointed 
 out that had there been any close association with 
 the Spanish voyagers there would surely have been 
 found traces, in these long-memoried Hawaiians, of 
 legends of the Virgin Mary or the Cross in connection 
 with these white men, as the early Spaniards made 
 a special point of implanting their religion on the South 
 Sea peoples. But of this there is not the slightest 
 trace. On the other hand, though the Hawaiians had 
 no metal, they had a name for it ; while the helmets of 
 this mysterious Asiatic-sprung race have an even more 
 striking likeness to the head-dresses of the ancient 
 Tibetan priests 1 This was, I believe, first pointed 
 out by Newman, and there is a remarkable pair of 
 illustrations, showing this resemblance, in his book. 
 Sir Hercules Read believes that they were intended 
 to represent a peculiar type of coiffure. Probably 
 the matter will never be satisfactorily settled. 
 
 As regards the known Spanish voyages of Mendafia, 
 Quiros, and others between 1567 and 1606, the romance 
 of these lies in the fact that the wonderful, though 
 much exaggerated, " golden lands of King Solomon " 
 were discovered by them, and lost again for nearly 
 two hundred years, being regarded in the interval 
 by all geographers as a myth, and therefore (literally) 
 removed from the maps 1 With the re-finding of 
 these islands, and the thorough investigation in a 
 scientific manner by Captain Cook of other Pacific 
 groups, the legendary period of " early whites " may 
 be said to cease. 
 
 To return to the native races. Up till a decade or 
 so ago there was a generally accepted idea that the 
 
26 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 natives of the Pacific should be divided into three 
 main classes, Melanesians to the north-west and west 
 of Fiji, Polynesians to the east and north-east of 
 Fiji (and also to include New Zealand), and Micro- 
 nesians to the north of Fiji. 
 
 But Dr. Rivers working in Melanesia, Sir Basil 
 Thomson in the Fiji-Tonga district, and the members 
 of the Polynesian < Society in the various Polynesian 
 groups, have thrown much new light on the subject, 
 though there is still much to be unravelled before 
 any definite and final conclusions can be arrived at. 
 Step by step, in an extraordinarily thorough and 
 painstaking manner, Dr. Rivers, on his expedition to 
 Melanesia a few years ago, dissected out from a mass 
 of heterogeneous custom, myth, and folk-lore, a clear 
 and comprehensive picture of the successive immigra- 
 tions into that part of the Pacific, and after exhaus- 
 tively going into every aspect of the question came to 
 the conclusion that on to the indigenous aboriginal 
 people (probably of a negroid, or even negrito, type) 
 there were grafted three general waves of immigrants, 
 namely (i) an immigration of a people who buried 
 their dead in a sitting position (these probably also 
 extended their migration into Polynesia) ; (2) an 
 immigration of a people who introduced kava-driaking 
 as one of their religious ceremonies (these people held 
 the cult of Ancestor-worship, totemism, and the tabu), 
 and they also extended into Polynesia ; and (3) a final 
 immigration of a betel-chewing people, head-hunters, 
 who sought trophies to offer as sacrifices to their 
 ancestors. 
 
 There were, of course, other special migrations, 
 

 THE CURVILINEAR ART OF NEW ZEALAND AND ONE OR TWO ISLANDS. 
 (By permission of the British Museum.) 
 
CURVILINEAR ART 27 
 
 such as that of the people who brought to New Zealand 
 and one or two other islands the curvilinear art pecu- 
 liar to those places ; and that of the people who brought 
 the megalithic culture (which seems to have been largely 
 connected with Sun-worship) to the Pacific, and it is 
 with these latter people that I have chiefly concerned 
 myself in this book. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 PRIMITIVE FORMS OF WORSHIP 
 
 The great natural phenomenon that must strike the 
 rudimentary intellect of primitive man more than 
 anything else is the daily birth and death of the sun. 
 When the sun is " dead " everything that is bad for 
 man has the upper hand ; Fear, Cold, and a Darkness 
 that causes the loss of one of his few protections — 
 his sense of Vision. But when the sun awakens to 
 a new birth everything is bright once more, his protec- 
 tive sight has returned, shadowy ghosts and night- 
 prowlers are banished, and his limbs are warmed 
 again in the god-given rays. Little wonder that 
 Sun-worship is first of all instinctively felt in a vague 
 way ; and, later on, when the mind of man progresses 
 to a condition that allows of definite connected thought, 
 a real Religion of the Sun is evolved. I say " later 
 on," because I think it is generally admitted now 
 that " Religion " is a comparatively late develop- 
 ment, and that " Magic " is the first thing to call 
 out the mystic element in man. 
 
 When man began to think out things he noticed 
 the life-giving properties of the sun, how the flowers 
 expanded in the sun's rays, how the fruits on the trees 
 
SUN WORSHIP 29 
 
 grew ripe and sweet where the sun's rays shone on 
 them, and how the blood in his own veins coursed 
 more freely when he was warmed up by the sun. He 
 thus began to associate the Sun with Fertility. 
 
 And when, through some lucky accident of lightning 
 striking a dead tree, or the rubbing together of dry 
 branches by the wind, he became acquainted with 
 Fire, which warmed his blood even in the night, when 
 the Sun had failed him, he began to count Fire as a 
 sacred thing, second only to the great Sun, and to be 
 also associated with it in the religion he was gradually 
 evolving. 
 
 Thus probably came about in the dawn of the world's 
 history the ancient Aryan or pre-Aryan belief of the 
 presence of a universal God in the Sky, whose symbols 
 were the Sun (and on earth its nearest counterpart, 
 Fire). And on this, in later times, Zoroaster the 
 Persian founded his cult of the perpetual struggle 
 between Ormuzd, the God of the Sky, and Ahriman, 
 Prince of Darkness. 
 
 This belief in the Sky-god and " Heaven " did much 
 to influence the European descendants of the Aryans. 
 Is not every English child taught that " our Heavenly 
 Father " lives in the sky, and that " when we die we 
 shall go there " ? And some of the primitive nations 
 — on the principle of " similarity," which so greatly 
 sways the undeveloped mind — evolved the idea of 
 cremation, believing that the body would thus be 
 returning to the Sun in the sky, via the Sun's counter- 
 part on earth, Fire. And it is also due to this idea of 
 eventually returning to one's " eternal home " that 
 the souls of the dead always journey " to the West," 
 
80 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 following in the steps of their father, the Sun, as he 
 goes to his home on the horizon to rest. This beautiful 
 idea of the path of the soul to the West was universally 
 prevalent among those peoples who held belief in 
 the divinity of the Sun, and has reached us as a catch- 
 phrase — " going West " — from America, probably 
 originally taken from some of the Sun-worshipping 
 tribes there. 
 
 In very early days, before man increased to the 
 enormous extent he has now, and while he was living 
 in small scattered communities, wandering about in 
 the unceasing search for food, the father of the family 
 must necessarily have held the greatest possible influ- 
 ence. He it was who taught his children to battle 
 with nature, and his slightest wish must have been 
 their law. When they in turn grew up and had children 
 of their own, they would notice, probably be forced 
 to notice, the reverence which their fathers paid to 
 the patriarch of the tribe. And when he died, he 
 by whose advice and counsel they ordered their daily 
 lives, they at first could hardly realize his death, and 
 still called upon him, still expected his spirit to help 
 and protect them. In time, to future generations, 
 he became almost mythical, in fact a god ; hence 
 arose Ancestor-worship. 1 Other succeeding " patri- 
 
 1 " John Adams, of Pitcairn Island, died March 1829. During 
 his life all obeyed him as a parent. ' Father ' was his only 
 title. Shortly before his death he called the heads of the family 
 together and urged them to appoint a chief ; but they looked 
 up to him whilst living, and have appointed none since his 
 death." — Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, vol III. Had 
 these people not learnt to read the Bible, and had they been 
 left undiscovered by the outside world, in a very few generations 
 John Adams would have been a god, and bis grave a shrine. 
 
ANCESTOR WORSHIP 31 
 
 archs," when they in their turn died, would tend to 
 oust him from that position, and cause him to be 
 forgotten, especially among those tribes who wandered 
 afield, away from the tomb ; and thus his memory 
 as the original ancestor would be short-lived among 
 nomad tribes and much stronger among stationary 
 ones. In other words a general and diffuse Ancestor- 
 worship would be found among the nomad peoples 
 who were continually having fresh examples before 
 them, while among the stationary people the one 
 original ancestor would, in time, as his earthly career 
 was forgotten, become less worshipped as an " ancestor," 
 but more worshipped as some mythical divinity, losing 
 eventually his human semblance and assuming some 
 fantastic form. Probably all primitive peoples held 
 originally to this Ancestor-worship, and when a new 
 and more real " religion," such as that of Sun-worship, 
 first was practised by some rather more intellectual 
 tribe, it became vaguely mixed up with Ancestor- 
 worship, and the leaders of the people, they who 
 conducted the ceremonies, would regard the Sun and 
 their Ancestor as the same. The Sun became their 
 father; they were sprung from the Sun. When they 
 conquered other, more primitive, tribes, and fused 
 with them, the people of the first tribe — the masters 
 — would be the descendants of the Sun ; the people 
 of the other tribe — the serfs — would have to worship 
 him also, but not in the semi-intimate and privileged 
 capacity of his " children," as their conquerors would. 
 Thus among the followers of the Sun-cult the " Chief " 
 becomes the son of the Sun, a part of the Sun ; and 
 at his death his tomb is naturally the most proper 
 
32 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 place at which to hold the religious ceremonies and 
 make the offerings connected with Sun-worship ; and 
 this continues long afterwards, even when the tomb 
 has ceased to be remembered as a tomb. 
 
 Of the many ways of disposing of the dead which 
 primitive man adopted, two main ideas stand clearly 
 out : 
 
 (a) The one was to preserve and retain the dead 
 
 body (or if not all of it, at least an important 
 part of it, such as the head or principal bones), 
 thus keeping one's guardian spirit and his 
 beneficent influence near one. The people 
 who did this were naturally those who paid 
 reverence to the protective spirits of their 
 ancestors. 
 
 (b) The other — adopted surely by a different race 
 
 of people ! — was to thrust away the dead as 
 far out of sight as possible, and restrain them, 
 through fear of the malignant influence of 
 their ghosts. 1 
 
 In the former the body was preserved in a house 
 or a vault, or an inaccessible cave, safe from beasts 
 and human foes ; in the latter it was buried, often 
 with a heap of stones piled over it, " to keep it down," 
 as it were. Rivers has pointed out that this idea of 
 restraint was possibly also the cause of the " burial 
 
 1 R. L. Stevenson mentions, in his In the South Seas, how a 
 corpse on Penrhyn Island gave trouble by wandering at night, 
 so the people re-opened the grave and buried him again, but 
 much deeper, and face downwards ! 
 
PRESERVATION OF THE DEAD 33 
 
 in a sitting position " adopted over a large extent of 
 the earth's surface, the body often being trussed up 
 and securely tied, knee to chin. 1 
 
 Now those people who preserved their dead kept 
 them as nearly as they could in the same condition 
 as they were when living, and thus we have all varieties 
 of mummification, from the elaborate embalming of 
 ancient Egypt to the cruder methods of smoke-drying, 
 of continuous oiling, and of puncturing (to tap the 
 fluids and desiccate) found in various parts of the 
 Pacific ; but the same idea underlay all these methods, 
 the minor differences were only due to the different 
 parts of the world to which the people wandered. 
 
 One of the earliest methods of keeping safe the 
 revered body of an ancestor from prowling animals, 
 and yet accessible to his descendants if they so desired 
 it, was to line and roof the grave with stone slabs, 
 and then — so that he should have a house for his future 
 existence — to build a rough shelter of boughs, covering 
 the whole with earth or sand to keep it firm and secure. 
 In time this mound became improved by facing it 
 with stones, and thus the idea of the pyramid was 
 developed, generally with a passage-way on the east 
 side to allow of access to the dead ancestor by his 
 descendants, and on the west side of egress for his 
 soul on its journey to its final home. It is noteworthy 
 that nearly all the pyramid-makers left the passage- 
 way or slanting shaft at the west side, so that the 
 
 1 This trussed-up position is of course found in the tumuli in 
 our own country, the bodies lying on the side. Can the whole 
 idea be to imply the position of a foetus, a primitive suggestion 
 of rebirth in the next world ? The articles placed for use in the 
 next world show that such an existence was believed in. 
 
 3 
 
34, THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 soul (or that portion of it that left this world for ever) 
 should have no difficulty in going to its home in the 
 West. This pyramid idea became naturally more 
 associated with countries where the pile of dry sand 
 would blow away if not faced with stone. In other 
 countries where solid earth could be used the masonry 
 covering of the tomb was not so important, more 
 attention being devoted to the enclosure where the 
 worshippers were stationed (which was probably 
 originally just a rough surrounding wall to keep away 
 wandering beasts). And this difference of soil and 
 climate may possibly be the explanation of the atten- 
 tion paid to the surrounding wall of great stones at 
 such places as Stonehenge, as opposed to the elaboration 
 of the pyramid or tomb itself, as in Egypt or Mexico. 
 But in both forms the really important matter was 
 the proper orientation of the tomb. 
 
 To return to the question of the ceremonies and 
 offerings connected with Sun-worship. To propitiate 
 the Sun was naturally of the utmost importance, as 
 the fertility of the earth — and therefore the lives of 
 the human race — depended on it, and no offering could 
 be too great to give. Thus it came about that the 
 offering of a human being, the highest gift that we 
 poor atoms on earth could give, became the recog- 
 nized sacrifice. And Sir James Frazer considers that 
 when in Mexico the priest, standing at the altar on 
 the Sun's Pyramid, held up the still bleeding heart 
 of the victim to the Sun, it was being offered with the 
 idea of giving the Sun a new lease of life, that as the 
 
BntfMj 
 
ORIGIN OF PHALLISM 35 
 
 Sun had expanded a certain portion of his vital sub- 
 stance in giving warmth and life and fertility to the 
 earth, it was necessary to give back to it some important 
 vital substance from this world, and what more sym- 
 bolic of this than the living heart of man ? 
 
 It has been shown that Fertility was closely connected 
 with Sun-worship, and this is of course the origin of 
 the Phallic-cult that became so marked among certain 
 peoples, the large monoliths being in many instances 
 simply meant as a phallus, set up to be used for religious 
 rites at the seasons when the food-planting or harvest- 
 ing turned men's attention to the importance of the cult. 
 
 Supposing that in very early days there was one people 
 who kept as their central idea the worship of the Sun, 
 and who conducted that worship at places marked by 
 big stone structures, whether tombs, pyramids, or 
 monoliths, and who associated it, but not so strongly, 
 with Fire-worship, Ancestor-worship, and Phallic- 
 worship, it is probable that on their splitting up and 
 wandering to various parts of the world, or forming 
 distant colonies, their descendants in one place might 
 evolve to a greater degree the aspect of Fire-worship, 
 others that of the Phallic-cult, and others that of 
 Ancestor-worship, some of them even relegating the 
 prime idea, the worship of the Sun, to an insignifi- 
 cant place in their religion. 
 
 Any trace, therefore, of these people may be picked 
 up in quite unexpected places, and if we always keep 
 the main theme before us such a clue may lead us to 
 other traces which will corroborate the first one and 
 help us to fit the puzzle together in a way we little 
 hoped when we set about the task. 
 
36 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 Now the obvious and evident remains of such a 
 people may be seen along the coasts of Europe, from 
 Scandinavia, Great Britain, and France, right round 
 the shores of the Mediterranean, touching at Egypt, 
 Persia, and India, and reaching to the Indonesian 
 Islands, and beyond. Essentially a maritime race, 
 though one branch of them seems to have made its 
 way overland through Siberia, and possibly via the 
 Behring Straits, to America. 
 
 During the period of the known history of the white 
 man in the Pacific, extending over the last three hundred 
 and fifty years, there have been occasional references 
 by passing travellers to certain unexplained big stone 
 remains (the stone images of Easter Island, the sub- 
 merged " cities " of the Carolines, and the great 
 trilithons of Tonga at once occur to one), and also to 
 the many curious customs and folk-stories of the 
 inhabitants, but it is only of recent years that they 
 have begun to attract scientific interest, and to cause 
 speculation to arise as to whether there may not possi- 
 bly have been some connection of these Pacific Islanders 
 with the other great stone builders of the ancient 
 world. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 EARLY VOYAGINGS OF THE PACIFIC 
 ISLANDERS 
 
 The day when man first found a gold nugget, discovered 
 that it was malleable, and also that it would take a 
 glittering polish, marked the birth of a new era for 
 the world. For here was an ornament that he could 
 easily alter to any shape that pleased him, and more- 
 over one that, owing to its scarcity, his rivals were 
 unlikely to copy — which probably pleased him still 
 more, for man's sentiments have changed but little 
 through the ages ! From that day there gradually 
 grew that feverish lust for the yellow metal that has 
 lasted down to our time, and will probably last for 
 countless ages yet to come. And another gift of nature 
 which, owing to its combined beauty and rarity, was 
 highly valued as an ornament was the jewel of the 
 seas, the pearl. 
 
 So for these two things men risked their lives and 
 wandered to the farthest limits of the then known 
 world, ever pushing onwards, with their eyes strained 
 towards the prizes before them. Professor Elliot- 
 Smith and Mr. Perry have laid great stress on these 
 causes of the earlier migrations of man, and have shown 
 how their influence drew the wanderers on as far as 
 
88 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 Africa on the one hand, and Indonesia and the coral 
 seas on the other. 
 
 Has not the mind of every schoolboy been stirred 
 to flights of fancy by the stories of Ophir, the ships of 
 Solomon, and the great stores of gold and jewels they 
 brought to the king ? For centuries men have sought 
 in vain to find the source of this wealth, for untold 
 generations have adventurers penetrated Africa, Arabia, 
 and the East searching for traces of the lost land. 
 It was, indeed, in order to persuade the king and 
 nobles of Spain to go to the expense of fitting out 
 another expedition that Mendafia called his new islands 
 " the Land of Solomon " — surely a very early instance 
 of company promoting ! It is considered that Ophir 
 may have been merely a trading and collecting centre, 
 possibly on the Indian coast ; but there is little doubt 
 that the seafarers, all cousins of one ancient race, 
 who wandered in search of the gold, ploughed their 
 way in all directions through the lonely oceans, North, 
 South, and East ; and planted colonies and left stone 
 monuments in Britain, Ireland, and the French coasts, 
 along the shores of Africa (and up-country into 
 Mashonaland), and across to Persia, India, and " the 
 Golden Chersonese " which was probably one of the 
 islands of Indonesia, or else the Malay Peninsula. 
 These same people no doubt introduced new ideas 
 into Egypt, and took away Egyptian customs in 
 exchange, so that when we find the Egyptian Hawk-god 
 carved over the entrance to the mines at Zimbabwe 
 it does not at all follow that Egyptians must have 
 set it there. It was a people who mined and sought 
 for gold, who built great stone-walled morticed temples, 
 
LARGE ANCIENT SHIPS 39 
 
 of a type which I shall presently show they built in other 
 parts of the world, and who worshipped the Sun. A 
 people who, from regarding the pearl-shell as an 
 emblem of their trade, came to regard it in time as a 
 religious symbol, and who buried certain of their dead 
 with a pearl-shell beneath the head, skeletons thus 
 buried having been discovered as far apart as Etruria 
 in Europe and Pitcairn Island in the Pacific ; while 
 to this day a portion of the New Britain people must 
 present a pearl-shell with all their offerings at cere- 
 monial functions. 1 It is quite possible also that the 
 use of a pearl-shell by the holy Palmers on their 
 pilgrimages may have had some forgotten connection 
 with this custom. 
 
 * * * * 
 
 Now if it is suggested that these people sailed to 
 such distant places across the great seas at a period 
 of time many hundreds of years ago, it must be clearly 
 shown that they had ships capable of facing the storms 
 and perils of the voyage, and a knowledge of naviga- 
 tion to reach their destination. Till recent years it 
 has been customary to think of the ships of early man 
 as being of but the rudest type, mere skiffs for smooth 
 water, sailing in sight of land. But antiquarian research 
 has found that the peoples of ancient civilizations 
 
 i Also at Faka-ofu Island, in the Union Group, over 2,000 
 miles to the East, the pearl-shell is an essential part of all reli- 
 gious rites. And for the connection between the pearl-shell 
 and the Sun-cult, see the myth on page 54 about Monuia. And 
 a most important link is the Maori tradition quoted by S. P. 
 Smith, of a fair people called the Patu-pai-arche, which I am 
 inclined to translate as the " Stone-cult, pearl-shell-cult, chiefs " ; 
 Patu or Vatu being Stone, pai being Pearl-shell, and arche 
 the same as Ariki — chiefs. 
 
40 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 had far larger vessels than we ever imagined them to 
 have, vessels that could take big cargoes and carry 
 many men, vessels sheathed with metal for use in 
 tropical waters, 1 vessels that could sail up to the wind 
 in a way that Nelson's captains would have envied. 
 
 Ptolemy Philopater possessed a ship 420 feet long, 
 57 feet wide, rowed by forty banks of oars. This monster 
 vessel is stated to have carried on one occasion 3,000 
 soldiers on the decks, 400 sailors to manage the sails, 
 and 4,000 slaves to row the sweeps ! This was of 
 course exceptional, but there were many ships of one 
 to two hundred feet in length, of great sail-spread, 
 and skilfully navigated ; ships that would have been 
 giants to the puny barques of Christopher Columbus. 
 In fact, with the decay of ancient civilizations the 
 art of ship-building decayed also, just as one can see 
 at this day the native vessels of the Pacific dwindling 
 in size with the degeneration of the people. Great 
 ships sailed the Pacific in the lost ages ; native tradi- 
 tions tell of lengthy voyages of months' duration, 
 in three-masted ships, with many people, animals, 
 and household goods on board. As late as the eighteenth 
 century Captain Cook records a two-masted ship 
 108 feet long used by the Hawaiians ; in the middle 
 of the nineteenth century the Rev. Wm. Ellis found 
 double canoes at Tahiti that were over 70 feet long 2 ; 
 
 1 A Roman ship, temp. Trajan, was recovered in Italy, and 
 found to be sheathed with thin sheets of lead. And there is 
 a legend among the Indians of Vancouver that gods arrived 
 there from the West " in copper ships " many centuries ago. 
 
 » Since writing the above I have come across an entry in an 
 old missionary book that while the Rev. J. Williams was at 
 Tahiti in 1819 there arrived from the Austral Group, 700 miles 
 
EARLY PACIFIC NAVIGATION 41 
 
 while I found on first going to the Lau Islands a dozen 
 years ago a double canoe, disused but still intact, 
 that was bigger than any of the canoes used to-day. 1 
 
 That the people who crossed and re-crossed the 
 Pacific in those early days were skilled in navigation 
 has now been made clear in a number of interesting 
 ways. They had a keen instinct for astronomy, and 
 read the stars as an open book. The Pleiades, known 
 to the ancient Polynesians as " Mata-riki," the Royal 
 Stars, were a signal to mark the commencement of 
 the new year and the planting season, and — six 
 months later, on their re-appearance — of the alter- 
 native season. The advent of the Pleiades was also 
 associated with important religious ceremonies, as I 
 shall show later on. 
 
 The position of the sun at different times in the 
 year was carefully studied, and Kupe\ the first Poly- 
 nesian discoverer of New Zealand, who is said to have 
 lived about the thirteenth or fourteenth centuries, 
 gave to succeeding expeditions from Tahiti very par- 
 ticular sailing directions that they should " steer 
 always a little to the right of the place where the Sun, 
 Moon, and Venus all set at the beginning of the hot 
 season." 
 
 Though in their lengthy isolation en route among 
 the smaller islands of the Pacific they had lost their 
 
 away, a large planked canoe, 12 feet deep, " such as are still 
 used in the Celebes," and which could carry 140 men, with all 
 their stores, water, etc. 
 
 1 Though this was not so big as the double canoe, Ra Ma- 
 rama, broken up before I arrived in Fiji. She was 102 feet 
 long, and the " holds " of the two portions were each five feet 
 wide and six feet deep. 
 
42 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 knowledge of metals, yet they retained a shadowy 
 memory of a primitive compass, and it is stated by, 
 I think, either P. Smith or K. Newman (both prominent 
 workers of the Polynesian Society) that they marked 
 off thirty-two points of the wind, following round 
 N. E. S. W., just as their cousins in other parts of 
 the world do to this day. 
 
 In the Cook Islands the various constellations of 
 stars were well known, and ancient kite-flying games, 
 of a semi-religious nature, were carried on among the 
 hill-tops, the kites' tails having weights attached 
 corresponding in numbers to and named after the 
 different stars of each group. It is, I think, not at 
 all unlikely that this kite-flying was connected in the 
 original ceremonial with Sun-worship, the kite repre- 
 senting the sun, and the string the one long ray, as 
 is found in some of the primitive Sun-worship cere- 
 monies of Africa, quoted by Frobenius. 
 
 In the British Museum there is a very old canoe- 
 paddle from Fiji, neatly inlaid with pearl-shell stars, 
 crescent-moons, and other astronomical signs, and 
 worked in a way the modern Fijian has quite lost the 
 art of. 
 
 Lastly, there were the wonderful sailing charts of 
 the Marshall Islands, a science handed down to them 
 from their forgotten ancestors. The charts were 
 skilfully made of reeds interlaced and bound together, 
 in such a way that some of them show the currents, 
 and others the prevailing winds, while attached at 
 the proper places are small shells to mark the positions 
 of the various islands. With these charts the Marshall 
 Islanders used to make long voyages of many weeks' 
 
REMARKABLY ACCURATE "CHARTS" 43 
 
 duration, in big sailing canoes built to withstand the 
 heaviest seas. Similar charts were known to the 
 early Fijians, and one is noted in the Records of the 
 Australasian Association for the advancement of Science, 
 
 NATIVE CHART FROM THE MARSHALL ISLANDS. 
 (Fig. 149. Ethnographical Guide, British Museum Handbook.) 
 
 vol. iii. It is interesting to recall here the famous 
 " chart of Tupsea," drawn by Captain Cook and Foster 
 from information supplied to them at Tahiti by the 
 chief Tupaea. It places such distant islands as Tonga, 
 
44 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 Samoa, Fiji, Wallis, etc., in very nearly their correct 
 positions, showing how accurate the sailing knowledge 
 of these ancient native voyagers was. Naturally these 
 old-time seafarers of the Pacific availed themselves 
 also of any extraneous aids they could, and it is recorded 
 that one of the reasons why the first voyagers to New 
 Zealand turned in that direction was because they 
 noticed at certain seasons of the year vast flocks of 
 birds flying up always in the same direction from the 
 south, so they rightly surmised that there must be 
 another land over there. (These birds are thought 
 to have been migrating birds returning to Japan.) 
 As the legend says, " they watched the birds by day 
 and heard their cries by night." 
 
 That the old Polynesians made extraordinarily lengthy 
 voyages is shown by the very complete story of the 
 journey of Ui-te-rangiora to the Antarctic seas, where 
 he found strange things, mountainous icebergs, ice 
 and snow " white like scraped arrowroot," and walruses 
 and seals ; as the legend runs : "... Till we saw 
 rocks growing out of the sea, in the spaces beyond 
 Rapa . . . the frozen sea of ' pia ' (scraped arrowroot) 
 . . . and the deceitful animal who dives to great 
 depths ... a foggy dark place, not seen by the sun. 
 . . ." And the time of Ui-te-rangioxa was about 
 the seventh century a.d. ! The Rev. J. Moulton, of 
 Tonga, has noted that the Tongans, too, had traditions 
 of a congealed ocean to the south. 
 
 These were, of course, exceptional voyages, pioneer 
 sailings. When the venture had once been made, 
 as for instance between Hawaii and Tahiti, and the 
 travellers had returned to tell their tale, subsequent 
 
FORMATION FOR LONG VOYAGES 45 
 
 journeys were not so fearsome, as the captains then 
 knew roughly how long they might expect to be on 
 the way, what direction they ought to make for, and 
 above all that there was a land at the other end for 
 them to go to. Moreover, it must be kept in mind 
 that of these early trials of man against the might of 
 the seas, only the successful voyages were recorded; 
 the unsuccessful ones were hidden for ever in the 
 ocean depths, and they sadly outnumbered the others. 
 Again, in the western half of the great Pacific ocean, 
 the islands are thickly flung together, and often land 
 is visible from island to island for perhaps a thousand 
 miles or more. On the one route from the Malay 
 Peninsula as far as New Guinea, I have been told that 
 a ship might keep in sight of land the whole way. 
 And it is very likely, too, that in these volcano-studded 
 waters there may have been changes in the ocean floor 
 even within the last thousand years or so, and that 
 many land bridges existed where none are found 
 to-day. 
 
 In yet one more way was the intelligence of man 
 brought in to aid a successful voyaging, and this was 
 that when a fleet was making for some distant island 
 they would spread out in crescent formation, each 
 some few miles apart from the next, so that a fleet 
 of ten vessels might thus make a front of perhaps 
 fifty to a hundred miles, rendering the chances of being 
 able to sight the expected land many times more 
 easy ; and this was important, as to miss one's goal 
 and wander, lost, into the unknown usually meant 
 death. 
 
 Now with the big ships that they undoubtedly had 
 
46 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 in those early days there was probably no more diffi- 
 culty in sailing against the wind than with the sailing 
 ships of to-day, possibly not so much ; as this ancient 
 type was built to sail " into the eye of the wind." Thus 
 the theory (which was built on the supposition that 
 they merely possessed the same small frail canoes 
 as they have to-day, that the peoples who entered 
 the Pacific could not have come from the West, i.e. 
 against the prevailing east winds, cannot any longer 
 be valid, especially as the main current runs in the 
 opposite direction. Moreover, for several months in 
 the year an alternating west wind prevails, often 
 blowing furiously for a week or more at a time. Never- 
 theless I do not consider that all the migrations into 
 the Pacific were from the West, and in the light of 
 recent investigations the old theory of one migration 
 at least from South America stands, I feel, stronger 
 to-day than ever it did. Then, of course, the occasional 
 arrivals, probably quite late, within the last few cen- 
 turies, of chance vessels from China and Japan to the 
 Micronesian Islands have no doubt had an effect on 
 the mixture of natives there. But apart from these 
 two sources there can be no doubt that the main body 
 of " Polynesians " and of their sub-branch, the 
 " Melanesians," entered the Pacific by way of Indonesia. 
 It is now, I think, generally accepted that a Turanian- 
 speaking race originated somewhere on the borders 
 of Europe and Asia, not far from the Caspian Sea. 
 One branch of them made their way to Europe, prob- 
 ably via the Black Sea and Mediterranean (and part 
 of these became our " seafaring, gold, and pearl 
 seekers "), while the other branch moved south to 
 
ORIGIN OF THE "POLYNESIANS" 47 
 
 Persia and across India, pushing before them the 
 original black Dravidian Hamitic peoples out to 
 Indonesia, and eventually into the Pacific. 
 
 But in Indonesia the " seafarers " had by this time 
 come round by the sea-route and joined up again with 
 their cousins from overland, and together they advanced 
 along the route already used by the black races, and 
 at last flowed out into the Pacific as " the Polynesians." 
 Some writers, notably P. Smith and K. Newman, 
 have clearly shown that the Polynesians must have 
 originated from up-country in India ; others, of whom 
 Fornander was the pioneer, have shown that they 
 came from the coasts of Arabia, and even Egypt, but 
 it seems to me that on my theory, as enunciated above, 
 there is no reason why these two apparently conflicting 
 statements might not be reconciled. And this mixture 
 of the ancestors of the Polynesians may be one of 
 the reasons why the Maoris, the Hawaiians, and the 
 Samoans, for instance, are really such different peoples, 
 though at first sight all much the same, all speaking 
 one tongue. 
 
 And another reason to account for the subtle differ- 
 ences in the Polynesians is the contrast in their predecessors 
 in the various island groups. In certain groups the 
 predominant factor would be the aboriginal negroid 
 people ; in other groups there might be the Dravidian 
 element pushed out of India ; while in other groups, 
 far to the east, there might have been an ancient 
 influx from South America ; and it is such possi- 
 bilities that must not be lost sight of in any inquiries 
 into the origin of the race. 
 
 But for all that the main body of the Polynesian 
 
48 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 race was pure, a noble race of early voyagers whose 
 fatherland was an abode of ancient civilization, a race 
 who were closely akin to the original people of " the 
 cradle of the world." In some of the smaller islands 
 a little way off the main route they may have arrived 
 upon an empty land, and have been left undisturbed 
 through the centuries; and such an island is Tikopia 
 Island, lying north-east of the New Hebrides Group. 
 Visited but once a year r (and that only within the last 
 decade), it has been untouched by white " civilization " 
 • — Dillon, who learnt here of the fate of La Perouse, was 
 one of the few white captains who have called at the 
 island — and such occasional travellers as have landed 
 there have been amazed at the difference between 
 these people and any others of the South Seas. They 
 are, in fact, a forgotten colony, dropped en route, of 
 the real Polynesian race. Dr. Rivers has told me 
 how pleased he was to find such a wonderful field for 
 scientific research, and how well the islanders compared 
 with the more mixed peoples ; Dr. Speisser was fas- 
 cinated by these soft-spoken children of an ancient 
 race, and gives a delightful glimpse of them in his 
 book Two Years with the Natives in the Western Pacific, 
 written only a year or two ago : — 
 
 " Again and again I seemed to see the living originals 
 of some classical picture, and more and more my soul 
 succumbed to the intoxicating charm of the lovely 
 island. ... A young native was going to Norfolk 
 
 1 At a time when the Bishop was due to pay them his annual 
 visit in the mission steamer Southern Cross in 1910, a great 
 storm arose, so these simple converts of his in the kindest manner 
 sacrificed to the " Red Sting-ray and the Black Sea-eel," two 
 of their ancient gods, for the Bishop's safety and protection 1 
 
"DROPPED" POLYNESIAN COLONIES 49 
 
 Island, and he took leave of his family and of the 
 chief in a manly way which was touching to witness. 
 He bowed and laid his face on the knees of some old 
 white-haired men with finely chiselled, noble faces. 
 They seemed to bless him, then they raised his head 
 and tenderly pressed their faces against his, so that 
 their noses touched. The boy brushed away a tear 
 and then jumped bravely on board. ... As their 
 canoes were soon overcrowded many of them jumped 
 into the water with shouts and laughter, and swam 
 several miles to the shore, floating happily in the blue 
 sea, with their long hair waving after them like liquid 
 gold. Thus I saw the last of the dream island, bathed 
 in the rays of the setting sun. My regret was shared 
 by the boy, who stood, still ornamented with flowers 
 and wreaths, at the stern of the steamer, looking sadly 
 back at his disappearing paradise. . . ." * 
 
 1 I consider that Stewart's Island, Rennell Island, Bellona 
 Island, and especially Ongtong Java Island may be similar 
 " dropped Polynesian colonies." All are small islands on the 
 outer fringe of the Solomon Group, and fairly safe from the 
 savage negroid people. The name Ongtong Java is significant, 
 as the word " Java " is a definite Polynesian place-name, traced 
 in slightly different forms right along the path of their journey. 
 (See later chapter.) 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 SUN-MYTHS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 Sun-worship has been connected with a race of people 
 who built stone monuments, temples, and tombs, 
 from Europe to the gates of the Pacific. In this book 
 I shall endeavour to show which of the peoples of the 
 Pacific are the descendants of this megalithic race; 
 and shall work my way to this end along the four 
 different paths of Mythology, Tradition, Custom, and 
 Investigation of the stones themselves, paths which 
 I believe will be found to converge upon one ultimate 
 result, the establishment of the connection of this 
 people, hidden through the ages in the heart of the 
 Pacific, with the historical races of the outside world. 
 
 And, firstly, because it is the most intangible, hazy 
 path of the four, let us try, as far as it is in our power, 
 to direct some rays of explanatory light along the 
 shadowy byway of Myth. But we must always bear 
 in mind that this is only one of the paths, that it can 
 have no value by itself, but only when taken in con- 
 junction with the others. Mr. Hocart has well shown 
 this in an excellent little monograph on The common- 
 sense of Myth (1916), wherein he writes : " So long as 
 
 GO 
 
THE VALUE OP MYTHS 51 
 
 an anthropologist imagines that he can confine his 
 interest entirely to myth, or to religion, so long will 
 he be confined to absolute sterility ... a myth will 
 have some of its roots in technology, others in religion, 
 others in something which we do not know how to 
 classify. If we cast our net wide enough to embrace 
 the whole culture the clues required to explain a 
 myth will find it hard to escape us. ..." 
 
 Keeping this axiom in view, and above all remem- 
 bering that " no belief, however crude, can be held 
 by the majority of a people for any considerable time 
 as true, without having in the beginning some founda- 
 tion in fact," let us turn to the astronomical myths, 
 and particularly Sun (and Fire) myths, as found in 
 the Pacific to-day. 
 
 Myths in these islands have been particularly well 
 preserved owing to the geographical conditions of 
 isolation, just as they were well preserved in Iceland ; 
 and until the recent coming of the white man, and 
 especially the missionary, with a new and supplanting 
 — often intermingling — set of " god stories " (as the 
 natives regarded them), the ancient myths were handed 
 down in an unaltered state from generation to genera- 
 tion. That they were, from the European view point, 
 apparently mere fairy tales, stories of impossible deeds 
 of fantastic beings, matters not, for in nine cases out 
 of ten they began as history, and that is the important 
 thing to remember. As Max Muller stated : 
 
 " Mythology as a whole is neither religion nor history, 
 nor philosophy, nor poetry. It comprehends all these 
 together under that peculiar form of expression which 
 
52 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 is natural and intelligible at a certain stage, or at 
 certain recurring stages, in the development of thought 
 and speech, but which, after becoming traditional, 
 becomes frequently unnatural and unintelligible." 
 
 So, then, let us consider some of these ancient stories 
 of the gods. 
 
 * * * * 
 
 It has been said that if man is placed in similar 
 conditions in different parts of the world he will evolve 
 the same ideas, the same customs, the same myths. 
 This is no doubt to a large extent true, but such a 
 theory should not be carried to extremes, and when 
 we find legends that are related, of precisely the same 
 deeds performed by the same heroes (even if under 
 changed names and in another tongue), we may begin 
 to wonder if there may not be some unsuspected 
 relationship after all. 1 
 
 Now the Sun and Fire-myths of the Pacific naturally 
 group themselves into 
 
 («) Tales to explain natural phenomena, such as 
 night and day, rainbows, eclipses, etc. 
 
 (6) Tales to show the divine royalty of the Sun, 
 and how communication with it was obtained. 
 
 One of the world's oldest stories is that of Phoebus 
 Apollo, the Sky-god, the driver of the Sun, who was 
 tricked into handing over the reins of his sun-chariot 
 
 » I should mention here that there can be no question of 
 the following myths of the natives having been suggested to 
 them by white men. They were ancient among them when 
 the first white men arrived. 
 
SUN-MYTH PARALLELS 53 
 
 to his son Phaeton, with the result that Phaeton so 
 mismanaged affairs that he scorched the earth and 
 was cast out, in consequence, by his wrathful 
 parent. 
 
 Now in Polynesia there were no horses, 1 so the Sun, 
 on coming up through the opening on the eastern 
 horizon, had to run across the sky, and descend again 
 through a similar opening in the west. So we find 
 Rangi, the Sky-god, grew very angry when his son 
 Maui tried to noose the Sun — and scorched the earth 
 in doing so — with the result that he also was cast out 
 by his irate father. 
 
 In North America the Mink climbed up by arrow 
 rays to the Sun-god, his father. The Mink was told 
 to carry the sun. But he went too fast and scorched 
 the earth, so was cast out by his father. 
 
 This attempting to capture or interfere with the 
 Sun is found in such widely distant lands as Europe, 
 Polynesia, Peru, and other countries ; and there is 
 no doubt that it was to explain the reason why the 
 sun does not leave us altogether, as he would do if he 
 had been allowed to pass on uncontrolled across the 
 sky, moving always onwards till he was lost for ever. 
 But because the lands where the myth is found are widely 
 separated, it does not necessarily follow that the story 
 had not one place of origin when it was young. Varia- 
 tions of it in the Pacific are found in island groups 
 whose peoples probably arrived in that ocean at different 
 
 1 Though Tregear, the philologist, in his book. The Aryan 
 Maori, shows that some of the root words of their language 
 implied a knowledge by the Polynesians, afterwards forgotten, 
 of the existence of both horses and cattle, in their previous home. 
 
54, THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 times (and possibly from different starting places, 
 though of the one main race). 
 
 Thus in Samoa we find that " Child of the Sun " 
 noosed his father to make him go more slowly. The 
 Sun acknowledged himself vanquished, and offered a 
 choice of " Blessings " or " Calamities." The youth 
 chose " Blessings " — there is no catch in this" fairy- 
 tale — which were let down to him in a basket. 
 
 In Tonga a beautiful damsel named Tiki-mataila'a 
 was hidden away from the sight of all men, but the 
 Sun shone on her, fell in love with her, and married 
 her (this is the old Scandinavian tale in another form). 
 She had a son, who, when he grew up, sailed in search 
 of his father across the ocean, first to the east, then 
 back to the west, but never able to catch up with him. 
 At last, on the eastern horizon, he got near enough to 
 shout to him and beg him to tarry for a moment. 
 The Sun, after some demur, consented to remain behind 
 a cloud long enough to give the boy some advice, 
 which was to approach his aunt, the Moon, and request 
 from her an article called Melaia. He added that on 
 no account was he to ask for another thing called 
 Monuia. Needless to say the headstrong youth promptly 
 asked for Monuia, which, on being unwrapped, turned 
 out to be a magnificent scintillating pearl-shell, which 
 so attracted all the fish of the ocean that they crowded 
 in on to his canoe from all sides and drowned him. 
 
 In Vanua Lava (New Hebrides) there was a lovely 
 maiden who refused many offers, until one day, when 
 the village was deserted, the earth opened and a 
 radiantly handsome young man appeared, who fell 
 in love with her at first sight. His name, he told her 
 
RA, THE SUN-GOD 55 
 
 was Wet-mat-liwo. So they were married and lived 
 happily together for some time ; until one cold night 
 the Spirit of the fire, which was as usual burning at 
 one end of the house, enticed her to forsake her husband 
 for him. Thereupon her husband left her for ever, 
 disappearing again through the hole in the ground 
 that he had first come up by. Bitterly she repented 
 her folly, and ran after him, beseeching him to stay, 
 and tried to restrain him. But it was too late, he 
 eluded her grasp, and now she sorrows for ever for 
 the lost light of her life. 
 
 In Mangaia (Cook Islands) Ra, the Sun-god, drops 
 through a hole at the horizon and lights the nether- 
 world during his off-time from our world. (The root 
 Ra, by the way, for the Sun, God, or Divine Ruler, 
 is, of course, seen in the Egyptian Ra-harakt, the 
 hawk-headed Sun-god ; is found unchanged in the 
 Fijian Ra, the Sun ; and but little altered in the 
 Aryan Rag, Sanskrit Raj, Latin Rex, Gothic Reik, 
 Polynesian A-riki, Arabic S-ariki, and in similar words 
 in many other countries.) 
 
 This idea of the sun " dropping through the horizon " 
 was made use of in a very beautiful funeral ode com- 
 posed by a Mangaian chief on the death of his well- 
 beloved wife, in 1824, and quoted in full in Gill's 
 Songs of the South Pacific. The resemblance of this 
 chant — composed by a scion of an ancient race that 
 might perhaps have wandered from the Mediterranean 
 — to the songs of the old-time Greeks, is positively 
 startling. 
 
 Solo 
 Teiia'ua ngaro e ? Whither has she gone ? 
 
56 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 Chorus 
 
 Tei Avaiki e oro atu, She has sped to Avaiki, 
 
 Kore e ariu tei te nii moana : She disappeared at the edge 
 
 of the horizon, 
 Tei te opunga i te ra Where the sun drops through. 
 
 Ka tangi i reira ! We weep for thee ! 
 
 Solo 
 
 Ka tangi ana 'i, Yes, I will for ever weep, 
 
 Oki ra a THmi ra aS ! And ever seek for thee 1 
 
 Chorus 
 
 Tangi au ka tangi e, Bitter tears I shed for thee ; 
 
 Tangi ki te vaine ua ngaro ra, I weep for the lost wife of 
 
 my bosom. 
 Aore koe e tu e angairi. Alas ! thou wilt not return. 
 
 Solo 
 Mai tu e angairi ! Oh, that thou wouldst return ! 
 
 Chorus 
 
 Ariu mai i te ao e ! Stay ; come back to this 
 
 world ! 
 Oki maira iaku nei. Return to my embrace. 
 
 Akia koe, ua motu la tarereia au ! Thou art as a bough wrenched 
 
 off by the blast I 
 
 Solo 
 
 Mai tlrere au e tei Avaiki — Wrenched off, and now in 
 
 Avaiki — 
 Te enua mamao i oro atu na e ! That distant land to which 
 
 thou art fled. 
 
 Another Cook Island legend is that about Maui, 
 who made a number of nets of sinnet ' to snare the 
 Sun, and waited for it at the opening on the horizon 
 where it was wont to ascend from Avaiki (which is 
 the home of the Sun, and, as I shall show later, the 
 
 ' Coco-nut fibre. 
 
MAUI SNARES THE SUN 57 
 
 ancestral home of the Sun-worshippers). He laid one 
 of his snares at this opening, and five others at places 
 along the path of the Sun's journey across the heavens ; 
 and by this means he was able to entangle successively 
 the foot, knee, hip, arm, and head of the Sun, who 
 at last had to give in and accede to his demands that 
 in future the daily race should be run at a more 
 moderate pace. 
 
 A more romantic version of this story is that Maui, 
 having attempted many times to snare the Sun with 
 nets of fibre, which were invariably scorched and 
 rendered useless, begged the Moon for some long 
 tresses of her hair ; which, being woven into a net, 
 proved invulnerable to the Sun's rays and successfully 
 held it. But the Moon wept to think that she had 
 been the unwitting cause of the downfall of her lover, 
 the Sun. 
 
 Still one more myth to account for the difference 
 between Night and Day is that of Quat, the hero-god 
 of the Banks Islands. He found that his people 
 suffered from the torrid heat of perpetual day. Their 
 food plantations were being shrivelled up, all were 
 panting and exhausted in the glaring heat. So he 
 made a journey to the Torres Islands, where — different 
 to the Banks — the sun was seen daily to set, shrouded 
 by a benevolent night. And here, after sundry 
 adventures, he was successful in purchasing a portion 
 of Night from Quong, the terrible deity of those parts. 
 (It is curious to note how the business element crept 
 in here. In this and adjacent regions of the Pacific, 
 unlike other parts of it, a very strong commercial 
 instinct has been present from time immemorial ; 
 
58 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 and one finds naked savages, often cannibals, with a 
 working code of loans, interest, liquidation of debt, 
 and all the paraphernalia of Throgmorton Street. 
 What matters it that their currency is shell-money, 
 it is " currency.") 
 
 Now we come to a slightly different series of myths, 
 though they are still myths to explain the difference 
 between Night and Day. These are the legends where 
 daylight, or the Sun, is swallowed up into the cavernous 
 belly of Night, and — as might be expected in coastal 
 or island peoples — they are illustrated by tales of the 
 brilliant hero-god being swallowed into the dark maw 
 of a great fish. 
 
 The first of these once more concerns the famous 
 Polynesian god Maui, who according to some accounts 
 was, like divine Venus, " born of the sea-foam." When 
 he was still young his " earth-mother " threw him back 
 into the sea, and he was at once swallowed up by a 
 huge whale. But after many days a certain warrior 
 named Tama-niu-ki-te-rangi, who was cruising round 
 the coasts, heard his cries, and killed the whale and 
 cut it open, releasing Maui for the benefit of the world. 
 
 Again, at Ysabel Island (Solomon Group) a hero of 
 old, named Kama-kaya-kau, was swallowed by a great 
 fish, which took him away to " the rising sun." Luckily 
 he had an obsidian knife in his hand at the time, and 
 managed to cut his way out. 
 
 A somewhat similar tale is that of Mutuk, in the 
 Torres Straits, who was out fishing and got swallowed 
 by a big shark. He, too, managed to cut his way out 
 with a mussel-shell he had with him, escaping to the 
 outside world scot-free, except for the loss of his hair. 
 
THE MOON CHASES THE SUN 59 
 
 Now comes the curious parallel, which is surely 
 something more than a mere coincidence. In a North 
 American coastal legend we find that Kaig, the Mink, 
 going herring fishing into the North Pacific, was 
 swallowed by a big fish, but managed to cut his way 
 out, and he, too, found on getting free that he had lost 
 his hair! 
 
 I have notes of many more of these " swallowed 
 by a whale " legends, but I have chosen these four to 
 show that in the west, the middle, and on the extreme 
 east of the Pacific the same myth exists ; and I believe 
 that they are all connected with the " Jonah and the 
 whale " story, which also was probably founded on 
 a " Sun and Darkness " myth of very early timesj 
 told by the common ancestors of the Semitic peoples 
 and the Polynesians. 
 
 A tale of the love of the Sun and the Moon is found 
 in that island of lover's tales, Samoa. Here Maluafiti 
 (Shade of Fiji) was the radiant youth-god of the Sky. 
 It happened that two of his sisters were at the time 
 dwelling on earth, so his parents said to him : " Arise, 
 Maluafiti, and take this present of choice foods to 
 your sisters, for it is long since we have seen them." 
 
 Now the sisters had never seen their brother before, 
 and were amazed at his beauty and delighted with 
 his charming graces. " Here is one who is indeed a 
 fitting mate for Sina, the beautiful Moon-Queen of 
 Fiji," said they ; and they forthwith went over to 
 Fiji to inform Sina of their discovery ; taking with 
 them the shadow of Maluafiti in a gourd. Now Sina 
 had heard of the great beauty of the young Sun-god, 
 but did not realize that these were his sisters and envoys, 
 
60 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 so refused to listen to them, and spurned them from 
 her. So the sisters waited, and one day when Sina 
 was bathing they cast the shadow of Maluafiti on to 
 her bathing pool. Sina at once fell in love with it, 
 but searched in vain for the actual being to whom 
 the shadow belonged. Fruitless was her quest. She 
 sent warriors to the four corners of the earth to trace 
 the original of this beautiful reflection, but without 
 avail. And still were the sisters of Maluafiti despised 
 and ill-treated. 
 
 One day, however, in the midst of their tears they 
 were heard by a wise man to cry out : " Maluafiti, 
 rise up. 'Tis day. Your shadow here only prolongs 
 our ill-treatment. Come, we implore you, and speak 
 to Sina yourself, that she may believe us and end our 
 misery." 
 
 The wise man hurried off to Sina and told her that 
 these were in very truth the sisters of Maluafiti, for 
 that when they had finished crying out he had noticed 
 a movement in the sun itself, and behold, here was 
 Maluafiti even now arriving. 
 
 Sina, in great fear, now begged forgiveness of the 
 sisters, but it was too late, for Maluafiti had arrived, 
 and was striding up in a terrible rage, admonishing 
 her for her unkindness. 
 
 Sina pleaded with him, coaxed him, tried by every 
 art in her power to turn his anger to love ; but in 
 vain. He turned his back on her and moved away, 
 striding off at a speed that no mortal could attempt, 
 She ran after him to the shore, imploring him to stay, 
 but without avail. Desperate, she swam after his 
 receding glory across the ocean, but before she could 
 
THE SUN-GOD EATS THE SUN 61 
 
 reach his home on the horizon she sank in the waters. 
 And thus her spirit even now pursues in vain the 
 Sun. There are many of these " Night and Day " 
 myths, and also, of course, the obvious ones about 
 Eclipses, such as that in Raratonga, where Tangaroa, 
 the Sun-god, in his wrath against the world, eats up 
 his own heavenly symbol, the Sun, and how its release 
 necessitates the death of some great chief, some descen- 
 dant of the god, as payment. A similar idea was 
 prevalent in Fiji, where an eclipse of the sun always 
 signified the near death of a big chief. 1 
 
 1 Curiously enough, we have been able to fix an important 
 date in Fijian history in this way, as Banuve, one of the earliest 
 of the Bau kings, showed his divine origin by conveniently 
 dying at the time of a total eclipse, the date of which has been 
 worked out by astronomical tables. But of more consequence 
 than this was the fact that we can therefore date the visitation 
 of some unknown shipwrecked white men, who introduced gun- 
 powder and firearms, thus upsetting dynasties and altering the 
 whole political history of the Fijian race. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 SUN-MYTHS OF THE PACIFIC (continued) 
 
 Now we come to the second group of Sun-myths, 
 namely, those that show the divine royalty of the 
 Sun, and how communication with it was obtained. 
 The natural connections between the Sun and the 
 earth are, of course,, the Sun's rays, and so it is by 
 their means that, in actual practice, it was considered 
 the priests of the Sun could receive and send their 
 communications ; and, in myth, that certain beings 
 on the earth could ascend to the Sun. Let us look 
 first of all at some of these myths. 
 
 In the Banks Islands another exploit of Quat (the 
 god who obtained " Night " for his people) was to 
 steal, and bury underground, the wings of a Sky-fairy 
 who had put them on one side while bathing. She 
 was then helpless, and had no choice but to become 
 his wife. But, as might be expected, the match was 
 not a happy one ; and one day, weeping bitterly in 
 a corner of the garden, she noticed that her tears were 
 washing away the earth and exposing something 
 white. With joy she saw that it was part of her wings, 
 and quickly rescuing them and putting them on again, 
 she flew off to the Sky. The disconsolate but ingenious 
 Quat, on finding out his loss, shot with all his might 
 
THE ARROW PATH TO THE SUN 63 
 
 an arrow into the air, where it remained quivering, 
 sunk to the shaft in the blue vault of heaven. He 
 then shot a second one into the notch of the first, 
 and a third one at the second, and so on, till he had 
 a complete string of arrows reaching down to the 
 earth. He was thus able to climb up this pathway 
 to the Sun, win back his wife, and, it is to be hoped, 
 lived happily ever afterwards. 
 
 Now there are many similar versions of the " arrows 
 into the Sun " story, all so much alike that one can 
 only think they sprang from what was originally the 
 same race. In North America the birds wanted to 
 invade the world of the Sun-god, so one of them, 
 called Toitu, shot successive arrows into the sky, and 
 thus they were all able to climb up and carry out their 
 invasion. Another tale has it that the woodpecker 
 and the eagle lost their son, who had been carried 
 off to the sky. They, also, successfully climbed up 
 a pathway of arrows which they had shot off, one into 
 the other. (The use of animals and birds in these 
 American tales merely signifies the totem names of 
 the tribe or actors in the story.) In the Celebes Island 
 (Indonesia) a rattan is used for the arrow-pathway, 
 though the rest of the story — of a fairy who, visiting 
 earth, had her white " flying garment " stolen from 
 her and was thus compelled to marry a mortal — is 
 practically the same as the story of Quat. 
 
 These fabled " paths of communication " to the 
 Sun were also found in a concrete and tangible form 
 in several nations of Sun-worshippers, which the scheme 
 of this book is to link together, that is to say, the 
 people who in ancient times lived round the Mediter- 
 
64 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 ranean, the Indian Ocean, and in the islands of the 
 Pacific, and across it as far as America. Thus the 
 Dyaks of Borneo whispered questions into a shell 
 (wet with the blood of a recent sacrifice) that was 
 attached by a cord to a sort of holy ark, known as 
 the ship of Tempon-telon, who was a deity associated 
 with a form of Sun-cult. At the first rays of the dawn 
 the devotee removed the shell and attached himself 
 in its place, to receive the answer along this tangible 
 representation of the Sun's ray. The Indians of 
 Dakota in North America were accustomed, at certain 
 times of the year, to erect a tall pole, and when the 
 Sun was overhead they attached themselves to the 
 crown of the pole by cords, hooks actually being passed 
 through the skin and muscle of their backs. This 
 practice was stopped by a Government Order in 
 1883. 
 
 In Fiji the god (though ceasing to be regarded as 
 a Sun-god after the Melanesian upheaval mentioned 
 earlier, and changing into Ratumaibulu r and other 
 district gods) still kept up his connection with the 
 priests by means of a sun-ray, the representation of 
 it being a narrow strip of white tappa suspended from 
 the roof of the temple. By means of this the spirit 
 of the god entered into the priest, who sat at the base 
 
 1 Ratumaibulu becomes in Fiji more the god of Fertility 
 and less the god of the Sun, in accordance with the axiom I 
 laid down on page 35. And as the Serpent was largely symbolic 
 of Fertility and Phallic-worship, so in Fiji was the Snake the 
 living shrine of Ratumaibulu ; but, to show how if aces of the 
 ancient Sun-cult still remained, the rainbow was said " to spring 
 from off the Snake of Ratumaibulu " (except by the fishermen, 
 who substituted their Shark-god, Dakuwanga, as the starting- 
 point of the rainbow). 
 
THE TWO MAIN "SUN-GODS" 65 
 
 of it, and thence gave out his message to the waiting 
 people. 
 
 Another example is seen to this day in the cord of 
 sinnet, attached by one end to every ceremonial kava- 
 bowl, which cord must always be laid out to point 
 direct to the chief ; so that a portion of the sacred 
 " influence " which emanates from all these semi- 
 divine chiefs should be passed straight into the bowl 
 of kava. 
 
 And just as the spirit of the god descended down 
 the white tappa to earth, so did the god himself, Tan- 
 garoa, descend down his rainbow — which was merely 
 his girdle unfastened — and make love, at Mangaia 
 Island, to Hina the Beautiful, by whom he had two 
 fair-haired children. 1 (The legend goes on to say that 
 there were at Mangaia seven dwarf sons of Pinga, all 
 champions at the game of reed-throwing. But when 
 these two fair children grew up, one of them, Tara-uri, 
 invoked his father, and then cast his dart ; which 
 flew on and on, and never came to earth again for 
 eight days, thus defeating for all time the presumptuous 
 sons of Pinga. Tara-uri at once became the patron 
 saint of the game, and is so to this day.) 
 
 We can now pass to a closer examination of the 
 more personal myths affecting the Sun, and the first 
 thing that calls one's attention is that there were two 
 main Sun-gods in the Pacific, namely Tane and Tangaloa 
 (or Kane and Ta'aoa, according to dialect). Tane 
 ranks as the earlier and more important deity in 
 
 1 Reference will be made later to this association, so fre- 
 quently found, of the Sun or Sky-god with a fair-haired, fair- 
 skinned people. 
 
 5 
 
66 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 Hawaii, while Tangaroa is pre-eminent in Central 
 Polynesia (except in the Cook Islands, where the legend 
 has it that Tangaroa and Rongo were the twin sons 
 of Vatea and his wife Papa (mother-earth) ; Tangaroa 
 being born slightly earlier. He, however, had to give 
 way in all things to Rongo, aided and abetted by their 
 mother ; and though he still received offerings of 
 young coco-nuts on the stalk, symbolic of his primo- 
 geniture, he got little else except anything of a red 
 or flame colour. Thus he received any red fish, red 
 fruits, etc., but as these were naturally far more scarce 
 than the others, Rongo scored heavily. 
 
 Tan6 seems in the Hawaiian Islands to have been 
 an earlier god, whose cult in after years became obscured 
 and partly forgotten when the worship of Tangaroa 
 took a more prominent place among the people. Tan6 
 was a milder, more benevolent god, and it is stated 
 by Fornander that there is no evidence to connect 
 human sacrifices with his worship. He was the Sun-god, 
 but, above all, he was the god of the land and of 
 forests. And it may not be out of place here to men- 
 tion in passing that there were distinct traces of a 
 religion connected with woods and tree-gods in the 
 Pacific ; symbolical " marriages to trees," and other 
 forest-god customs have been noted ; and some of 
 these traces of a forest-cult, associated with Sun- 
 worship, make one hark back for a moment to thoughts 
 of our Druid priests at home. 
 
 The fact that Tane was the god of the soil and of 
 trees is quite sufficient to account for his becoming, 
 in the Cook Islands, the god of Fertility ; and thus, 
 at Mangaia, he became simply a Phallic-god, known 
 
TANGAROA— SUN-GOD AND SEA-GOD 67 
 
 generally as " the husband," and whose worship was 
 associated with dances. Gill quotes a legend that 
 beautiful Tapairu fairies, daughter of Miru, used to 
 climb up to the earth's surface through the crevices 
 where the streams sank into the rocks, and attend 
 the dances, held by moonlight at the time of Tane 
 worship. And, further, that new banana leaves were 
 always put out for them to dance on, which leaves 
 next morning were found to be still uncrushed and 
 fresh. (This dancing on leaves in the moonlight 
 reminds one of our own "fairy-rings.") 
 
 But without doubt Tangaroa was the more powerful, 
 the more universal god throughout the Pacific. 1 
 Tangaroa the radiant, Tangaroa of the flame-coloured 
 hair, T an g aroa tne g°d 0I a ^ the seas, the eater of 
 the sun, the wearer of the rainbow. In Samoa he was 
 known as Tangaloa of the eighth Heaven, supreme 
 above all except Io, the motionless impassive deity 
 who was too impersonal to count. Though even in 
 Samoa we find Tangaloa to be essentially the Sea-god, 
 in contrast to Moso the Land-god. In both Tahiti 
 and Tonga Tangaroa was the one who " fished up the 
 island," that myth so universal through the Pacific. 
 In New Zealand he was the great Sea-god, though 
 there it was Maui who actually did the fishing perform- 
 ance. In the Marquesas they have a half-forgotten 
 myth of a deluge, which came about in this manner. 
 Ta'a'oa settled on Fatu-uku Island in that group, 
 and built a great house and made " fishponds " (such 
 
 1 And even in Mantawai Island (Indonesia) — where there is 
 apparently a dropped colony en route of Polynesians — one of 
 the chief gods is " Sangaloa." 
 
68 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 " fishponds " — for preserving fish alive till required 
 — were found as cyclopean structures in Hawaii and 
 other places, enormous works left behind by an ancient 
 race about whom but few traditions now remain). 
 Now Tana'oa's son was one day playing by the fish- 
 ponds, and in mischief he set free the fish, who swam 
 off in a vast body to the sea. There, off the shore, 
 they so worried Tana'oa's great shark, who kept per- 
 petual guard over its master's island, that it lashed 
 out with its tail, and with a mighty blow broke the 
 submerged pillar of rock on which the island was 
 balanced. The result was that most of the island 
 toppled over into the sea and only a small portion 
 — the present island — was left. 
 
 It is interesting, in reference to this fable, to note 
 that on Hiva-oa Island (Marquesas), where a valley 
 near Atuona opens out to the sea, there is a submerged 
 landing-place, dimly to be seen at low tide, of huge 
 blocks of stone, laid and fitted so neatly together that 
 they must have surely been built by human hands ; 
 while in Taipi Valley, also in the Marquesas, there is 
 an actual tradition of an early race who built such 
 piers and terraces out into the bay. With this people 
 might be compared the forgotten race who built the 
 great stone streets, docks, and causeways, now sub- 
 merged, of the Caroline Islands. 
 
 Just as in Hawaii the ancient god Tane gave place 
 to Tangaloa, so in Tahiti did Tangaloa in his turn give 
 place as the chief god to Oro, 1 who was said to be a 
 
 1 O-ro was said to be O-ro'o, which in the south-eastern 
 Polynesian way had dropped a consonant, and was Ro(ng)o 
 in other parts, which, of course, is the same as Longo or Lono, 
 
FAIR "CHILDREN OF TANGALOA " 69 
 
 son of Tangaloa. And, just as in Hawaii, the newer 
 
 god it was who was the more ferocious, a god of war 
 
 and violence, whose worship was marked by human 
 
 sacrifices. 
 
 A little way back I told how Tangaroa at Mangaia 
 
 Island became the father of two fair-haired children 
 
 by Hina the Beautiful. This story in different forms 
 
 is constantly re-appearing, and I think there is no 
 
 doubt whatever that the Sun-god, whether he be Tane 
 
 or Tangaroa, is vaguely associated throughout the 
 
 Pacific with a half-forgotten race of fair people, who 
 
 are recognized as the senior or more chiefly branch. 
 
 In Tonga Tangaloa had two sons, the elder being Tubo, 
 
 who was the ancestor of a fair race, the younger being 
 
 Vaka-akau-uli, from whom all " natives " were sprung. 
 
 In New Zealand much the same myth occurs, but 
 
 Kan6 is the ancestor of the senior race of fair people. 
 
 In Mangarewa Island (Paumotu Group) all fair-haired 
 
 children are said to be " children of Tangaloa," and 
 
 in many other islands the same idea prevails. It 
 
 would seem that a nation of light-skinned people, 
 
 who worshipped the Sun, must have come into the 
 
 Pacific and subjugated a darker race. 1 One can still 
 
 see in many islands traces of a distinctly fairer people, 
 
 the difference being very marked in childhood, and 
 
 after putting aside all possibilities of a recent strain 
 
 from modern whites, or temporary hair-bleaching which 
 
 the natives often practise, there remains this mysterious 
 
 for whom Captain Cook was mistaken — the mistake being the 
 ultimate cause of his death — at Hawaii. 
 
 * That ultimately the darker people arose and in their turn 
 vanquished the lighter people is a theory that I shall advance 
 later on in this book. 
 
70 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 fair element, with light wavy hair and skins of a pale 
 olive-brown colour, not unlike the men of Southern 
 Italy, that is to be accounted for. 
 
 Nor does Tangaloa appear solely in Polynesia. 
 Away to the west in the Melanesian Banks Islands, 
 where so many traces of a non-negroid element appear, 
 we find the myth of the eleven Tangalo brothers of 
 Quat ; and Dr. Rivers considers that the Tangaloa 
 cult may have been at one time common to both 
 Melanesia and Polynesia ; in other words, to that early 
 people who " buried their dead in a sitting position," 
 and who invaded both Melanesia and Polynesia. 
 
 And I am inclined to think that Tangaloa appears 
 under another name as Dauthina (which simply means 
 the " ever-burning " lamp or torch) in Fiji, where 
 the legend has it that he is the great god of the Sea, 
 and of all sailors and fishermen, while he is also associ- 
 ated with a Phallic-cult. He appears with a lambent 
 quivering flame playing round his head, 1 and — like 
 Tane in Mangaia — is " the husband," many of the 
 young women being supposed to fall victim to his 
 charms. 2 His earthly shrine was a snake (like that 
 of Ratumaibulu, the other Fijian god associated with 
 the Sun or Fire, and Fertility), only — very naturally 
 — in Dauthina 's case it was a water-snake, the black 
 and white striped variety found in the reef pools at 
 low tide. It seems to me that throughout the Pacific 
 there appear to have been two " Sun and Fertility " 
 
 ' Is it not possible that the " halo," as an emblem of divinity, 
 was borrowed (like so many other ideas in the early Christian 
 Church) from a pre-Christian Sun-worship ? 
 
 3 See also my The Lau Islands and their Folk-lore, page 118. 
 
THE " THEFT-OF-FIRE " 71 
 
 cults, practised respectively by a seafaring people 
 and a land people, probably at different periods of 
 time ; and this may be found to have some bearing 
 on the question of differentiation of races. 
 
 Before finally leaving the field of myth one must 
 refer briefly to the " theft-of-fire " story. Prome- 
 theus, who stole fire from the other world, seems in 
 the Pacific to have become changed, but in name only ; 
 for his exploit is much the same as that credited to 
 the Polynesian god. In the Pacific he is sometimes 
 Maui, sometimes Ti'iti'i, but he always stole the fire 
 from the gods for the benefit of man. In a Maori 
 legend Maui wandered one day to the underworld, 
 and there came upon his grandmother, old Mahuika 
 the Blind, the guardian of the fire. He pretended he 
 wanted a little fire for himself, and persuaded her to 
 let him draw some sparks from her finger nails. He 
 then suggested that he must have it a little stronger, 
 so she drew it from her big toe, whereupon there 
 was a big conflagration and the whole world would 
 have been scorched up had not the gods sent a deluge 
 of rain and put it out. Maui, however, was able to 
 secure a spark, which he concealed in a tree for the 
 benefit of mankind, who can now always get fire by 
 rubbing pieces of wood together ! J In Mangaia Island 
 he is said to have actually crept upon the god in the 
 
 1 I thought the method extinct in Fiji, but some years ago 
 when I was stationed on the Sigatoka River I was out in the 
 " bush " one day with the cattle-man, searching for one of my 
 cows that had got lost. I wanted to smoke and found I had 
 no matches, neither had ,Saimon6, when, to my delight, he picked 
 up a couple of dry bits of wood and entirely without suggestion 
 from me sat down and proceeded to produce fire. 
 
72 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 underworld who was making fire by rubbing two 
 sticks, and watching unobserved he brought back the 
 secret for mankind for ever. Newman points out a 
 rather remarkable coincidence that the Indian god, 
 Manu or Manui (whom he claims to be, from other 
 evidence, identical with Maui), also stole fire from the 
 underworld. 
 
 In Samoa there is a slight variation of the tale, for 
 here we find the fire-thief called Ti'iti'i, 1 but his grand- 
 mother Mafuie is practically the same as Mahuika 
 (in Hawaii she is Mahuia'a). Now Ti'iti'i one day 
 followed his father unobserved to the land of Mafuie 
 in the underworld. He cajoled her under false pre- 
 tences to give him fire, whereupon he and his father 
 sat down to cook some Taro. Mafuie promptly caused 
 the fire to blow up and scatter in all directions, so 
 Ti'iti'i in a rage attacked her, and in his fury wrenched 
 off her right arm. She cried for mercy, and he desisted 
 on the promise of the gift of fire for this world for 
 ever. 
 
 The above myths all refer to the wood-friction 
 
 method of obtaining fire (for the old woman with her 
 
 fingers and arm is surely a dead tree with its branches) ; 
 
 but F. W. Christian describes a remarkable wood 
 
 carving from Raratonga Island, which shows in detail 
 
 the legend of Maui stealing fire, though this time 
 
 actually from the Sun itself. This is such a variation 
 
 from the usual myth that one wonders whether the 
 
 1 Has this any connection with Iti or Fiti (Fiji) ? Samoa 
 is full of references to Ta-fiti, which was their ancient name 
 for Fiji (the Fijians themselves call their country Viti or Fiti, 
 and the Maoris call it Whiti) and from whence the island Tahiti 
 of the Society Group is thought to have been named. 
 
"THE FREEDOM OF THE FIRE" 73 
 
 artist may not have received some idea of it from 
 modern non-Polynesian sources. Otherwise it would 
 seem that there are two myths in the Pacific, one built 
 up to account for the wood-friction method of obtaining 
 fire, and the other a direct descendant of the ancient 
 story of Prometheus. 
 
 The connection of Fire-worship and Sun-worship is 
 obvious, and the followers of the Fire-cult have merely 
 specialized in a variety of Sun-worship. The fire was 
 a portion of the divine sun, and as such was equally 
 sacred. In a later chapter on Customs I shall touch 
 on certain practices associated with the Sun and Fire 
 cults, including the famous " fire- walking ceremony." 
 In this chapter on Myths I will merely mention that 
 there is a legend that in remote ages at Benga Island 
 (Fiji) one of the ancestors of the present tribe was 
 once walking near the shore when he noticed a snake 
 disappearing into a crevice among the stones. He 
 pulled at its tail (without fear, for there are no poisonous 
 snakes in Fiji), but this was a demon snake, more 
 powerful than any yet known. The harder he pulled 
 the harder the snake pulled, and the contest was 
 fairly even, until the man started with his feet to 
 disengage the stones and lay open the crevice. Then 
 the snake gave in, and to the surprise of the man 
 called out in a human voice that he was Vuibenga 
 the god, and that if he were released he would grant 
 the gift of " the freedom of the fire." So the man 
 wonderingly consented, and his feet were thereupon 
 coated with some of the serpent's froth ; with the 
 result that ever afterwards that man and his descen- 
 dants were able to walk over red-hot stones with 
 
74 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 impunity. (It should be noted that once more, as in 
 the case of the rainbow, it is the snake that is associated 
 with the Sun and Fire cult.) 
 
 At Faka-ofu, or Bowditch Island (Union Group), 
 Tui Tokelau was the chief god, and he was the god of 
 Fire. Fire was kept burning in his temple at nights, 
 and should any impious trespasser venture in — wrote 
 Turner — it would leap out and consume him. The 
 Faka-ofu people were " descended from the Skies," 
 Hale was informed (U.S. Exploring Expedition), and 
 curiously enough this island of Sky-descended was 
 one of the places where the pearl-shell cult was very 
 prominent (see ante, p. 39). 
 
 The other form of Fire-cult, associated with the 
 terrors of active volcanoes, is, I think, quite a different 
 thing, and is only here mentioned in passing. It was, 
 as might be expected, particularly vigorous in volcano- 
 studded Hawaii, but the deity was a goddess, Pele, 
 and the whole cult was always kept quite distinct 
 from the worship of Tane, who was undoubtedly the 
 Sun-god. So also at the other extremity of the Pacific, 
 at Ambrym in the New Hebrides, the passing of the 
 souls of the dead to the Ambrym volcano is only what 
 one might expect to find in a place where such a powerful 
 natural phenomenon is actually at one's door ; even 
 though, in the same Group, we have in the TamatS 
 secret societies traces of a half-forgotten Sun-cult. 
 
 But nevertheless I do not infer that these volcano 
 cults of the Pacific were newly evoked in the Pacific. 
 I consider that the people brought the memories of 
 former volcano myths and religions with them from 
 their previous homes, from Indonesia, and even beyond ; 
 
VOLCANOES AND THE FIRE-CULT 75 
 
 and that where, in the Pacific, they happened to settle 
 on islands which possessed volcanoes, there the cult 
 became firmly established ; while in other islands it 
 was quickly forgotten. And once again I would repeat 
 that the people arrived in the Pacific in different relays 
 and at different periods of time, bringing with them 
 different specialized cults, even though they were 
 originally all one people, following one main theme 
 of religious worship. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 GLIMPSES OF HISTORY FROM GENEALOGIES 
 AND OTHER FAMILY RECORDS 
 
 We are now able to pass from the misty and indefinite 
 realm of myth to definite tradition, national history, 
 and the proved genealogies of a people who jealously 
 preserved such things as an integral part of their 
 religious obligations. Such a people were the " Poly- 
 nesians," so called to distinguish them from the 
 Melanesians ; though the recent researches of Rivers 
 and others have shown us that the race we mean, 
 as well as spreading over the Eastern and Southern 
 Pacific, ran through and blended with the people 
 hitherto called " the Melanesians," and even infringed 
 on the coastal territories of the " Papuans." But the 
 intermingling, especially of the later Polynesians, with 
 the negroid people of Melanesia and Papua has been 
 so slight that those districts can show us very little 
 of the mythology, and practically none of the tradition 
 and history, of the intruding race of light-skinned 
 people who paused there for a time during their great 
 journey. 
 
 The whole scheme of existence of the Melanesians 
 was opposed to any purposeful preservation of national 
 history, and it is only by infinite patience and a minute 
 
 76 
 
POLYNESIAN WRITINGS 77 
 
 and careful study of custom that those searchers in 
 the Melanesian field have been able to glean for us 
 what few fragments we now possess. In a people 
 who follow the practice of descent through the female 
 line, and where it was seldom that a father knew 
 which among the tribe were his own sons, 1 it was not 
 to be expected that genealogical history and family 
 pedigrees would be studied as they were in a nation 
 of chiefs proud of their ancient lineage. 
 
 But even with the Polynesians — a nation without 
 the preserving help of script to perpetuate their history 
 for all time — one could not expect to obtain any records 
 if one judged them only from the European standpoint. 
 But the more one studies the subject the more one 
 realizes how impossible the European standpoint is, 
 and how necessary it is to approach the problem with 
 a mind freed from the shackles of two thousand years 
 of " the writing habit." People who " make a memo " 
 of every triviality cast away the god-given gift of 
 " memory," and cannot realize to what a marvellous 
 extent that particular sense may be trained in a nation 
 of memory-users. 
 
 Though it is hardly right to say that the Polynesians 
 had no script, in their earlier days in the Pacific 
 they seem to have brought with them from their former 
 home distinct traces of the art of writing ; which, 
 unfortunately, with the degeneration of the people 
 (for an insular, narrowed life undoubtedly did cause 
 degeneration) has now been lost. In one of the 
 " memorized histories " of the Maori branch of the 
 Polynesians we learn that Tamatea, one of the leaders 
 1 As in the Banks Islands. 
 
78 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 of an early expedition to New Zealand, 1 immediately 
 after landing dug out a cave " to preserve the tuhi-tuhi 2 
 (writings) brought with them " from beyond Hawaiki." 
 
 In a similar way the first business of Lutu-na-sombua, 
 the earliest explorer and ancestor in Fiji, who had 
 met a storm at sea, was to send back a canoe in the 
 faint hope that the box containing the precious " stone 
 writings " might still be afloat.3 
 
 At the Chatham Islands and the Caroline Islands 
 there are said to be found very primitive rock-carved 
 scripts ; and Ellis, in his Tour of Hawaii, 1826, writes : 
 "... Along the south coast we frequently saw lines, 
 semi-circles, and rings, with some rude imitations of 
 human figures carved on the rocks . . . and sometimes 
 a fish." Then there were the more highly developed 
 Easter Island scripts (carved, too, but this time in 
 local wood), which also consisted of rude imitations 
 of human figures, birds, and fish. More has probably 
 been written about this mysterious picture-writing 
 of Easter Island than anything else in the Pacific. 
 It is also found carved and painted on the rocks there, 
 so no special significance can be attached to its being 
 done upon wooden tablets (probably discovered to be 
 more convenient and portable) except that those still 
 existing cannot therefore be very ancient, for even in 
 the comparatively dry climate of Easter Island any 
 
 1 He came in the Takitumu, one of the canoes of " The 
 Fleet," in a.d. 1350. 
 
 3 It seems possible that Tuhi-Tuhi means literally the 
 chiselled, or mallet-struck inscriptions, which would then be 
 graven tablets of stone like the old Hebrew ones in the Bible. 
 The word Tuki-Tuki in Fijian would allow of this meaning. 
 
 3 See The Fijians, by B. H. Thomson. 
 

 ' „ 
 
 i 
 
 MM- 
 
 
 iHf f is 
 
 JI 
 
 
 
A MIGRATION FROM THE EAST 79 
 
 wood must inevitably go through that rapid decaying 
 process that is peculiar to a combination of sea-air 
 and tropics. 
 
 The Routledge expedition, which recently did such 
 splendid work on Easter Island, may have got as near 
 to the truth of it as anybody, when they state that 
 the separate figures probably had not a continuous 
 meaning, but were used as aids to memory in making 
 the long recitations at special ceremonies. Dr. Carroll 
 is among those who claim to have actually translated 
 the tablets, and he says they are a series of prayers 
 and incantations to the Sun-god, the sacred Fire, 
 the royal Turtle, and the Ancestors. The editor of 
 Le Revue de I'Ecoh D' 'Anthropologic (May 1910) stated 
 that they were of a pattern found in South America, 
 like the Quichua language, and of the period of the 
 most recent kings of Cuzco. 
 
 The question of the native name of the island 
 (Rapa-nui, or Great Rapa) may have some significance 
 — Rapa Iti or Little Rapa lies a considerable distance 
 to the west of it ; and a common-sense way of looking 
 at things would be that a people would be very likely 
 to call their first home as " Great so-and-so," and their 
 subsequent home as " New or Little so-and-so," irre- 
 spective of the actual size of the islands, even if they 
 were capable of measuring them. This would imply 
 a direction of journey from the East. Next we find 
 that the name in Peru for a turtle or tortoise is Rapa ; 
 and further that the islands en route between Peru 
 and Easter are the Galapagos Islands, where the extra- 
 ordinary giant tortoise is so marked a feature. But 
 there the land will not sustain man, so wayfarers would 
 
80 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 have had to push on to some new island. It is possible 
 that at Easter Island they also found the giant tortoise 
 abundant, so abundant as to cause them to call it the 
 island of Rapa ; but being able to settle on this fertile 
 island they would in time exterminate them. This 
 is merely a theory of my own. There are many other 
 links with Peru in eastern Polynesia, so many that it 
 is impossible altogether to dismiss the idea that there 
 may have been some connection ; but whether the 
 people (or part of the people), passed right on in their 
 great " trek " across the Pacific from Indonesia and 
 actually reached Peru, or whether it was the other 
 way round, and eastern Polynesia was in the first place 
 populated from Peru, is not a problem to be enlarged 
 upon in the present chapter. There were, no doubt, 
 not one but several migrations to Easter Island, and 
 by quite different races of peoplej 
 
 Regarding one of these migrations we have a definite 
 tradition at Rapa-iti in the Austral Group of one party 
 having been driven away from that island about 
 twenty-two generations ago and going to " Rapa- 
 nui," where they killed off all the " long-ears " except 
 the women, and settled there. One may suppose 
 the " long-ears " to have been the slit-eared people 
 of a Melanesian ancestry from the west, or equally 
 from a Peruvian ancestry — also slit-eared — from the 
 east. In 1722 (which would be about eight Pacific 
 generations ago) Roggeveen, the Dutch discoverer of 
 Easter Island, was told by the inhabitants that then- 
 fathers came from somewhere in the Austral Group, 
 which certainly bears out the tradition of that 
 particular migration. 
 
INDONESIA INTO THE PACIFIC 81 
 
 Moreover, the stone images and platforms in the 
 Austral Group, Pitcairn Island, and the Marquesas 
 are very like those of Easter Island, and still more so 
 like those of Peru. The profiles of the Easter Island 
 images are different, and the " bird-man convention 
 due to Melanesian influence " theory as elaborated 
 by the Routledges and H. A. Balfour is probably a 
 correct explanation of this profile ; but the long ears, 
 protruding lips, short arms, position of the hands, 
 and stunted legs in the three illustrations I give from 
 the Marquesas, Easter Island, and Peru are absurdly 
 alike, except that the island ones are naturally more 
 primitive and crude than that of the mainland. 1 
 
 To return to the question of the inscriptions, the 
 peculiar thing about them is that they are done in 
 the " boustrophedon " form of writing, i.e., that to 
 read every alternate line one must turn the tablet 
 upside down. Now there seems little doubt that the 
 Polynesian race came into the Pacific through Indonesia, 
 pausing at various islands (where they have left traces) 
 on their way. One of these is the Celebes, and the 
 Bugis, a people in the Celebes who might well be descen- 
 
 1 The illustration of the Easter Island image is of the one 
 standing in the portico of the British Museum (brought to 
 England by H.M.S. Topaze in 1868), but this particular image has 
 a history different from the other Easter Island ones, as it was 
 found preserved inside a house — not on a great stone platform 
 out in the open like the others — and moreover far removed 
 from the place where the others were. Added to which, the 
 general shape, except for the profile, seems to be different to 
 the others (see another illustration of a typical Easter Island 
 image given here). Is it possible that this differentiated and 
 secluded image belonged to a different migration, more directly 
 connected with the Marquesas or Peru, and not with the " Me- 
 lanesian influence " that governed the others ? 
 
 6 
 
82 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 dants of the ancient Polynesians, use this same " bous- 
 trophedon " way of writing. In the intervening 
 stopping places writing was forgotten, perhaps through 
 absence of materials, perhaps through general de- 
 generation, perhaps because the professional writers 
 (not every one would know how to write) did not 
 go with those particular migrations, or quickly met 
 their deaths. It is possible that one quick migra- 
 tion across the Pacific * to Easter Island had among 
 the party a writer who, with his descendants, was 
 able to keep alive this " boustrophedon " writing 
 among the people. Moreover, the method of the writing 
 may have been brought from, for instance, the Celebes, 
 but the actual glyphs may have been adopted from 
 " the Melanesian influence." 
 
 We must now leave the problems of Easter Island, 
 fascinating as they are, for other parts of the Pacific, 
 where there are also faint traces of a lost art of writing. 
 In 1909 or 1910 M. Archambault, a member of the 
 New Caledonian Civil Service, created a certain stir 
 in the French scientific world by publishing an account 
 of some stone writings he had discovered there. I 
 should like to have given an illustration of them here, 
 but have been unable to obtain a photograph. He 
 claims to have been able to recognize letters that might 
 have sprung from Phoenician, Aramaic, or even 
 Hellenic scripts. There is, I think, no doubt that a 
 certain amount of Semitic influence has at one time 
 
 1 Some of the migrations took centuries to cross the Pacific, 
 stopping a long time at many islands en route ; others may 
 have crossed in a few weeks or months. Much depended on the 
 help of a gale behind them, the strength and inhospitality of the 
 aboriginals on the intervening islands, and many other things. 
 
LuNli-EARED STOXE IMAGE, EASTER ISLAND. 
 (By permission of Mrs. Roittlcdge.) 
 
TRACES OF A LOST ART 83 
 
 in its previous history affected the ancestors of the 
 peoples of the Pacific. This fits in with Fornander's 
 theory. 
 
 Then there are the traces in South-East New Guinea 
 of an alien people, and in Haddon's Evolution in Art 
 is shown a picture of a girl from Motu district, seen 
 before there was any frequent or real contact with 
 Europeans, whose arm has tatu'd upon it a pattern 
 that is too like a regular script to be a mere coinci- 
 dence. The letters run from above downwards, and 
 are joined by a line along the tops ; and Hamilton, 
 who has studied the subject, stated that they were 
 similar letters to some carved on the ancient inscribed 
 stone column of Asoka, a Maurya 1 king in Northern 
 India. 
 
 Finally there are the tatu signs of the Maoris of 
 New Zealand. Certain of these were distinctly of a 
 hieroglyphic nature, and were used by the chiefs, at 
 the signing of a famous treaty with the English, to 
 denote their signatures, and always recognized by the 
 whole people. 
 
 So much for traces of the lost art of writing, so far 
 lost that in most island groups it might never have 
 been. I found the following amusing sentence in an 
 old missionary book : "A South Sea chief once saw 
 the Rev. John Williams make some marks on a piece 
 
 1 It has been shown, with a considerable probability of truth, 
 that the Maoris of the Pacific were descendants of the Mauryas 
 of India and Burma, a people who lived there before the present 
 Indians and Burmese. — (See Smith's Hawaiki, and Newman's 
 Who are the Maoris?). In Arakan, says Newman, there is a 
 tribe of Mauris who worship " Karnie " (Kan6), and the Rising 
 Sun, and have other Polynesian customs. 
 
84 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 of wood, and was then asked to take it to Mrs. Williams. 
 She looked at it, gave the chief an axe, and threw the 
 bit of wood away. He saw that it had procured an 
 axe, so he picked it up, made a hole in it, and hung 
 it round his neck for future use, anticipating an 
 unlimited supply of axes." 
 
 But if they had no writing they certainly had other 
 aids to memory. I have mentioned, on page 23, the 
 Maori genealogical memory-staff now in the British 
 Museum ; in other places knotted cords were used, 
 as were used of old in Peru (the Quipu system), and 
 as, indeed, were used by an illiterate old white store- 
 keeper on Nayau Island (Fiji), not so many years 
 ago, to keep his accounts. " Tally-sticks " were used 
 in Fiji, as in old-time England, for a census of the 
 people under Government supervision, as late as two 
 decades ago ; and a Fijian to this day will remember 
 a long message by bits of sticks of different lengths. 
 
 It was therefore possible, by such extraneous aids, 
 to memorize vast records of tribal history extending 
 back into the ancient past, if there were any special 
 incentives to do so. And the two great incentives 
 were chiefly Pride and Religious Duty. These were 
 aided by a rigid and inflexible law of Custom, which 
 held, and still holds, these South Sea peoples in iron 
 bonds, and orders all their daily lives. 
 
 " It was the custom of our forefathers " is an almost 
 daily remark with them, and nothing more need be 
 said ! 
 
 Chiefs were sprung from the Ancestors, the Ancestors 
 were the Gods. And as all the true Polynesians (apart 
 from conquered alien races) were in some way related 
 
TATU OF A MAORI CHIEF : HORI GATA OF TAURANGA, NEW ZEALAND. 
 (By permission of tlie Agent-General oj New Zealand.) 
 
 To face p. 84. 
 
PRIDE OF ANCESTRY 85 
 
 to the chiefs, all felt their divine origin in a varying 
 degree, all were filled with the pride of race. Yet 
 with all this there was in every one so much of that 
 courtesy and good manner that goes with gentle birth 
 throughout the world, of that polished ease and refine- 
 ment of character that is the mark of breeding, that 
 the pride of the Polynesian was seldom offensive or 
 bombastic. As for the religious incentive, to remember 
 the Ancestors and the lineage leading up to them was 
 a sacred duty ; to forget them, an offence to call down 
 divine wrath. Little wonder, then, that in the temples 
 this was the first business of the priests, that in the 
 priestly " colleges," or Whare-kura (which were built 
 to face the Sun), this was the first thing to be mastered. 
 And partly because it was a sacred duty to perpetuate 
 — by passing the records on from generation to genera- 
 tion — the noble deeds that each ancestor had done, 
 and partly because such occurrences helped in the 
 memorizing of what would otherwise have been long 
 strings of names, a little of the personal history of each 
 ancestor was embodied in the recitation. The work 
 was arduous for the pupils, but it was considered a 
 necessary work ; and, moreover, the help of the gods 
 aided them in their labours. To obtain the divine 
 " Mana," or influence, the youths, while learning from 
 the priests, used to take two small sacred pebbles, 
 specially consecrated for that purpose, and called 
 Whatu-kura, and kept one in the mouth and the 
 other in one hand all the time the priest was teaching 
 them. Their studies commenced at the rising of 
 the Sun, and ended when the Sun reached its 
 zenith. 
 
86 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 Tati Salmon, the son of a white man who married 
 a Tahitian princess, took a particular interest in the 
 ancient history of his mother's people, and secured, 
 before it was too late, much valuable information about 
 the olden days (on the many centuries of whose history 
 the insignificant last fifty years or so of mixture with 
 the European has been nearly sufficient to close the 
 door for all time). In the Transactions of the Polynesian 
 Society, 1910, he wrote : 
 
 "... For the social rank of the chiefs of these 
 islands was so well known and so easily learned that 
 few serious mistakes could be possible. On this founda- 
 tion genealogy grew into a science, and was the only 
 science in the islands which could fairly claim rank 
 with the intellectual work of other countries. 
 Genealogy swallowed up history and made law a field 
 of its own. Chiefs might wander off to far-distant 
 islands and be lost for generations, but if their descend- 
 ants came back and could prove their right to a seat 
 in the family temple, they were admitted to all the 
 privileges and property which belonged to them by 
 inheritance. On the other hand, if they failed in then- 
 proofs and turned out to be impostors, they were put 
 to death without mercy. Relationships were asserted 
 and contested with the seriousness of legal titles, and 
 were often matters of life and death. Every family 
 kept its genealogy a secret to protect itself from im- 
 postors, and all members of the family united to keep 
 it pure." 
 
 In the Polynesian kava circle (itself a semi-religious 
 ceremony) the strictest accuracy was necessary as to 
 the order of precedence, and the herald — whose office 
 
GENEALOGIES— GUARDED SECRETS 87 
 
 was hereditary — had to be a complete master of all 
 the tribal genealogies. Even in Fiji to-day, so strong 
 is the Polynesian portion of their ancestry still felt, 
 the natives observe very carefully the correct 
 order. 
 
 Now these Polynesian genealogical " histories," 
 handed down as a sacred duty from one generation to 
 another, and learned painfully and laboriously in 
 youth with deadly accuracy under the double threat 
 of condign punishment from the teachers and a fatal 
 infliction from the gods, were, as mentioned above, 
 jealously guarded as tribal secrets. It was only on 
 the rare occasions when a white man, through direct 
 marriage into the inner circle of chiefs, became a 
 recognized chief of the tribe, that the histories were 
 divulged to a member of the outer world. And it 
 had to be a white man of discernment and educational 
 attainments to appreciate the nature of the information 
 he was receiving. And, further, he had to be living 
 among the natives before much contact with the 
 " civilized " world and the missionaries had killed 
 their respect for the old institutions and dulled their 
 memories of the ancient past. 
 
 Such a man was Judge Fornander, of Hawaii : and 
 living among the Hawaiians as he did for nearly fifty 
 years in the earlier part of the nineteenth century, 
 he, in a unique way, fulfilled all these conditions, and, 
 fortunately for the scientific world, he made the study 
 and collection of the " histories " his life's work, a 
 monument of which is his Account of the Polynesian 
 Race, in three volumes, published in 1878. But, as 
 he himself confessed, he knew onlv the Hawaiians 
 
88 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 (and how well he knew them !) the rest of the Poly- 
 nesians he had had no chances of studying. The 
 branches of New Zealand, Marquesas, Cook Islands, 
 and the Tonga-Fiji-Somoa group, were practically a 
 sealed book to him. 
 
 Other workers of fifty years ago had been busy, 
 however, notably Sir George Grey in New Zealand 
 and the Rev. W. Gill in the Cook Islands ; but, it will 
 be noticed, almost entirely with the aspect of Mythology. 
 The genealogical histories were still closed to the white 
 man, the fear of the punishment of the gods was still 
 strong. It is only within, roughly, the last twenty 
 years that the priests, the preservers of the genealogies 
 and the last upholders of the faith, have overcome 
 their fear of retribution, their shackles of custom, 
 and their scruples of race, and have been persuaded 
 to disclose the knowledge of tribal history of which 
 they were the guardians. 
 
 The Polynesians Society, with headquarters in New 
 Zealand, started some thirty years ago, has gleaned 
 much valuable information and achieved excellent 
 results, and has been able to check its findings by 
 genealogies gathered from different sources, not only 
 in New Zealand, but other groups of the Pacific. From 
 a careful study of these they have decided to set a 
 Polynesian " generation " at twenty-five years instead 
 of the usual thirty years of Europe ; and most of 
 Fornander's results have been corrected accordingly ; 
 but the checking of Hawaiian, Tahitian, Cook Islands, 
 and New Zealand genealogies against each other (for 
 the older ones started, of course, from the same ancestry) 
 have produced data of surprising accuracy. One may 
 
THE GENEALOGIES CHECKED 89 
 
 mention here that in order to establish the very import- 
 ant date when " the fleet " of Polynesians first came 
 to New Zealand to settle there, more than fifty 
 genealogies from different sources were taken and 
 carefully compared and checked together. The result 
 (at the twenty-five year generation) gives the date at 
 a.d. 1350 ; which may now be regarded as a fixed 
 date in New Zealand history. 
 
 The memories of the older chiefs have been found 
 to be truly remarkable. One old Maori recited to 
 Mr. S. P. Smith, the President of the Society, the list 
 of all the members of his tribe — not merely his father, 
 grandfather, etc., but every collateral — for thirty- 
 four generations back, seven hundred names in all. 
 Another one dictated to Mr. Elsdon Best (who, like 
 Fornander, has lived much among the natives and has 
 gathered invaluable information) some four hundred 
 of the ancient songs, with full details. 
 
 And the genealogies have been checked, not only in 
 a local district of New Zealand, not only over the 
 whole of New Zealand itself, but actually group against 
 group throughout the Pacific. For instance, certain 
 of the Mapri, Cook Islands, Tahitian, and Hawaiian 
 genealogies have at least two common ancestors (before 
 there was much splitting up of the race), and there 
 has been found to be practically no difference in their 
 tables of descent, as given by separate natives from 
 these separate islands (who hardly realize that such 
 other islands exist), for a period extending over twenty- 
 five generations ! 
 
 Of course there is a limit to all things, and just as 
 even our own written records are not invariably reliable 
 
90 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 back into, say, Saxon, times, so these fixed tribal 
 histories can only be considered reliable where fully 
 checked. The Marquesan genealogies go back to 
 seventy-four generations, the Cook Islands ones to 
 ninety-one, and the Moriori of the Chatham Islands 
 and the Rotuman ones are actually said to go back 
 to one hundred and five and one hundred and six 
 generations respectively ! The Tongan ones extend 
 to thirty-five generations, the Tahitian to forty, and 
 the Samoan to fifty-five, but the latter are only con- 
 sidered reliable up to about forty. But taking them 
 all round, I think that the genealogies can be fairly 
 well relied on in most island groups for a period of 
 forty generations or so. 
 
 In making the long voyages of colonization, the 
 voyages of their great " trek," they were especially 
 careful to keep accurate details and to hand the data 
 down to their descendants. It was the proud history 
 of their race. The names of the vessels were recorded, 
 the names of the chiefs and their wives, and even the 
 names of the steersmen. Many separate families 
 would go in these large vessels, and each man with 
 his wife and children would have a portion of the 
 thwarts allotted to him. A Tahitian " history " records 
 that certain canoes started on a voyage from Tahiti 
 well provisioned for a long expedition, a journey of 
 exploration, but with every intention of returning. 
 The names of the canoes and the people were preserved 
 in the traditional song, taught by the priests and 
 elders from one generation to another. But they never 
 returned. 
 
 Many generations afterwards, investigation of the 
 
THE "VOYAGING" PERIOD 91 
 
 Cook Islands histories brought to light the record of 
 these same canoes and same people having safely arrived 
 at Raratonga (Cook Islands), with full details in a 
 manner that only the Polynesian delights in ! 
 
 In this way the following scraps of history have 
 been worked out. Fornander considers that the time 
 between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries a.d. 
 was for Hawaii the golden period of " voyaging," or 
 perhaps rather of arrivals of their cousins from other 
 parts, for the Hawaiians themselves seem to have 
 remained, satisfied, on their own islands, with the 
 occasional exception of some purely adventurous 
 wanderer. The Hawaiian records show many instances 
 of long and successful voyages from Tahiti, Marquesas, 
 and all parts of the Pacific. Then, about the begin- 
 ning of the fourteenth century, all arrivals seem to 
 have stopped ; and the probable explanation is this : 
 The Hawaiian Islands were large and fertile, hence 
 there was room for all, and no urgent demand to seek 
 new homes, no need to fight for existence in their 
 present one. Consequently the Hawaiians themselves 
 did not go in much for " exploration." On the other 
 hand, the smaller islands of Tahiti, the Marquesas, 
 etc., probably became over-populated (especially with 
 the wasteful ideas of cultivation that the Polynesian 
 has always practised), and their inhabitants wandered 
 about the Pacific, settling perhaps on Hawaii for a 
 time, but before death longing to revisit the old home, 
 and generally doing so. But in 1350, when New 
 Zealand was opened up as a fresh country, a larger 
 and more fertile land than any they had yet known, 
 all prows were turned in that direction ; but being a 
 
92 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 country so far off it was very rarely that a return 
 voyage was made, even to their own islands, still less 
 on a mere pleasure visit to Hawaii. 
 
 But before the twelfth century both the Hawaiians 
 and Marquesans have histories of their great journey 
 into and across the Pacific. Some of the most interest- 
 ing of these are what have been called the " logs " 
 of the voyage. There are two main " logs " — showing 
 a variation in the calling-places — preserved by the 
 descendants of two separate migrations which took 
 place, possibly at an interval of time, or possibly 
 simultaneously, to the Marquesas Group, the fleet 
 getting separated by gales en route. These give the 
 ancient forgotten names of the places stopped at, 
 and if they could only be definitely located many 
 doubts would be set at rest. The two " logs " are 
 as follows, and are called the Atea and the Tani log 
 respectively. (T and K are interchangeable in 
 Hawaiian, and Atea is also found as Akea, Wakea, 
 and Vatea). 
 
 Atea log 
 
 
 
 Tani log 
 
 From Take-hihi we went to 
 
 From Take-hihi we went to 
 
 Aki-tai 
 
 
 
 Aki-tai 
 
 then (a long journey) 
 
 to 
 
 then 
 
 (a long journey) to 
 
 Ao-nu'u 
 
 
 
 Ao-nu'u 
 
 then (by sea) to 
 
 
 then 
 
 (by sea) to 
 
 Papa-nui 
 
 
 
 Papa-nui 
 
 and 
 
 
 
 and 
 
 Take-hi to 
 
 
 
 Take-hi to 
 
 
 
 
 
 Ho-vau 
 
 — 
 
 
 
 Nini-oe 
 Ao-ewa 
 
 Ani-tak6 
 
 
 
 Ani-tak6 
 
THE "LOGS" COMPARED 93 
 
 Atea log — [contd.] 
 
 Tani log — [contd.] 
 
 — 
 
 Hovau 
 
 — 
 
 Vevau 
 
 Hawaii (. . . " where were vol- 
 
 
 canoes and storms ") 
 
 
 Tu-uma (Rotuma) 
 
 Tu-uma 
 
 Mea-ai (? Vanau Levu, Fiji) 
 
 Mea-ai 
 
 Fiti-nui (Fiti Levu, Fiji) 
 
 Fiti-nui 
 
 Mata-hou (Matuku Island) 
 
 Mata-hou 
 
 Tona-nui (Tonga) 
 
 Tona-nui 
 
 Mau-ewa (at Huahine Island, 
 
 Mau-ewa 
 
 Society Group) 
 
 
 Pi-ina 
 
 Pi-ina 
 
 and over the ocean to 
 
 
 Ao-Ma'ama (Marquesas) 
 
 Ao-Ma'ama 
 
 It will be noticed that after Take-hi the journeys 
 diverged till they met again at Ani-take, where they 
 again separated till Tu-uma was reached. I have 
 placed in brackets some suggestions as to which these 
 calling places might be ; the Hawaii in the Atea log 
 is unlikely to be the Hawaiian Islands, and since it 
 also has " volcanoes " it may be probably some place- 
 name, now lost, in the New Hebrides. It is considered 
 by Fornander, S. P. Smith, Newman, and others who 
 have studied the subject that the " histories " point 
 to the Polynesian exodus from Indonesia to the Pacific 
 having taken place between the first and third cen- 
 turies a.d. ; and this follows upon the recorded period 
 of invasion of Indonesia, and especially Java, by 
 Hindus from India — who presumably drove the 
 Polynesians before them. 
 
 There were, of course, different Polynesian " waves," 
 at different periods, into the Pacific along this main 
 route, and I am inclined to think, for reasons given 
 in a later chapter on place-names, that there was a 
 
94 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 very early one into Hawaii along a northern deflection 
 of the route, via the Caroline Islands. (Wakea or 
 Atea, from whom the Atea " log " is derived, and who 
 is by the genealogies dated about the end of the fourth 
 century, found " a kindred people " already there.) * 
 
 1 Strange how the cycles of the ages still move on ! In 1917 
 I came over to the war with a contingent of native Fijians, 
 and stopping a day at Honolulu we were entertained at a feast 
 by native Hawaiians, in whom the Fijians found a hospitable 
 kinsfolk, and many words of whose language they were quickly 
 able (especially the Eastern Fijians) to pick up. 
 
6 ^S^r 
 
 2 & 
 
 1 o 
 
 3 TS 
 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 GLIMPSES OF HISTORY {continued) 
 
 Another early wave was that which ultimately 
 colonized New Zealand ; because there it is, more than 
 anywhere else, that one finds such close kinship with 
 ancient Indian mythology, art, and customs, so ancient 
 that they could not have been picked up by mixing 
 with the more modern Indians who came down on 
 Java in the first century a.d., but must have been 
 derived from an earlier association with " pre-Indians " 
 if one may use the expression — in Burma and India 
 itself. (This would be the " overland " migration 
 that I mentioned at page 46.) The " log " of this 
 journey gives the following order of calling places : 
 
 Hono-i-wairua 
 
 Tawhiti-pa-mamao 
 
 Tawhiti-roa 
 
 Tawhiti-nui 
 
 (to New Zealand) 
 
 Then there was another distinctly later migration 
 
 into Hawaii direct from Tahiti, of which much evidence 
 
 may be gathered from tradition, custom, and stone 
 
 remains. 1 The people of this Tahitian invasion brought 
 
 1 This migration from Tahiti would seem to have been com- 
 posed of a more negroid, Melanesian-tinged race. Tradition 
 on Hawaii has it that Hawaiian chiefs are descended from Wakea 
 
 95 
 
96 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 with them many new ideas, including the system of 
 Moi or Suzerain chiefs, replacing the ancient " Hau " 
 or priest-kings (called " Sau " in the Fiji-Tonga- 
 Samoa Group) ; the separation of the temporal and 
 spiritual kingship ; the " committee of nobility," which 
 bolstered up and set apart by dress, observance, and 
 in every possible way the " nobles " ; the laced, skin- 
 covered drums, replacing the hollow wooden " tree- 
 gongs " (which are still used in the Fiji-Tonga-Samoa 
 Group) ; the elevation to supreme rank of the god 
 Tangaroa ; the institution of human sacrifices ; and 
 the walled-in " heiau " temples, replacing the old 
 open pyramids. 1 
 
 And a rather puzzling " log " is that given by old 
 people of Raratonga (Cook Islands) as the journey 
 of their ancestors before reaching Samoa. It is as 
 follows : — 
 
 Atia-te-varinga-nui, which S. P. Smith thinks is India 
 Avaiki-te-varinga „ ,, Java 
 
 Iti-nui ,, „ another part of 
 
 Java 
 Papua ,, ,, some island 
 
 north of Fiji 
 Enua-kura „ ,, Papua 
 
 Avaiki „ „ Savaii, Samoa 
 
 Kuporu „ „ Upolu, Samoa 
 
 Manuka ,, ,, Manu'a, Samoa 
 
 (cf. the " log " of Atea) who may be the same as Vatea the god, 
 whereas Hawaiian commoners are descended from this Tahitian 
 migration. "... a number of canoes from Tahiti finding 
 the Sandwich Isles inhabited only by gods, asked their permis- 
 sion and settled on one of the bigger islands. . . ." — an old 
 legend in Ellis's Tour through Hawaii. 
 1 Fornander's Polynesian Race. 
 
FIFTH CENTURY RECORDS 97 
 
 I myself am inclined to think that between " Avaiki- 
 te-varinga " and " Iti-nui " there should be a gap, 
 i.e., that some portion of the " log " has been lost, 
 and that Iti-nui is Fiji (Viti Levu). " Papua " may 
 be Bua, an ancient district on Vanua Levu Island ; 
 Enua Kura, 1 is Taveuni Island ; and Avaiki, Kuporu 
 and Manuka are the Samoan Islands as given above. 
 
 In a Paumotu tradition one of the calling-places is 
 " Iti-nui, with its king, Tangaroa-menehune." He is 
 shown on the Tahitian genealogies to be forty-two 
 generations ago, or about a.d. 950 — the beginning of 
 the second period of migration starting from Fiji. 3 
 But between the fifth and tenth centuries we have 
 records of other great chiefs who flourished in the 
 Fiji-Tonga-Samoa Group, the earliest being Tu-tarangi, 
 who must have been one of the first arrivals, and whom 
 the genealogies date about a.d. 450. Then, during 
 Tu-tarangi's time, we find that another chief, Ari, 
 built a wonderful stone house at Samoa, which had 
 stone pillars, stone beams, and stone rafters, and 
 " there was a stream running through it." One 
 glimpses here an Eastern courtyard with a cooling stream, 
 possibly a fountain, diverted for the chief's pleasure. 
 
 About this time there appear to have been quarrels 
 and warfare between the various Polynesian chiefs 
 who had begun to colonize these rich and fertile lands ; 
 
 1 " Enua Kura " was said to be the island where the much- 
 prized scarlet parrot feathers were obtained. Taveuni has 
 been famous for these from time immemorial. It is quite possible 
 that New Guinea may have been called Enua Kura as well, 
 as the same name was often given to stopping places en route. 
 But in this case it seems to me that Taveuni fits in better. 
 
 3 K. Newman's, Who are the Maoris ? 
 
 7 
 
98 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 and very possibly the aborigines (from whom there 
 had probably been wrested only a very precarious 
 foothold along the coasts) would seize the opportunity 
 to come down in force from the hills and add to the 
 general discomfort. The consequence was that there 
 followed a period of dispersal and migration from 
 Fiji, though a few important chiefs still held their 
 own for many generations to come, the old stock, 
 however, gradually getting more and more " Melane- 
 sianized " until the blend of " Fijian " — as we know 
 him to-day — was formed. (I think the recent " back- 
 wash " from Tonga of the few Tongan rovers who 
 visited Fiji in search of good canoes during the period 
 of about 1750 to 1850 had but little real effect on the 
 race. The more refined, more " Polynesian," physical 
 appearances of the Bau people, 1 who came down from 
 the hills to settle on the coast towards the end of the 
 eighteenth century, is, I consider, due to the fact that 
 they are hybrid descendants of some branch of the 
 ancient Polynesians who, at the time of the Melanesian 
 overflow, did not put to sea like the others, but escaped 
 to the hills and settled there, too strong to be exter- 
 minated, and who — blood will tell — eventually came 
 into their own once more. I state this with all diffi- 
 dence — I believe it is the first time such a theory 
 has been put forward — but it seems to me not altogether 
 improbable.) 2 
 
 1 The Bau people, it is hardly necessary to state to those 
 who have had anything to do with the Pacific, are the ruling 
 race of modern Fiji, and it was their chief, Thakombau, who 
 was acknowledged, perhaps wrongfully, by the whites, as " King 
 of all Fiji," and who ceded the group to Great Britain in 1875. 
 
 * It would seem that much the same thing happened at Saa, 
 in Malaita Island, Solomon Group, where — eleven generations 
 
V4 
 
 jj&. 
 
 O 
 
 ♦ 
 
 
 ""■-^ 
 
 s ; !f 
 
 ^ 
 
AKAPURA THE CHIEFTAINESS 99 
 
 One of the well-known chiefs in Fiji in those early 
 days was Tu-tonga-kai-a-iti, who was driven to Tonga 
 about a.d. 600, and it was about the same time or a 
 little later that the famous Ui-te-rangiora, the explorer, 
 commenced his wonderful voyages in search of new 
 lands ; one of his journeys towards the far south I 
 have already mentioned on page 44. 
 
 Another famous chief, Tawake, whose name is 
 constantly appearing in the traditions, and who was 
 a great navigator, appears to have lived in Fiji about 
 a.d. 750. He ascended the mountain of " Whiti- 
 hana," and Matuku and Benga * Islands (Peka in 
 Polynesian) are mentioned in connection with his 
 name. 
 
 There is a long story that about A.D. 850 a chief - 
 tainess named Akapura lived with her ten brothers 
 (probably some were cousins, called " brothers " in 
 the Polynesian way) at Hapa'i Island, Tonga. They 
 became very jealous of her son, who had grown to 
 manhood skilled in all arts of warfare, and whose 
 influence they apparently had begun to fear ; and one 
 day they killed him. She at once gathered together 
 what forces she could, especially the help of a powerful 
 relative from Samoa, and at the first battle they were 
 able to kill three of the " brothers." The tradition 
 says that her Samoan ally — typical warrior of the 
 day — called out : " But now let us swallow their 
 
 ago — a tribe having " chiefs " and " patriarchal descent " and 
 other Polynesian customs came down from the hills and con- 
 quered the coast people and still remain there as the predominant 
 tribe. 
 
 ' This is the Benga Island that will be mentioned later in 
 connection with a fire-walking ceremony. 
 
100 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 eyeballs, as a token to Orokeva of how the rest will 
 be crushed in my mouth," and proceeded to do so ! * 
 But the point of the story is that the remainder, with 
 their followers, fled in an easterly direction and became 
 the first Polynesian colonizers of the Cook Islands. 
 And the Cook Islanders say that their forefathers 
 were a peaceable folk and knew not warfare till these 
 Tongans came among them with their iron-wood clubs 
 and introduced real fighting.* 
 
 Now we come to an important time in the history 
 of Samoa. There appear to have been two big 
 migrations from Samoa to Tonga, probably neither of 
 them voluntary, as "... a migration induced by an 
 attraction is rare as compared with that produced 
 by an expulsion " (A. C. Haddon, Wanderings of 
 Peoples). 
 
 One of these migrations is thought to have taken 
 place in the time of the second Tui Tonga, which is 
 stated to have been thirty-four generations before the 
 death of King George Tupou in 1893. This would 
 bring it to about a.d. 1050, and the same account 
 would have it that the Haamonga, the great trilithon 
 of Tonga, was built by these people. 
 
 Of the other migration we have a more definite 
 account. It would appear that the pure Polynesians 
 (whom we will call here the " Tonga-Fiti " people) 
 
 1 Though quite apart from this there was a definite reason 
 for swallowing the eyeball of a slain foe, which I will discuss 
 in a later chapter. The reason, briefly, was to acquire certain 
 moral virtues, such as valour, etc., which the slain man had. 
 Also, by incorporating some of him inside oneself to prevent 
 his ghost from harming one. 
 
 J The supposition being that the soft-wood staves they had 
 hitherto used might disable but seldom killed. 
 
THE TRILITHONS 101 
 
 were settled in strength in a part of Savaii, and had 
 overcome the neighbouring peoples (whom we may 
 suppose were a mixture of another drift of Polynesians 
 with the earlier Melanesian element, 1 and whose chief 
 was Savea, the first Malietoa) sufficiently to exact 
 tribute from them. Malietoa's people had probably 
 been gathering in strength for some time, and one day 
 his two sons, on taking the tribute in to their oppressors, 
 deliberately pulled up the Le-ale-a, or iron-wood 
 mooring-stick, of the Tongan chief's canoe, which 
 act was considered a deadly insult. It was a declaration 
 of rebellion, and in the battles that followed Malietoa's 
 party gained the upper hand and drove the " Tonga- 
 Fiti " out of Samoa to Tonga, eventually enforcing a 
 treaty by which the expelled people undertook " never 
 to return to Samoa except in peace," which treaty, 
 probably through necessity, has always been kept. 2 
 
 Now the time of the first Malietoa is said to be about 
 A.D. 1250, and the last high-priest of Raratonga stated 
 that according to the Raratongan " histories " the 
 trilithon was built in the time of Makea Karika, of 
 
 1 One comes to this conclusion not only from the distinct 
 " negroid " and non-Polynesian traces in the Samoans of to- 
 day, who are not at all like, for instance, the Hawaiians, Tahitians, 
 or Cook Islanders, but also because they have, and had, no 
 great traditional histories of journeys from some former home, 
 as all the rest of the Polynesians have. It would seem that 
 wherever the Melanesian element becomes strong the gift of 
 memory — even in the remaining Polynesian element of the 
 new type produced — becomes obliterated. 
 
 1 They may not all have fled to Tonga. Tradition says that 
 the Ellice Group was peopled from Samoa " about twenty-seven 
 generations ago," and if not the exact date it was evidently 
 owing to some dispersal-causing disturbances at Samoa about 
 that time. 
 
102 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 both Samoa and Raratonga, whose date by the 
 genealogies works out at about a.d. 1250. Mateialonga, 
 late Governor of Hapai, informed Sir Basil Thomson 
 that it was built in the time of Tui-Ta-tui, which is 
 about a.d. 1350 ; but if the one set of genealogies has 
 been worked out on the thirty-year, and the other 
 on the twenty-five-year, scale we get the same result, 
 viz., twenty-two to twenty-three generations ago. I 
 think one would not be far out if one sets the Haamonga 
 trilithon down as late thirteenth century. Moreover, 
 there is more than one trilithon in Tonga, and there 
 may be confusion for that reason also ; though it is 
 evident that they were all built by the same people, 
 even if a century or two divided the building of the 
 first one from that of the last. 
 
 It was the Karika mentioned above who appears 
 as an actor in the story of Tangiia and his relentless 
 pursuer Tutapu — one of the most picturesque dramas 
 of the Pacific. Tangiia was a famous voyager, second 
 only in renown to Ui-te-rangiora, but a traveller more 
 from necessity than choice ! For he had wronged 
 Tutapu, a powerful chief, and to escape his vengeance 
 fled from island to island all over the Pacific. His 
 wanderings extended for over twenty years, and a 
 vast number of voyages ; it is recorded that on his 
 ninth voyage he visited Rapa-iti, otherwise Oparo, 
 in the Austral Group, and eventually settled and died 
 at Raratonga, Cook Islands, which was the last calling- 
 place (except perhaps the Kermadec Islands) of the 
 Polynesians, who formed the chief migrations to New 
 Zealand. It is said that at Rapa-iti, and only at 
 Rapa-iti, are found the typical New Zealand fortifica- 
 

TANGIIA THE WANDERER 108 
 
 tions of " Pa " — can they have been constructed by 
 Tangiia ? 
 
 A remarkable dovetailing of data which, I believe, 
 has not been hitherto pointed out is that on the one 
 hand we have Tangiia, an ancestor of Raratongans, 
 and therefore most probably of New Zealand Maoris, 
 of about twenty-two generations ago, visiting Rapa-iti 
 (with no doubt the inevitable fighting that all such 
 " visits " resulted in), and we have traces of the 
 Raratongan-New Zealand " Pa's " ; on the other 
 hand we have the legend that " about twenty-two 
 generations ago a King of Rapa-iti was driven out and 
 fled to Rapa-nui (Easter Island), where he and his 
 men killed off the ' long-eared ' people, except the 
 women, and settled." T And to-day we find at Easter 
 Island a race of semi-Polynesians who have kept up 
 parts of their Melanesian cult, but speak Polynesian 
 and strive their utmost to keep alive the traditions and 
 genealogies of their Polynesian ancestry by means of 
 a system of carved marks and symbols as memory aids, 
 amounting to a rude script, which — as Mrs. Routledge 
 told me — probably was evolved by themselves ; the 
 Melanesian carving instinct and the Polynesian history 
 instinct for once coming aptly together on a fertile soil. 
 
 To return to Tangiia. Another vivid glimpse of 
 the old Polynesian days is given us in the " histories," 
 where we find that on one occasion, when the never- 
 ending chase by the vengeance-hungry Tutapu seemed 
 at last on the verge of satisfaction, Tangiia was in 
 
 1 The custom of ear-piercing was, however, still kept up, 
 for Captain Cook describes " ears reaching down to the shoulders, 
 and distended by rolled-up pieces of cane-leaf. 
 
104 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 danger of being cut off by a canoe that was cruising 
 off Samoa with Karika, a possible ally of Tutapu, 
 on board. Tangiia, at his wits' end, decided to try 
 conciliatory measures and win Karika over to his own 
 side, so he drew alongside and proffered his " Au," 
 or token of supremacy, as a gift. I am not quite clear 
 what this may have been, but whatever it was it was 
 so highly venerated by his followers and relatives 
 that one of them, shamed that such an emblem should 
 pass from the tribe, snatched at it, and in the scuffle 
 that ensued it fell into the sea and was ■ lost. This 
 implies that it was of some heavy material, and was 
 probably of metal, jade, or ivory, very likely some 
 sort of sceptre. Tangiia, not to be baulked, then 
 proffered his Pare-kura, the sacred red feather head- 
 dress, which Karika accepted, and — not to be outdone 
 in generosity — offered his own daughter to Tangiia 
 as a wife. Thus was cemented an alliance which one 
 has reason to believe lasted till death. 
 
 Another voyaging of Tangiia's was that on which 
 he sailed to Tahiti, 1 and remained there for a long 
 time, fighting and subduing the inhabitants. It is 
 recorded that he conquered " the pygmies " of Tahiti, 
 and the names of four tribes are given, namely Neke, 
 Kai lila, A-vakevake, and Menehune. I imagine that 
 these " pygmies " must have been the short dark 
 aborigines, but I am inclined to think that the word 
 Menehune or Manaune especially implies a distinct 
 people. It is a term constantly occurring in ancient 
 
 1 It is said that Tutapu had driven him out of Tahiti, so this 
 was probably an early voyage, unless indeed he was bom and 
 brought up there, a son of one of the early Polynesian settlers. 
 
THE MENEHUNE PEOPLE 105 
 
 traditions of the Pacific. Fornander states that a 
 Hawaiian legend mentions the capturing and bringing 
 over from Tahiti " dwarfs," and in another tradition 
 it is said that the great stone works at Hawaii, such 
 as the " fish-ponds," were built by the Menehune 
 people. But if the dwarfs were the same as the Mene- 
 hune^ why was it necessary in the legends to distin- 
 guish them ? S. P. Smith considers, and I at first 
 thought the same, that these were the short aboriginals 
 employed in great numbers by the Polynesians to 
 construct the big stone buildings, of which so many 
 traces yet remain, 1 but on further consideration I 
 think they were not the short aboriginals, although 
 they no doubt were the slave builders of the big stone 
 works. The same people apparently were to be found 
 in Fiji (see the reference a few pages back to " Iti-nui, 
 with its king, Tangaroa-manaune "). 
 
 One of the last accounts we have of Tangiia is that 
 as an old man, weary of the incessant wandering and 
 fighting, he journeyed back to Avaiki-te-varinga, the 
 land of his fathers, to consult the ancient deity, Tonga- 
 Fiti. The god, or his priest, told him to make his 
 way to Tumu-te-varovaro (Raratonga Island), and that 
 he should there end his days. This he did, but it is 
 mentioned that on his way back he mislaid, at Uea 
 Island (? in the Loyalty Group), a sacred " trumpet " 
 that he had brought back from Avaiki-te-varinga, 
 
 1 He suggests that the word means " cicatrice," and we know 
 that the negroid Melanesians " cicatrized " rather than " tatu'd " 
 themselves (probably because the dark pigment of tatu did 
 not show up against their dark skins). The Menehune" are also 
 said to have dwelt " in the forests," implying an inland people, 
 or an early race driven back from the coasts. 
 
106 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 and so important was it that he had to go back a 
 considerable part of his journey to get it. 
 
 There is a fantastic myth about a Tangiia, but I 
 think it just possible that this may have been some 
 remote predecessor, after whom the one I have just 
 been describing was named. The legend has it that 
 this Tangiia was asked by Rangi, an original settler 
 in Mangaia (Cook Islands) to send them one of his 
 sons " to be their god." So a certain Motoro was 
 sent, but on the voyage he was killed by his brothers. 
 His soul, however, floated on to Mangaia on a hibiscus 
 petal, and he became their god ; but was known as 
 a " Day," or beneficent god, in distinction to Rongo 
 their " Night " or Avaiki one, who was afterwards 
 associated with cruelty and human sacrifices. This 
 Rangi was said to be a grandson of Rongo the god, 
 and it is added that one day he had signally failed in 
 his proper devotions by only sacrificing a paltry rat 
 in his grandfather's honour, so that Rongo was much 
 hurt, and withdrew the light of his countenance, and 
 his favours. Rangi thereupon in conciliation sacri- 
 ficed a human being (a dead Tongan who had been 
 slain in the recent fighting), and this was stated to be 
 the first human sacrifice offered in the Cook Islands : 
 though it may have been an isolated case, particularly 
 remembered, and preceding the general custom by 
 some centuries. Later on I shall show that human 
 sacrifices seem to have been introduced into the principal 
 groups between iooo and 1250 a.d. (which would also 
 be nearer the date of Tangiia the voyager). 
 
 Now I read the above legend to mean that Rangi, 
 a tribal connection of Tangiia's, but probably somewhat 
 
THE KING-PRIESTS OF TONGA 107 
 
 debased by Melanesian Cook Islands blood, asked 
 Tangiia to send them one of his sons, a skilled warrior, 
 to reign over them or to assist them in keeping at bay 
 the dark tribes, possibly his mother's people. That 
 Motoro killed, was deified, and became — as was fitting 
 to a pure Sky-descended Polynesian — a Day god, or 
 god of Light, in contrast to Rongo, the local hybrid- 
 aboriginal god, the cruel god of Avaiki (Hades). Also 
 from legendary association of a human sacrifice with 
 the Tongans, it would appear that that custom was 
 introduced by them, together with the heavy fighting, 
 as mentioned previously. Thus we may suppose this 
 incident to occur shortly after the arrival of the brothers 
 of Akapura, towards the close of the ninth century. 
 If, on the other hand, it should be the same Tangiia, 
 it would of course be very much later. 
 
 Another item of definite history that is really removed 
 from the period of legendary myth is the genealogy of 
 the sacred king-priests of Tonga, called the Tui Tonga. 
 This peculiar institution of combined spiritual and tem- 
 poral kingship, generally in later times split up, is found 
 in a number of closely associated peoples, such as the 
 Shogun-Mikado of the Japanese (whose predecessors, the 
 Ainu, were distinctly akin to the Polynesians) ; the Zabo- 
 tecs of ancient Mexico ; the Fijians (Roko Tui and 
 Vunivalu) ; the Cook Islanders, and the Hawaiians. 
 Curiously enough it does not seem to have appeared 
 in Tahiti or Samoa, where a Melanesian element was 
 in stronger force, 1 while in Fiji I think it was a relic 
 
 1 Captain Cook describes the Hawaiians as being in colour 
 and appearance much more like Europeans ; and he had just 
 left Tahati, so that the contrast with the darker Tahitians 
 must have impressed him. 
 
108 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 of the thin belt of Polynesian settlement round the 
 coasts, brought back in later times to prominence by 
 the Polynesian-descended Bauans. 
 
 In Tonga the institution seems to have started about 
 the eleventh century, and continued down to the end 
 of the sixteenth, when, according to one account, a 
 chief rebelled and took away the temporal power, 
 founding the dynasty known as Tui Takalua, which 
 in turn was displaced by that called Tui Kanokobula. 
 By another account the Tui Tonga of the day found 
 his dual position too strenuous, and delegated his 
 temporal power to a younger brother. It is possible 
 that the two accounts may not be incompatible, and 
 that the delegation was not entirely voluntary ! In 
 Mariner's Tonga we have a clear account, by this 
 European eye-witness of 1808, of the position of the 
 Tui Tonga of that time, slowly waning into obscurity. 
 He was very sacred and " tabu," so tabu that his blood 
 might in no way be shed, and thus he could not be 
 either " incised " or " tatu'd." The office always 
 descended from the father to the son, and on his death 
 his widow had formerly been strangled z ; while, as 
 showing his divinity, the " Inachi ", or first-fruits 
 ceremony was made yearly, with much display, in his 
 honour. 
 
 Besides these recorded migrations, led or caused 
 by historical people, there were numerous waves in 
 various directions over the Pacific, the only traces of 
 which now left to us are in the anthropological differ- 
 ences of the inhabitants, and in the stone remains 
 still found. An instance of this is Easter Island, 
 1 Mariner's Tonga. 
 
THE STONE REMAINS 109 
 
 where Balfour has shown that the bird-heads in the 
 script (and possibly conventionalised also in the profiles 
 of the big stone images) are the hook-beaked frigate 
 birds of the Solomon Islands, not found in the eastern 
 ocean ; implying that the people who brought the 
 idea must have been Melanesians from the far west 
 of the Pacific. 1 They, I think, were later on displaced 
 by Polynesians, as I have shown a few pages back, 
 but what one would like to know is : " Did they them- 
 selves arrive upon an empty land, or was there a previous 
 people, possibly from America, already there ? " The 
 confining of a people upon a small island has, I am 
 convinced, a degenerating effect, and it seems hardly 
 credible that this wave of Melanesians from the Solomon 
 Islands, strong and fierce though they might be in 
 war, and skilful at carving though they might be in 
 peace, could have evolved for themselves the grand 
 ideas of the great sloping stone platforms, the vast 
 stone terraces, the colossal works everywhere, so totally 
 different from their own culture in the Solomon Islands. 
 Were not these ideas rather brought in by a migration 
 of people from South America (a backwash of the 
 earliest Polynesians if you will, but advanced in culture 
 and technique by a residence of possibly some centuries 
 in the more helpful environment of a continent ) ? 
 When we consider that the population of England 
 has increased in two thousand years from a very few 
 thousand people to some fifty millions, there is no 
 reason why a Polynesian migration right across the 
 Pacific that ended in colonizing Peru might not have 
 
 1 The illustration facing page 24, showing Melanesian articles, 
 has a bird-headed man supporting a wooden bowl. 
 
110 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 increased in the course of a thousand years to the 
 great number of people — fari passu increasing in 
 culture — who built the large stone cities discovered 
 by the early Spaniards.? 
 
 SOLOMON ISIANDS CARVING OF THE HOOK-NOSED BIRDS. 
 
 An unrecorded wave would be that which brought 
 the short people, " the pygmies ", to Tahiti, unless it 
 be that they dated from a period of time so ancient 
 that they formed part of one negrito race that may 
 have inhabited the whole of the Pacific. It seems, 
 in fact, probable that the short people were part and 
 parcel of the aboriginals of Papua, Indonesia, and 
 the Philippines. Mr. Staniforth Smith, who has ably 
 followed in Sir William McGregor's footsteps as an 
 administrator and explorer in New Guinea, once told 
 me that he considered the short men were the aboriginal 
 people there, and that the present predominant type 
 of hook-nosed " Semitic " Papuan was due to a strong 
 admixture of his ancestry with the Semitic and 
 
 1 Since writing the above a thought has occurred to me. 
 Can it be that the hook-beaked birds were not Western Pacific 
 frigate-birds at all, but South American vultures, or even 
 eagles, the Sun-birds ? This will completely upset the Me- 
 lanesian theory, but strengthen the American theory. Even 
 if the eagle does not catch fish, that might easily be an idea 
 induced by local conditions. 
 
THE FATE OF THE CASTAWAY 111 
 
 Phoenician traders who came down to New Guinea, 
 and even Australia, on yearly expeditions over a period 
 of centuries. 
 
 Casual gale-carried " drifts " of small canoe-loads of 
 mixed sexes might populate an uninhabited island, 
 as I have explained in another book, 1 and, if strong 
 enough, might even influence the future characteristics 
 of an inhabited one, but the usual fate of a handful 
 of survivors of an involuntary canoe-voyage was to 
 be killed as things to be afraid of, denizens of another 
 world ; or, even if recognized as human beings, still 
 killed as creatures likely to bring evil magic or disease 
 in their train. Thus, in Fiji, any castaway was, as 
 a matter of course, clubbed; "he had salt water in 
 his eyes " being the recognized phrase. One striking 
 exception to this is recorded from Tahiti, where we 
 find that a chief named Hatonga was blown away 
 with his men during some canoe races, and carried 
 one hundred and twenty miles to the west to Raiatea 
 Island, a new and unexplored land to them. Here 
 they would have been slain as usual, but the inhabi- 
 tants discovered that they both worshipped the Sun 
 (whom they called Tama-nui-te-Ra, or the great Sun- 
 father), and so spared their lives, eventually helping 
 them on their return journey to Tahiti. 
 
 But in the case of Samoa there must have been 
 several distinct waves of migration of different types 
 of people, and unfortunately, as I have mentioned 
 before, there are no reliable traditions of these immigra- 
 tions. In later chapters I shall deal with what traces 
 we can pick up from stone remains and customs respec- 
 1 The Lau Islands. 
 
112 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 tively; it is sufficient to say here that there appear 
 to have been arrivals at different times of at least a 
 Fire-worshipping people, a Sun-worshipping people, a 
 division who practised embalming, and a party of 
 megalithic builders. How much these overlapped and 
 blended it is at present difficult to say. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 BURIAL CUSTOMS 
 
 There is perhaps nothing more fascinating than the 
 pursuit of some strange and curious custom to its 
 origin, the triumphant fitting of a common-sense 
 explanation to a mass of apparently senseless ceremony 
 and ritual. And the peoples of the Pacific are more 
 wrapped in queer and singular customs than, I think, 
 any other nations of the earth. Ancient customs, 
 too, for the people are conservative to a degree, and 
 it is only within the last few decades that the white 
 man has seriously brought upon them any radical 
 changes. Before this his rare visits had but little 
 influenced them ; they had, indeed, looked upon him 
 more as some god from the spirit land, and not as a 
 man like themselves (and one who would in a few 
 score years do much to change the current of their 
 domestic lives). Thus, the customs of their fore- 
 fathers were almost all in the full vigour of their 
 strength until quite lately, when the great uprooting 
 of the old gods and the ancient faiths was brought 
 about. 
 
 Had they all been of one nation, living together on 
 one big island — but secluded by the barrier of ocean 
 from the rest of the world, like the Australian aborigines 
 —their customs would have been comparatively easy 
 
 8 113 
 
114 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 to classify and tabulate ; but the many different 
 waves of peoples that have poured into the Pacific 
 throughout the centuries (and not all frpm the same 
 geographical source, even if sprung in the misty past 
 from the same racial stock) have rendered the task 
 by no means an easy one. It is therefore with some 
 diffidence that I have made the attempt in the following 
 chapters to find the solution of some of the problems 
 that face us in the Pacific to-day ; and especially of 
 those customs that have at one time been connected, 
 directly or indirectly, with the ritual of Sun- 
 worship. 
 
 No matter what our various religions may be, there 
 is no doubt that all of us mortals feel nearer to our 
 gods in the solemn presence of death. When that 
 strange thing we call the soul has been at length set 
 free, we onlookers feel that somehow, in the neigh- 
 bourhood of the scene, the gods have in some mysterious 
 way been brought for a brief space into more intimate 
 contact with us, that there is for a few moments some- 
 thing awe-inspiring in the very atmosphere. With 
 primitive man this local mystery remained for days, 
 and sometimes for months. Though the corpse was 
 inanimate, the soul, that link with the gods, hesitated 
 to leave the neighbourhood, the dead man knew all 
 that was going on, 1 and if the ghost were offended in 
 any way, woe betide the offender. With many peoples 
 
 1 From now onwards I shall follow the example of other 
 workers on the Pacific and use the term " ghost " for the soul 
 of a person who has died, in distinction from " spirit " meaning 
 the soul of someone (as a god) or something (as any article, 
 for with many primitive peoples " things " had souls) that has 
 never lived. 
 
"OCCUPATION" BY THE DEAD 115 
 
 the ghost, if that of an ancestor, would be helpful if 
 properly approached and propitiated ; with others it 
 was always a menace, and to be got rid of if possible. 
 This accounts for the two broad distinctions of the 
 people who kept their dead with them, and of those 
 who thrust them away. 
 
 Williams, one of the early observers of customs in 
 Fiji, stated that on the tenth day the women were 
 privileged to rush about with whips and beat the 
 men ; in Cook's Voyages it is said that in Tahiti relatives 
 of the corpse might go about in masks and beat people ; 
 the Maoris and the Hawaiians could plunder and ravage 
 in the village for a brief time after a death. Doctor 
 Rivers 1 considers that all this is due to the belief that 
 the ghost of the dead man is still prowling about and 
 must be allowed to enter anybody, and do whatever 
 he will without let or hindrance. All over Fiji I used 
 to notice good houses left deserted and empty for a 
 considerable time after the death of the owner, some- 
 times till they decayed and only the posts and beams 
 remained to be transplanted to another site. This 
 was, I found after some pressure, due to the reluctance 
 of the relatives to invade the house still " occupied " 
 by the ghost of the dead man, till it was estimated that 
 he had finally departed. 
 
 In Africa certain tribes get over this difficulty, and 
 " puzzle " the ghost, ensuring that he shall not find 
 his way back, by blindfolding the corpse and taking 
 it off to the burial through a hole made in the side of 
 
 1 Many of the Western Pacific customs mentioned here have 
 been described previously by Doctor Rivers in his History 
 of Melanesian Society. 
 
116 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 the house, rather than through the door. And in 
 Fiji, too, in the case of large and valuable houses, 
 economy sometimes won the day, and rather than let 
 the house rot they used to adopt a similar method, 
 Williams noting that a Tui Cakau was removed through 
 a hole in the house-wall, though he could not give a 
 reason for the curious custom. The same reason was 
 undoubtedly the motive governing the incident men- 
 tioned from Stevenson's In the South Seas some way 
 back, of the corpse that was dug up and re-buried 
 face downwards. 
 
 In some islands the ghost is driven out of the house 
 by noises and banging of drums — probably the " vaka- 
 dredre " (" laughter-making ") of Fiji on the fifth 
 day is associated with this. Anyhow, the general 
 idea seems to be that the ghost keeps in close touch 
 with the corpse as long as the corpse remains in the 
 bodily shape that it formerly had. But as the corpse 
 decays away so is the tie that binds the ghost weakened ; 
 thus, in Saa, in the Solomons, they facilitate this 
 desirable object by pouring water on, so that the corpse 
 may putrify and dissolve more quickly. This, of 
 course, is probably done surreptitiously, as it is no 
 more polite to hurry the parting guest there than in 
 Mayfair, but done it is ; and the same idea may be 
 connected with the exposure, in many islands, of the 
 body to the wind and the rain on a platform until 
 decay has set in. 
 
 But may not the platform exposure also ensure 
 that the Sun shall be present at the daily disintegra- 
 tion, the daily loosening of the bonds, and shall even- 
 tually draw up the soul of the dead to its own embrace 
 
AN OLD MANAHIKI LADY WITH HER HUSBAND, THE LATE JOE THOMPSON, 
 THE AMERICAN HERMIT OP VATU VARU ISLAND, FIJI. 
 
 To face p. 116. 
 
SKULL PRESERVATION 117 
 
 once more ? The Parsee's " Towers of Silence " at 
 once occur to one (the birds were a natural after-result 
 of the exposure) ; and we find this platform method 
 carried on along a route marked by a strong Polynesian, 
 or at all events " immigrant ", strain, viz., the Dyaks 
 of Borneo, the people of Pulo Nias Island, Torres 
 Islands, Malikula, Ambrym (chiefs only), Savage Island, 
 Samoa, Manahiki (chiefs only), Tahiti, Paumotu (chiefs 
 only), Marquesas, Easter Island, and as far as America. 
 
 After the flesh had withered away and the ghost 
 had finally departed there was no reason for keeping 
 the bones any longer exposed, and they were usually 
 buried or deposited in some safe place, the skull, 
 however, being usually retained as a revered part of 
 the deceased to give aid when called upon, 1 and, to 
 give the people their due, often as a token of affec- 
 tionate remembrance. 
 
 There seem to have been two main motives in skull 
 or head acquisition and preservation as practised by 
 the peoples of the Pacific. In the one case the object 
 was to acquire an enemy's head to use as an offering 
 or sacrifice to one's gods ; the head sufficing to repre- 
 sent the whole body and becoming, therefore, that 
 most valuable of all offerings, a human sacrifice. For 
 this reason many tribes of the Dyaks of Borneo, 
 the Pelew and Solomon Islanders, the Samoans, 
 and the Maoris practised head-hunting, though the 
 original motive often degenerated into a mere 
 collector's hobby to acquire trophies for one's own 
 aggrandizement. 
 
 1 The preservation of the bones of the " Saints " in the Roman 
 Catholic church had no doubt the same origin. 
 
118 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 The other idea was to preserve the head of one's 
 own ancestor or relative, either in token of remem- 
 brance or to be used as a talisman. Much magical 
 power became naturally associated with such heads ; 
 not only in myth, where one finds Maui fishing up 
 the islands with his grandmother's jawbone as a hook, 
 but also in actual practice, where in New Caledonia 
 the magic stones for increasing the yam-crops were 
 placed first of all in contact with the ancestral skulls 
 " to acquire virtue " ; or in New Britain, where a 
 lower jaw (often with an artificial face modelled on 
 to it) is carried by a thief to wave over the heads of 
 recumbent sleepers to lull them into still deeper 
 slumber ! 
 
 In the Ellice Group (Hudson Island) the ancestral 
 skulls were preserved (kept on an altar) because by 
 their means the ghost could be called upon whenever 
 its help was needed. In Tahiti the skulls were buried 
 separately in a carved box — after platform exposure 
 — and brought out again at any special ceremony to 
 give that ceremony mana or " influence." At Mali- 
 kula, in the New Hebrides, they were remade and 
 modelled, and sometimes the bodies too, and set up 
 in a row to line the communal dwelling-house, a 
 gruesome gallery of family portraits. The curious 
 thing is that they were often given as a conven- 
 tion the long noses of a type now seldom found, 
 but which in remote times must have been the pre- 
 vailing one. 
 
 At Santa Cruz Island the orifices of the skull were 
 all artificially sealed up, apparently to prevent the 
 exit of the magic power or essence associated with 
 
THE SANCTITY OF THE HAIR 119 
 
 such heads, and it occurs to me that here we may 
 have one reason for the " scalping " of enemies by the 
 North American Indians, to let free that same 
 " essence," which, if bottled up in an enemy might 
 allow that enemy, or his ghost, to be powerful enough 
 to cause much harm to the slayer. 1 And strangely 
 enough I find, mentioned in only one old book,' that 
 this practice of scalping existed also in Hawaii. (Was 
 the wearing, by a Fijian warrior in his girdle, of a 
 slain person's " tobe* ", or long plaited lock of hair, 
 originally associated also with this ?) The same idea 
 of dissipating the malignant power of a slain person 
 may have caused the method of execution among 
 the Maoris, which was by a short quick cut into the 
 skull by a jade or whalebone mere, or bat-shaped 
 knife, carried usually only as a symbol of rank. And a 
 precisely similar weapon, now in the British Museum, 
 has been found in a buried city in Crete ; perhaps a 
 relic of that ancient time when the Polynesians and 
 the dwellers of the Mediterranean may have had 
 ancestors in common ! 
 
 As is only to be expected, with the sacredness of the 
 heads is associated the sanctity of the hair, an idea 
 attributed to many " Eastern " nations, with whom 
 in this respect should be particularly classed the 
 Polynesians, who perhaps more than any other people 
 regarded the hair as " holy " beyond all things. One 
 recalls the Eastern oath, " By the beard of my ances- 
 
 1 A parallel instance occurs in the Lau Islands (Fiji) where 
 the body of a man killed by witchcraft must be pierced, or else 
 the ghost will be able in his turn to harm the murderer (See 
 my The Lau Islands.) 
 
 ' A Tour through Hawaii, by Ellis, 1826. 
 
120 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 tors 'V and remembers also the dreadful result of 
 Delilah's experiments in hair-cutting, but just as 
 terrible things were apt to occur in the Pacific. The 
 cutting of a Maori chief's hair was a matter liable to 
 be fraught with such dire consequences that his wife, 
 who performed the operation, had her hands 
 " tabu'd " for a week after the event. In Fiji (Namosi) 
 a special day was set apart for the hair-cutting of the 
 assembled chiefs, and a man had to be eaten to avert 
 the results that might happen if an enemy chanced 
 to get hold of any of the hair to practice black magic 
 upon. This, by the way, is a good instance of the blend- 
 ing of the Polynesian " tabu " connected with the power- 
 fully sacred hair, and the Melanesian magic performed 
 by means of a person's hair — or anything else that 
 was part of them — and powerful only for that reason. 
 The hair-cutting as a special performance in Fiji 
 is, I imagine, a relic of the Polynesian ancestry, and 
 there is no doubt that even to-day the mere touching 
 in fun of a Fijian's head is a matter likely to give 
 great offence, and a thing to be avoided by the ignorant 
 newcomer. 2 I well remember how the most truculent 
 
 1 Stevenson gives an amusing passage in his book, In the South 
 Seas, describing his hiring of a professional " beard-plaiter " in 
 the Marquesas to plait a valuable beard he had purchased. 
 
 2 Ma'afu, the powerful and clever Tongan who made himself 
 King of the Lau Islands, was once giving a dinner-party to the 
 officers of a British ship-of-war anchored at Loma Loma. After 
 dinner the wonders of hypnotism were being explained to him, 
 and he was told that one of the officers had such powers. He 
 took this officer on one side and told him to hypnotize a woman 
 waiting at table, one of his household, to come up and hit his 
 (Ma'afu's) head. This was actually done, and Ma'afu said, 
 " Wonderful. It is true ; for no living native would dare to 
 do this in a waking condition ! " 
 
HAIR CUTTING SOLEMNITY 121 
 
 of prisoners used to collapse like a pricked bladder 
 when the police-sergeant came along with the dreaded 
 scissors and removed their locks, a punishment reserved 
 only for long-sentence men and really bad characters. 
 Even with small babies the first hair-cutting was a 
 solemn occasion, associated, needless to say, with a 
 feast. One day Mitieli, my cook, came to me, as he 
 so often did, to draw his wages a month in advance. 
 I asked him what he required so much money for 
 just then. " You must know, sir," he replied, " that 
 I already have great debts at the store, so that I fear 
 to ask the manager for a case of tinned salmon or 
 ' bulumakau ' I (beef) without payment. It is there- 
 fore necessary that I should buy a pig in the village, 
 for it is the occasion of my child's first hair- 
 cutting " ! 
 
 All this peculiar " tabu " or sacredness of the head, 
 which is particularly associated with the Polynesians, 
 is, in the opinion of Doctor Rivers, connected mostly 
 with the " Kava " people, that group of migrants 
 who in the remote past entered the Pacific and brought 
 in Kava-drinking as a religious ceremony ; and who 
 have left many traces and descendants in " Melanesia " 
 while passing through to " Polynesia." Until now I 
 have thought the same, and it is only after finding 
 so many little clues fitting in together that I have re- 
 luctantly come to a different conclusion. I now think 
 that the cult of " the head " (that is, the preserva- 
 tion of the skulls of one's own tribe or the acquisition 
 
 1 An attempt by the Fijians to repeat an English name when 
 first shown the strange beasts " bulls and cows " ; which word 
 has now become incorporated in their language. 
 
122 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 of skulls of other tribes, either for memorials or for 
 magic, as found in the Ellice Group — a colony from 
 Samoa, in Tahiti, Malekula, Santa Cruz, New Zealand, 
 etc., formerly all strongly " Melanesian " islands) 
 is a cult of these Melanesian people, and that the cult 
 of the sanctity of the hair, an idea of the ancient 
 pre-Semitic people, has been combined with it by the 
 Polynesians, who undoubtedly also brought in the 
 Kava cult. I also thought, with Doctor Rivers, 
 that the " secret societies " associated with Sun- 
 worship, were formed by the Kava-using Polynesians, 
 but I now think that they were formed (as a protec- 
 tive measure, I agree) by the Melanesians who, even 
 if in the majority, were in desperate fear of, and easily 
 subjugated by, the onsweeping bands of virile, well- 
 equipped Polynesians. And I think they picked up 
 their use of Kava from the invaders. 
 
 That there is nothing in the ideas of Sun-worship, 
 or of Ancestor-worship, that is incompatible with the 
 Melanesians, when we realize the true country of 
 origin of those people, I shall show at a later stage 
 of this book. 
 
 It will be noticed that in one of the Sun-myths of 
 the New Hebrides (p. 55) the Sun is called " Wet- 
 mat-liwo " (mat or mate is the universal word for 
 death in the Pacific). In the adjoining islands six 
 stakes have to be successively clasped from East to 
 West in the initiation ceremony of the " Ta-mat6- 
 liwoa " Society, and this is thought to represent the 
 path of the Sun to its death. The conventional repre- 
 sentation of the " Ta-mate-liwoa " is a figure with rays 
 emanating from it, and a higher rank in the associated 
 
SECRET SOCIETIES 123 
 
 Sukwe Society is called " We-mat^-loa ", the Man in 
 the Sun. 
 
 In the Matembula Society of the Solomons images 
 of the Sun are kept in the sacred houses, and the 
 Duk-duk Society of New Britain and New Ireland has 
 representations of the Sun held by, or forming part 
 of the dress of, the dancers. In nearly all these secret 
 societies the dance formed an important part of the 
 ceremony, 1 and it is especially to be noted that in 
 Eastern Papua a dance is almost unknown, whereas 
 in the Western portion these religious dances are 
 common, the men being all dressed up and disguised 
 for the occasion. A shield from this district is now 
 in the British Museum, showing a distinct sun-face 
 upon it. 
 
 So far I have not really mentioned the Areoi Societies 
 
 of Tahiti and the Marquesas, where, more than in any 
 
 other society of the Pacific, was Sun-worship indulged 
 
 in to the fullest extent. Moerenhout first described 
 
 these in 1837, and observed that they were connected 
 
 with the special seasons of the year, i.e., were closely 
 
 1 A very degenerate, but to me interesting, form of the 
 Matembula dance was once volunteered for me as a " Christmas 
 Gift " by some Solomon Islanders whom I had helped in con- 
 nection with the establishment of a village for them near Loma 
 Loma, in the Lau Group. They came before my house dressed 
 up in leaves, coloured sashes, and with red-painted cheeks. 
 Hollow bean-pods rattled round their knees and ankles, and 
 each held in one hand a fan and in the other a carved wooden 
 bird. In a ring following each other they slowly danced round 
 and round, singing a continuous refrain, and stooping, bowed 
 down with the weight of "Mana". It will be noticed that 
 the word mat6 again appears in this name, Matembula, and 
 in the Fijian language (many words of which are common also 
 to dialects of the Solomons) Matembula would mean " Dead- 
 living," in other words, the ancestors brought to life again. 
 
124 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 associated with the Sun, and Fertility, and " First- 
 fruits ". The faces of the dancers were painted red, 1 
 and the seven ranks of the society were distinguished 
 by variations of body " tatu-ing," the highest being 
 called " avae-parai " (painted leg), and being " tatu'd " 
 from the toe to the knee. 2 Their leader sat cross- 
 legged on a high stool, fan in hand, and directed the 
 evolutions and the performance generally, which was 
 in the nature of a pantomimic acting of a farcical 
 kind. Great license prevailed in the acting, and the 
 highest in the land were not exempt from being 
 ridiculed by the performers ; while a still greater 
 license prevailed in the morals, as was only to be 
 expected with a Sun and Fertility-worship. Originally 
 purely a religious and strictly secret society, it ulti- 
 mately degenerated into a body of strolling players 
 of mixed sexes,3 who wandered round the islands 
 living on the bounty of their audiences, and who 
 invariably practised infanticide when any untoward 
 result of their performances happened. 
 
 Now in Tahiti, where we find so many traces of 
 Sun-worship in every form, it is interesting to note 
 that in 1788, when Captain Bligh of the Bounty was 
 present while the natives were digging a grave for bis 
 surgeon, who had died the night before, they politely 
 asked him if they had done right in following out their 
 
 1 The invariable association of red colour with Sun-worship 
 will be commented upon later. 
 
 2 Polynesia, by M. Russell, 1842. 
 
 3 In all instances where the Fertility-cult was practised the 
 presence of the female sex either in symbol or in persona 
 was necessary at certain times, as in the Nanga Society of Fiji ; 
 but in the Areoi Society the females seem to have always been 
 present. 
 
NEW GUINEA MASKS (TWO OF BARK CLOTH, ONE OF WOOD). 
 
 The large one shows sun-rays round the face. 
 
 (Photo from tlie British Museum Handbook.] 
 
 To face p, 124. 
 
EMBALMING 125 
 
 native custom of digging graves, "... For there," 
 said they, " the sun rises, and there it sets ". And 
 this mode of burial, with the feet towards the setting 
 sun, was followed out in Manahiki Island, in Samoa, 1 
 in the Cook Islands, and generally where one finds 
 traces of a Sun-cult. Though a suggestion has been 
 made to associate also with the Sun-cult another mode 
 of burial, i.e., that with the head above the ground, 
 or, at all events, a burial in the upright position, as 
 in New Britain, Ysabel, Aneiteum, and New Caledonia. 
 But may not this be to facilitate the subsequent 
 removal of the sacred head ? Even the burial with 
 the head above the ground was sometimes combined 
 with the " knee to chin " position (this combination 
 curiously enough occurs in the neighbourhood of Lake 
 Victoria Nyanza), and shows an association therefore 
 with the very early race of people who adopted the 
 " buried-sitting " position. 
 
 In Faka-ofu Island (Ellice Group) where, as I have 
 shown (p. 74) the Fire-worshipping, pearl-shell cult 
 of the " Sky " people was a marked feature, the " buried- 
 sitting " position was used, but the body underwent 
 a modified process of embalming, being thoroughly 
 and frequently anointed with oil and then carefully 
 wrapped in mats and preserved, in what really amounted 
 to a stone vault. Now the Ellice Group, according to 
 native tradition, is said to have been peopled from 
 Samoa, and consequently one might expect to find 
 some, at least, of the customs originally common to 
 both groups still surviving in each of them. And 
 so it is, for we find in the two great chiefly " houses " 
 
 1 Samoa a Hundred Years Ago, by Rev. G. Turner, 1888. 
 
126 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 of Samoa, namely those of Malietoa and Mata'afu, 
 a vestige of fire-worship in the former, and of body- 
 preserving by means of oiling in the latter. 
 
 Malietoa's tribe had from very early times " fires 
 burning continuously night and day in their houses ", 
 and fire was particularly sacred to them, an offering 
 to the Fire-god. At evening they were wont to blow 
 up the fire, and then pour out a small libation of Kava, 
 accompanying it with these words : " This fire is for 
 you, O King. Do not be angry. Be propitious. 
 Give prosperity. Drive away sailing gods lest they 
 cause disease and death." x One would like to have 
 been told whether they actually used to " blow up 
 the fire " with their mouths, or merely by fanning 
 it ; since most Polynesians regarded the breath as 
 unclean, and preferred therefore to fan the sacred 
 fire. To this day in the Lau Islands I have often 
 noticed the people somewhat clumsily fanning up a 
 fire with a palm-leaf when they could much more 
 easily and successfully have blown it with their mouths ; 
 but the reason they no longer knew. Lastly, in Samoa 
 it was customary among certain tribes, presumably 
 those who held the Fire as a sacred thing, to associate 
 it with their dead, and to kindle great fires for days 
 after a burial, so arranged that the firelight should 
 fall directly upon the grave. That this was not merely 
 to frighten away the " ghost " is, I think, shown by 
 the fact that it was not customary among other 
 neighbouring peoples. 
 
 1 The Melanesians and Polynesians, by Rev. G. Brown. 
 (The request to drive away the " sailing-gods " is explained 
 by what I have written on the fate of small " drifts," on page 1 1 1 .) 
 
CREMATION AND SMOKE-DRYING 127 
 
 The mode of embalming adopted by the family 
 of Mata'afu is interesting, as it may possibly be a small 
 link in the long chain connecting up one section of 
 these Sun-children of the Pacific with the ancient 
 dwellers on the Mediterranean shores. The method 
 was to open the body, remove all the viscera, dry it 
 thoroughly, and then stuff it well with rolls of tappa, 
 bark cloth somewhat like the papyrus of ancient 
 Egypt. The limbs on their first swelling up were 
 punctured to remove all fluids, and this puncturing 
 was carried on, combined with regular oiling, till the 
 body became quite " desiccated " and preserved. It 
 was then deposited on the platform of a double canoe, 
 though this placing in canoes, both here and in other 
 islands, may have been merely to give the dead a 
 better chance to get back " to their original home ", 
 and therefore not necessarily a custom of the original 
 ancestors. 
 
 Embalming was not, however, confined to Samoa, 
 but can be traced, perhaps in cruder forms, in other 
 islands. In Hawaii some of the people used to embalm 
 their 1 dead by a sort of glazing solution made from 
 the Ti-root (Dracaena), itself a root with sacred 
 properties, 1 and then deposit them in a cave. Others 
 practised cremation. So here, as in Samoa, we find, 
 in addition to other methods, both embalming and 
 the Fire-cult associated with the dead. In the Caro- 
 lines both these methods were combined, as a form of 
 mummification was practised by smoke-drying from 
 
 1 The Savage Island (Niue) story of creation is that a man 
 and a woman were made from a Ti plant. It is also used in con- 
 nection with the sacred fire- walking ceremonies (see Chapter X). 
 
128 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 a fire, but I very much doubt whether fire had any 
 specially sacred significance in that group. In Tahiti 
 and the Marquesas the oiling method, as in Samoa, 
 was adopted, while the Rev. J. B. Stair, an authority 
 on Polynesian voyages, notes that one Kaukula 
 (? Kahu-kura, the god) died at Atiu, Cook Islands, 
 and was long afterwards found by his followers em- 
 balmed in a cave. Even in Fiji the body was carefully 
 oiled before being wrapped away in many folds of 
 tappa, and then tied up in mats, looking much like a 
 mummy. In the Lau Islands they were sometimes 
 deposited in caves. Finally, there was once exhibited 
 at Melbourne " a petrified New Zealand mummy from 
 Otago," and this, no doubt, was a specimen of ancient 
 Maori embalming. It will have been noticed how 
 frequently the adoption of embalming has been con- 
 nected with cave-burial, and I shall have occasion 
 to refer again to this in a later chapter on stone 
 remains, as I am inclined to think that the stone burial 
 vaults constructed in certain islands are intended to 
 represent the more ancient " cave." 
 
 Before leaving the question of the Fire-cult, as con- 
 nected with the disposal of the dead, it is as well to 
 glance at the customs associated with cremation. 
 Where the practice obtained in Hawaii, the whole 
 body was not burnt, but the flesh stripped from the 
 bones with marvellous dexterity by men specially 
 trained for the purpose ; and, after being first offered 
 to the gods, was burnt, the bones being cleaned and 
 preserved in the temples, or else by the head of the 
 family in his house. This actually happened in the 
 case of the body of Captain Cook, and only the bones 
 
CANOE EXPOSURE 129 
 
 were left ; and though these were alleged to have 
 been sent home to England later by special request, 
 it has since been doubted whether they were his bones 
 at all, 1 as the genuine ones were so highly valued as 
 relics of " Lono the god " that it is thought that 
 substitutes were sent for them. It is known that 
 the originals were placed in a special basket, decorated 
 with sacred red feathers, and taken round to all the 
 temples in the country to give them, the temples, 
 additional sanctity. Cremation in Hawaii is con- 
 sidered to be a later practice than embalming, and 
 it is significant that the cult of Pele, the volcano 
 goddess, was also a late introduction ; so that it is 
 possible that the custom here, as also probably in 
 Melanesia, was associated with Volcano-worship rather 
 than with Sun-worsbip, through the Sun's symbol, 
 the Fire. 
 
 In this chapter it has been my object to deal entirely 
 with customs regarding the disposal of the bodies of 
 the deceased. The beliefs regarding the sacredness 
 of the head and the hair, and the ceremonies of various 
 secret societies, have been introduced merely because 
 they were explanatory of, or in close connection with, 
 certain arrangements concerning the dead. Before 
 proceeding to other customs regarding the living it 
 will be necessary therefore to review the various 
 methods appertaining to canoe exposure or burial. 
 
 1 The son of King Kamehameha I went to England in a 
 man-of-war as a royal guest of George III, but died shortly after 
 arrival. He brought some bones, but not all, of Captain Cook 
 for the widow — acting on a strong hint from the English 
 authorities ; but even those may not have been the genuine 
 ones. 
 
 9 
 
130 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 I use the alternative, as the actual burial of the whole 
 canoe with the body in it has occurred within my own 
 experience at Komo Island, in the Lau Group. The 
 more usual way — and who can deny a strong vein of 
 poetry to a nation who adopted such a method ? — was 
 to set adrift the body in a canoe at evening towards 
 the setting sun, taking the frail barque far out beyond 
 the circling reef and watching it till it slowly disap- 
 peared into the darkness. Such procedure was followed 
 at Savage Island, Samoa, and in many of the islands 
 of Micronesia. 
 
 In the Marquesas wooden " dug-out coffins " are 
 used for exposing the body on shore, but there is no 
 doubt that the shape of the receptacle is merely a 
 modified canoe. In the account of a voyage in the 
 mission-ship Duff, 1797, it is mentioned that when 
 at the Marquesas they came upon the body of a chief 
 named Honu, recently dead, which was exposed in 
 a cylindrical coffin suspended on posts : while fifty 
 years later another traveller records seeing in the same 
 group " a canoe-like coffin suspended in a shed over 
 a stone mound." 1 In these islands, also, an American 
 naval captain in 1813 came upon four canoes " pointed 
 bow on to the mountain, with a life-size figure paddling 
 in each," J and this seems a somewhat extraordinary 
 combination, until we compare it with the custom of 
 building the sacred temple at Vanikolo Island, near 
 Santa Cruz, with the doors towards the sacred moun- 
 tain — " where the dead go " — and where, we are 
 
 ' Ravings in the Pacific, by " a Merchant long resident in 
 Tahiti," 1851. 
 
 I A Voyage in the South Seas, by Captain D. Porter, 1813. 
 
THE FERRYMAN 131 
 
 informed, the people pray " by the Heads of the dead, 
 the Moon, and the Mountain." So, then, it would 
 appear that one portion of the people originally came 
 down from the mountain-fastnesses to be coast dwellers 
 (perhaps not even on the same island, but sufficiently 
 well remembered to have the idea instilled into their 
 descendants that the dead must return to a moun- 
 tain). And hence arose a combination of the canoe- 
 burial — intended really for immigrants from across 
 the seas — with the idea of the return to the ancient 
 home on the mountain. 
 
 Every one knows the old Greek story of Charon, 
 the ferryman who rows the souls across the River 
 Styx. This tale is found in modified forms around 
 the Indian Ocean, in Siam, and on to the Pacific, 
 though in the latter regions the obol for payment was 
 not placed in the hand of the dead because the idea 
 of payment in cash for a service rendered was alien 
 to the ideas of most Pacific Islanders. There was a 
 regular " Journey of the Shades " among the Fijians, 
 and at one part of it the soul had to be ferried across 
 a river. The Fijian dead were buried with a valuable 
 " tabua," or whale's tooth, in their hand, but though 
 this may have been regarded usually as a sort of 
 currency, it is generally considered that in this par- 
 ticular instance the whale's tooth was intended to 
 be hurled at a pandanus tree en route, the successful 
 hitting of the tree being a test of the widow's fidelity. 
 
 In the Lau Islands I came across ferrying legends 
 of a slightly different form, 1 but the main principle 
 
 1 See The Lau Islands (Fiji) — the story of " A Haunted 
 Isle." 
 
132 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 was the same ; while in the Solomon Islands the 
 ghosts are ferried to Betindalo, the place of the Shades. 
 In the Fijian myth, so well investigated by Sir Basil 
 Thomson, there is a curious likeness to one at Mine- 
 hassa in Indonesia, in which there was a log for a 
 bridge across a river during one portion of the journey. 
 The log wriggles, and the ghost is either thrown off 
 or has to turn back. In the Fijian version there is 
 at one stage of the journey a serpent for a bridge, 
 and the serpent wriggles, and is apt to throw off the 
 unfortunate shade. 
 
 I have mentioned these ferrying stories to show that 
 the idea of canoe-burial may be definitely associated 
 with a water journey for the ghost of the dead, but 
 the canoe burial or exposure is by no means universal 
 in the Pacific, and even in those islands where it is 
 practised it may be confined to certain classes, such 
 as the chiefs. This, therefore, may help us a little 
 to pick out the different migrations to certain of the 
 island groups. In some of the Solomon Islands, for 
 instance, it is the chiefs only whose bodies are kept 
 for a time in a miniature or model canoe, the skull 
 being afterwards preserved in a wooden representation 
 of a fish. This custom is also followed out in Timor. 
 (In Santa Anna [Solomon Islands] the skull is dug 
 up from the grave and preserved in a model of a 
 bonito-fish. It has been suggested that this associa- 
 tion of the dead with a fish is a totem custom.) In 
 both New Zealand and the Cook Islands model canoes 
 are used as receptacles for the dead, and generally 
 speaking the whole idea of canoe-burial is a Polynesian 
 one, for where it occurs in Melanesia it i§ in connection 
 
(-) 
 
 (i) RE-MADE HUMAN HEAD 
 FITTED TO ROUGH 
 MODEL OF A MAN. 
 NEW HEBRIDES. 
 
 (2) WOODEN MODEL OF 
 BONITO-FISH CON- 
 TAINING A SKULL. 
 SANTA ANNA, SOLOMON 
 ISLANDS. 
 
 (Figs. 112 and n8, Ethnographical Guide, British Museum.) 
 
 To face p. 132. 
 
CANOE-BURIAL POLYNESIAN 133 
 
 with the chiefly people or conquering classes, who 
 would have been the Polynesian immigrants. 
 
 To-day there are no real chiefs, nor any form of 
 hereditary royalty, in Melanesia, because the ancient 
 settlements of the Polynesian invaders were too weak 
 to make much impression on the vast hordes of the 
 " Melanesians " and of the negroid aboriginals, and 
 because — through lack of females — the immigrants 
 had to intermarry ; and the mothers of their children 
 implanted Melanesian rather than Polynesian ideas 
 into them. But in the next chapter I propose to 
 discuss the question of royalty in other parts of the 
 Pacific, and to show how very closely it is associated 
 with the Sun-cult. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 ROYALTY AND THE "TABU" 
 
 We were just rounding the last point of Lakeba Island 
 before settling down for our two days' sail to the distant 
 Ono (also in the Lau Group), when my skipper, a 
 Lakeba native, drew my attention to a grove of palm- 
 trees fast disappearing behind the quivering heat haze 
 of a real tropic morning. " That, sir," said he, " is 
 the site of the old town where our fathers were 
 wont in ancient days to perform the ' buli ' ceremony 
 for the kings." And then, in reply to my questions, 
 he gave me a full account of this old coronation custom, 
 carried out until the time of this man's grandfather. 
 It is too long to enter into in detail here, but briefly 
 was as follows : First of all a small bowl of the cere- 
 monial " yangona " (kava) had to be prepared, and 
 then, in the presence of the assembled people, a here- 
 ditary official solemnly raised the cup and named the 
 new king as the " Sau " (" Hau " in other parts of 
 the Pacific) of all the land. Various addresses were 
 delivered, and no doubt the gods were invoked, but of 
 this my informant could not or would not tell me, as 
 it is very difficult now to get these Lau people even 
 to mention their old gods — a well-deserved tribute 
 
 134 
 
INSIGNIA OF ROYALTY 1S5 
 
 to missionary effort, but a drawback to scientific 
 research ! Some time afterwards, often extending 
 into months, the second part of the coronation ceremony 
 was performed, and on this occasion scarves of the 
 finest white tappa were bound round the arm of the 
 new king, 1 and a turban of the same material placed 
 on his head. In the main portion of Fiji a splash oj 
 red paint was also laid on his shoulder, and to this 
 association of red colour with royalty and divinity I 
 shall presently refer. 
 
 Officially, only the king could wear the turban in 
 the Lau Group, and likewise only the king could use 
 the palm-leaf sunshade on Taveuni Island ; though 
 in both places the higher chiefs, as being of the royal 
 family, adopted these things, taking good care, how- 
 ever, always to lower them in the presence of the 
 king. 1 In Fiji only the Roko-Tui, or king-priest, 
 could wear the turban during the sacred kava-drinking, 
 and in Fiji also an additional badge of royalty was 
 the sceptre or " Mata-ki-langi," literally, " that-which- 
 is-pointed-to-the-Sky." As in many Eastern countries, 
 Polynesian kings were also accustomed to keep their 
 thumbnails of an inordinate length, presumably to 
 show that they were exempt from humble toil. The 
 king, too, in many groups wore a carved breastplate 
 
 1 This custom of binding tappa round the arm at the corona- 
 tion is general in Polynesia, and is found, for instance, in Futuna 
 or Home Island, and as far away as Easter Island, where the 
 representative of the " Bird-man " is so distinguished at the 
 ceremony. 
 
 * It is a far cry to the ordinary " taking off one's hat " at 
 home, but I have no doubt that that custom originated in the 
 same way, and could be traced back through mediaeval times 
 to the pre-Christian period and to Sun-worship. 
 
136 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 of ivory or pearl-shell, though this was rather in his 
 capacity of priest, or perhaps " king-priest." 
 
 Now the king, as the direct descendant of the Sun, 
 alone could deliberately dare to interpose some arti- 
 ficial shield against the sun's rays ; a defiance, as it 
 were, of the might of the sun. 1 Thus, he only could 
 use the turban, he only could have the royal sunshade 
 over his head. This is, of course, a sign of royalty 
 or chiefdom in many countries, and especially in two 
 countries whose people might well be termed first- 
 cousins of the Pacific Islanders, namely Madagascar 
 and the Philippines. The sunshade in Fiji was made 
 of the large flat circular leaf of the " Fan-palm," a 
 real fan, also, beautifully fashioned by nature. And 
 .fans seem to have become, perhaps for the reason just 
 given, especially associated with any element of Sun- 
 worship ; as we have seen, the fan was a definite 
 emblem used by the leader of the Areoi Society, and 
 is also found in certain Fijian " mekes " or dances, 
 particularly an astronomical one, wherein the Sun, 
 Moon, and Stars are represented. In Tahiti the fan 
 was associated with feathers in a peculiar idea of 
 sacredness, and feathers given out by the priests at 
 the temples at the time of the " Pa'e-atua " ceremony 
 were taken home by the worshippers and tied on to 
 special fans. These beautiful feathers of the Pacific 
 were, of course, prized by an artistic people for their 
 
 1 The golden crowns of kings to-day, even that of the King 
 of England with its " fleur-de-lis," represent the circlet of 
 leaves and flowers which god-descended kings alone might 
 interpose between themselves and the Sun in primitive time?. 
 The turban was a later development after man had learned to 
 make cloth. 
 
FEATHERS AND FANS 137 
 
 colours alone, but there seems to have been something 
 more than that, something particularly connected with 
 a divine royalty. In Hawaii the " Kahili," the sceptre 
 of the king, was surmounted with special feathers. 
 The royal cloaks (as in Peru) * and the helmets had 
 feathers thickly sewn on to them ; the Pare-kura, or 
 sacred coronet of Tangiia, mentioned on page 104, 
 was made of red feathers ; and the " Pa'e-atua " 
 ceremony that I have just written of, consisted of the 
 unwrapping of the images of the gods, exposing them 
 to the Sun, oiling them, and then wrapping them once 
 more in feathers — fresh feathers brought by the wor- 
 shippers and given in exchange for the old ones, which 
 were taken away as prized relics to be fastened to the 
 sacred fans. 2 Can it be that the feathers represented 
 divine birds, symbolic of the " Sky-people " ? We know 
 that many birds were peculiarly sacred (the " tropic- 
 bird " of Fiji might be mentioned among others), 
 and the messages of the gods were said to have been 
 at first transmitted by the birds, until the priests 
 were taught to do so in the squeaky voices — possibly 
 imitative of bird-cries — they adopted. 
 
 I have spoken of the Fijian sceptre and of the 
 " Kahili " of Hawaii. In New Zealand a sceptre- 
 
 1 Feather crowns were also found by Cortes to be worn by 
 the great chiefs in Mexico. 
 
 * In the Samoa-Fiji-Tonga Group the very special mats of 
 the chiefs were edged with the much-prized red feathers usually 
 obtained with great difficulty from Taveuni Island. I am 
 fortunate in possessing an exceptionally fine specimen of one 
 of these mats of woven grass, as fine almost as linen, and thus 
 trimmed, which belonged at one time to King Malietoa of 
 Samoa. These mats were often worn round the body from 
 the waist, those at funerals, however, being the most dilapi- 
 dated and worn-out procurable. 
 
138 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 spear, also decorated with feathers, and called a 
 " Hani ", was carried by the great chiefs ; and the 
 " huia " feathers were always worn in their heads. 
 But in Samoa there seems now to be not even a remem- 
 brance of sceptres as formerly carried by kings. 
 (Although Samoa is of the great Fiji-Samoa-Tonga 
 Group in which a large element of the original " Poly- 
 nesian " seafaring immigrants to the Pacific settled 
 down, it is nevertheless to-day curiously remote from 
 the Polynesian traces that Tonga is so full of, and that 
 even in Fiji are found barely concealed beneath the 
 Melanesian surface. Its stone remains, of course, 
 have not been disintegrated by time, but the customs 
 and traditions of the people have been very much 
 overlaid by subsequent arrivals.) The nearest approach 
 to a sceptre in Samoa that I can trace is a particularly 
 long handled fly-whisk that Admiral Sturdee once 
 showed me, which had been the special badge of 
 royalty carried by King Malietoa, and presented to 
 the Admiral by him ; but such fly-whisks were 
 not uncommonly carried also by chiefs of lower 
 rank. 
 
 In Tahiti and some other groups the kings were 
 invested with the sacred " maro-ura " or scarlet 
 girdle * — (one wonders whether the red sash for this 
 reason used to be such an inducement to the Fijian 
 to enter the police force !) — and head-fillets were worn 
 by royalty in those parts of the Pacific where turbans 
 or actual feather crowns were not. But I am inclined 
 to think that the fillet, like the breastplate, was worn 
 rather as a priestly than as a kingly emblem. It is 
 » Polynesia, by M. Russell, 1842. 
 
(I) (2) 
 
 (l) MAORI CHIEF HOLDING "HAN'l", AND WEARING HUIA FEATHERS. 
 
 (Fig. 150, Ethnographical Guide, British Museum.) 
 
 (2) A PRIEST, MARQUESAS, WITH MUCH TATUED LEGS, ALSO WEARING 
 HEAD-DRESS OF HUMAN HAIR. 
 
 [Photo from "Suns' i. is and Surf," by the Author, published by A. & C. Black, Ltd.) 
 
THE FILLET A PRIESTLY EMBLEM 139 
 
 of course, difficult to divorce the two ideas in a people 
 whose kings were the direct descendants, the repre- 
 sentatives, and the mouthpieces of the gods themselves ; 
 and it was only in later times, as I have shown on 
 page 107, that the temporal and spiritual kingships 
 were separated. 
 
 Williams records that in Fiji, when he first knew it 
 nearly a hundred years ago, palm-leaf fillets with small 
 scarlet feathers sewn on were worn by certain chiefs 
 and priests ; in Tikopia Island they were worn in the 
 sacred dances and by those sent adrift in canoes to meet 
 their gods ; in the Banks Islands, during the rites 
 performed by the secret societies ; and in New Cale- 
 donia they enclosed relics of the dead and were worn 
 by the priests. In this latter connection I am con- 
 vinced that the idea was rather to obtain a close connec- 
 tion between some sacred object and the most sacred 
 part of oneself — the head. So also in parts of Melanesia 
 a fillet is on special occasions worn, enclosing a small 
 portion of betel mixture. This enables one to see 
 clearly the ghosts which would be otherwise invisible ! 
 It has been suggested that the red cylindrical " hats " 
 on many of the stone images at Easter Island are 
 intended to represent fillets, 1 while the somewhat 
 similar stone images in Peru are certainly wearing 
 them. In the British Museum Ethnographical Guide 
 is given an excellent photograph of an elaborately 
 decorated pearl-and-tortoiseshell fillet from the Mar- 
 quesas Islands. 
 
 1 The " Bird-man " for the year, upon whom the divine choice 
 fell, and who was, curiously enough, called the " Hau," had 
 a fillet of human hair bound round his shaven, red-painted 
 head (see Folk-lore, December, 191 7). 
 
140 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 Much the same combined ornamentation occurs in 
 the beautiful fretwork breastplates of Santa Cruz 
 Island, turtle-shell filigree being super-imposed on to 
 round white " tridacna "-shell plates ; and possibly 
 the crescentic pearl-shell breastplates of other parts 
 of the Solomons may be associated with the same remote 
 ancestry. Formerly the great Fijian chiefs wore 
 ivory breastplates inlaid with mother-of-pearl, but 
 in later times only the Tongans retained the skill in 
 ivory-carving once common to both peoples ; and 
 during the subsequent renewal of intercourse between 
 them, about the eighteenth and early nineteenth 
 centuries, these used to be imported from Tonga 
 It was in that period that Mariner relates how 
 a Fijian adventurer to Tonga obtained a mag- 
 nificent " breastplate ", consisting of the captain's 
 white china fish-strainer, from the loot of the 
 Port-au-Prince (1806) ; and how in a fight a chance 
 arrow happened exactly to find the bull's-eye by 
 passing through the central aperture, nearly killing 
 him. 
 
 It will have been seen how frequently the colour 
 red is associated with anything royal or divine ; already 
 one has noted the girdle of the Tahitian kings, the 
 fillets of the Fijian priests, the bones of Captain Cook 
 taken round in a red-feathered basket, the scarlet- 
 trimmed mats of the kings of Samoa, and particularly 
 the red-painted faces of the Matambula dancers of 
 the Solomons and the Areoi dancers of Tahiti. To 
 understand something of the reason for all this it will 
 be necessary to go back to the days of ancient Rome, 
 Egypt, and even older peoples still. Blood and 
 
RED IN MYTHOLOGY 141 
 
 sacrifices have always been associated with Fertility 
 and the worship of the Sun-god. Legends of the 
 dragon's blood and the fertile fields have come down 
 to us from the misty past ; and Sir James Frazer 
 has pointed out that red-haired men were sacrificed 
 and their blood sprinkled to ensure a full corn harvest 
 in Egypt, symbolic of the sacrifice of Osiris, and chosen, 
 perhaps, for their fanciful resemblance to the ripened 
 heads of corn. Jupiter himself was portrayed with 
 a red face, and the Roman emperors appeared in the 
 Triumphs with reddened cheeks as the earthly repre- 
 sentatives of the great god. 1 
 
 Now it is stated that the reason why the gods were 
 said to have reddened faces is because their idols were 
 fed with the first portion of the bleeding sacrifice, 
 and their cheeks, therefore, were always shown smeared 
 with blood. Red, too, is the colour of the Sun when 
 he is nearest to the earth, so that it is only to be 
 expected his symbolic images, and his living represen- 
 tatives the kings, should keep the prerogative of his 
 sacred colour. 
 
 In the other world all the best things are coloured 
 red, the best coco-nuts from Burotu are red, and it is 
 on the crest of a red wave that one is ferried there ! 3 
 Tangaroa, although missing through fraud the big 
 offerings that his younger brother Rongo received, 
 could not be denied the red ones (ante p. 66) ; 
 and we have seen that the coronation of kings, the 
 descendants of the gods, was signified by a patch of 
 red colour. 
 
 1 The Golden Bough, by Sir James Frazer„ 
 1 See my The Lau Islands, pp. 42-3. 
 
142 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 It is possible that the performers in the secret 
 societies represented the dead, the people who were 
 now gods or closely connected with the gods. We 
 should therefore expect to find that they, too, were 
 associated with the red colour ; and so it is, for the 
 performers in the Sukwe, Tamate\ and Kol6-kole" 
 dances of the Banks Group, in the Matambula dances 
 of the Solomons, the Areoi of Tahiti, and even some 
 of the Mek6 of Fiji, have either reddened cheeks or 
 red-painted legs. I say " even some of the Mek6 of 
 Fiji " because in most of these the performers now 
 have blackened faces as warriors, but some Meke 1 , 
 I am convinced, had originally a religious aspect. 
 
 Just as the representatives of the dead in the secret 
 societies had red paint about them, so also were the 
 dead themselves thus prepared for their journey back 
 to the gods. The corpse in Rotumah Island was 
 smeared with red paint before being placed in its 
 stone vault (I do not think this was intended to deceive 
 the gods into believing that he had died in battle, 
 for real blood could just as easily have been procured 
 from some of the fowls or pigs killed at the funeral 
 feast), and at Tikopia Island red turmeric was rubbed 
 on. Turmeric, by the way, was frequently applied 
 to offerings of fruits, etc., made to the gods ; and 
 also powdered all over newborn babies in Fiji. When 
 I first went there as a doctor I often had my clothes 
 covered with this when calling in to see some Fijian 
 patient who had recently been confined. 
 
 Around the Fijian graveyards one invariably sees 
 red-leafed and red-flowered trees, for everything associ- 
 ated with the dead must be of this colour ; and the 
 
THE "TABU" 143 
 
 bones of special chiefs in New Zealand were often 
 painted red and had feathers affixed to them. The 
 altars of the gods in Vanikolo, near Santa Cruz, con- 
 sisted of eight pieces of red-painted wood tied cross- 
 wise on a platform, with sacred skulls and round stones 
 underneath J : while in Hawaii the gods themselves 
 were wrapped in red cloth, and Captain Cook, when 
 he went through the ceremony of his own deification, 
 or rather re-appearance on earth as the god Lono, 
 had to be wrapped in a red cloth. So, then, royalty, 
 the gods, and the sacred dead are always associated 
 with the red colour, or else, if possible, to some nearer 
 approach to the flaming tint of the sun, such as the 
 orange-hued feather cloaks of the Hawaiian kings, 
 more sacred even than the plain red ones of the nobles. 
 We have now seen how all the insignia of royalty, 
 and also how the special red colour, were associated 
 in the minds of the people with the divine Sun ; and 
 it remains to be seen how the extraordinary custom 
 of the " Tabu," or " Tapu " (Taboo it is often written), 
 was likewise a connecting-link between the Polynesian 
 kings and their celestial ancestor. 
 
 The " Tabu " influenced and overshadowed every 
 movement, every act, of the Polynesian's life, from 
 his earliest infancy to his last breath ; and even 
 beyond, for it accompanied him to the grave. The 
 whole subject is far too large and intricate to be dealt 
 with here, save in the most cursory manner, and I 
 shall not attempt to glance at more than the essential 
 
 ' At Santa Cruz, too, the " currency " is made from the 
 revered scarlet parrot feathers, and Doctor Rivers has shown 
 how the general idea of M<my was an introduction of the 
 Polynesian immigrants, 
 
144 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 features of it. Big books have been written on it 
 as it appertains to various parts of the world, for it 
 is wide spreading, far beyond the confines of the 
 Pacific ; but when all is said and done I think it will 
 be found that really it exists, or existed, only among 
 those countries that comprise the track of the wandering 
 seafarers who enter so largely into the scheme of the 
 present book. 
 
 First let us take a rapid look at the word itself, 
 " Tabu " (or Tambu as pronounced by some races, 
 such as the Fijian, who cannot say a " b" without 
 an " m" in front of it). This is found all over the 
 Pacific — subject to the usual dialect variations — from 
 " Kapu " in Hawaii to " Tapu " in New Zealand (the 
 latter form is perhaps the more like the early Sanskrit 
 " Tapa " or " Tapas," of practically the same meaning, 
 from which some writers derive it, 1 but the word is 
 also found in the Hebrew, and is probably pre- 
 Sanskrit) ; and in Mexico and Peru, in the " Tambo " 
 houses, where produce was stored up, with a prohibi- 
 tion thereon, until the general need of the community 
 called for its distribution. 2 
 
 The custom held good in the Eastern Mediterranean 
 and among Semitic peoples generally ; in Madagascar 
 and around the Indian Ocean, touching at the Anda- 
 mans; then into Indonesia, up to Japan, and across 
 the Pacific to America. It is closely associated with 
 " being unclean " and the subsequent purification 
 among the Hebrews ; with the whole system of 
 " caste " and defilement in India ; and with the great 
 
 « Who are the Maoris? by K. Newman. 
 8 The Polynesians, by J. D. Lang, 1877. 
 
REMOVAL OF "KING'S EVIL" 145 
 
 demarcation between " the sons of the gods " and 
 common men in Japan and the Pacific. Probably 
 the latter variety of it was the original idea right 
 along the line, i.e., the death-dealing touch of the 
 gods when applied to mere men. Even inanimate 
 things touched by the gods passed on this dire influ- 
 ence, only to be removed by a sort of purification ; 
 and the wise law-givers of the Hebrews built up on 
 this their clever system of purification after contamina- 
 tion, which in time practically amounted to an 
 organized national sanitation. 
 
 The divine king was charged with a powerful 
 " essence " which was of value to the land generally, 
 but deadly to the individual person ; and in this 
 respect he might be compared to the Sun, whose heat, 
 gently diffused, was of value to the farmer's crops, 
 but would be of fatal effect upon the farmer could he 
 come into actual contact with it. But just as the 
 touch of the king could cause death, or at any rate 
 a deadly sickness, so, if he graciously pleased, could 
 the same touch take it away. In Tonga this removal 
 of the " king's evil " was called " Mo6-moeV' and 
 if any one had accidentally touched something that 
 had been in contact with the king he went and — 
 with the king's permission — placed the offending hand 
 under the sole of the king's foot. Similarly, if any 
 one had eaten something from a vessel that the king 
 had used, the sole of the king's foot was applied for 
 a moment to the petitioner's stomach. The remedy 
 was as a matter of course never withheld, and the 
 king's life would therefore have been a burden to 
 him were it not for the very strict way in which he 
 
 10 
 
146 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 and all his belongings were always watched, and the 
 precautions taken that articles he had used should 
 not be placed in such a position as to be accidentally 
 used by others. The " tabu " of the king was 
 strongest against the lowest ranks of people and less 
 powerful against the chiefs in the ascending scale ; 
 and in just the same way the great chiefs themselves 
 had a deadly " tabu " surrounding them as far as 
 the commoners and lesser chiefs were concerned. 
 
 A practically similar custom prevailed in Samoa 
 and in ancient Fiji, in fact anywhere where the Poly- 
 nesians even had settled ; but we have the most vivid 
 accounts of it as it existed soon after the time when 
 the white man first began to settle in the Pacific 
 (and even then it was waning), in the descriptions 
 that Mariner bequeathed to the world in his immortal 
 record of Tongan life at the beginning of the nine- 
 teenth century. 1 
 
 In Fiji the throat swelled and ulcerated if one had 
 unwittingly eaten food touched by the king, or par- 
 taken from a cup or dish used by him. And in Japan 
 the same dreadful result ; and therefore the Mikado's 
 
 1 For the benefit of readers unacquainted with the literature 
 oi the Pacific one may mention that the work referred to was 
 written (and afterwards most searchingly verified) in 1808 by 
 a Dr. Martin of London, practically at the dictation of William 
 Mariner, a youth of some education who was one of the sur- 
 vivors of the massacred crew of the Port-au-Prince. This 
 youth's life was spared by a whim of the Tongan king, who in 
 time almost adopted him, and with whose family he lived for 
 several years, until he was able to get away on a passing vessel. 
 Gifted with a shrewd mind, a particularly observant eye, and 
 a wonderfully retentive memory, he has given us a picture of 
 the South Sea life of the period down to the minutest detail, 
 such as has never been written before and probably will never 
 be written again. 
 
PREVENTION OF BREACH OF "TABU" 147 
 
 dishes were invariably broken after he had eaten, to 
 avoid this risk. Clothing or mats that the king had 
 touched fell, of course, within the same category ; 
 and it is recorded by a white man travelling with him 
 that while on their journey a New Zealand chief flung 
 a heavy blanket, that he no longer wanted, over a 
 precipice. Asked why he had not rather left it by 
 the roadside for the use of some more needy person, 
 be replied that he did it out of kindness, lest the next 
 passer-by should touch it and be afflicted with disease 
 for breaking the " tapu " ! The finest mats, chief's 
 mats, in certain parts of Fiji were called " Tabu- 
 kaisi " (forbidden to the commoner), and probably the 
 reason for the name originated in the same manner. 
 
 Now it must be continually borne in mind that 
 the seafaring race of dolmen builders and Sun-worship- 
 pers, who have left their traces from the Mediterranean 
 and the Indian Ocean to the Pacific, also branched 
 up north round the Mediterranean shores to the west 
 coast of Europe, even as far as our own islands, where 
 similar traces of them are found, but much dimmed 
 by time and overlaid by countless other waves of 
 succeeding different races. The stone remains of the 
 Sun-worshippers are concrete facts, the customs of 
 the same people are but abstract ideas, and can never 
 therefore be put forward with any certainty. But 
 I see no reason why the " King's Evil," and touching 
 for " the King's Evil " — carried on in this ancient 
 land of ours right down to the time of Dr. Johnson, 
 who was " touched " as an infant by Queen Anne- 
 should not have originated in the same way. 
 
 It will perhaps be thought that if, in the Pacific, 
 
148 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 such dire effects resulted from touching anything 
 connected with the king, he would have found it im- 
 possible, even as the greatest despot in the world, 
 to get any servants to wait upon him at all. But 
 this apparently was provided for by the fact that certain 
 tribes or families were exempt from the evil of the 
 king, and from these were chosen his personal retainers. 
 Moreover, slaves captured in war from distant coun- 
 tries and worshipping other gods would presumably 
 not suffer, and in this way the earlier peoples would 
 probably be exempt. Finally, as I have mentioned, 
 the chiefs in an ascending scale became less and less 
 harmed by contact with the king, until, with the 
 highest chiefs of all, the " tabu " became more or less 
 a mere formality. 
 
 Now the obvious logical conclusion should be that 
 if articles in contact with the king, the descendant 
 of the gods, were a source of danger, so also would 
 be articles in contact with the ancestors, who had 
 returned to the abode of the gods, and were now 
 actually incorporated with the gods. And this was 
 so, for the graves of the dead, the stones and trees 
 around the graves, or, in fact, any articles connected 
 with the dead, were heavily under the influence of 
 the " tabu." * 
 
 1 There was a certain mango-tree — one of a long avenue of 
 them — at Loma Loma town, that happened to be within a 
 yard or two of the grave of a big chief. Not a single member 
 of that chief's family or tribe would touch the fruit of it, though 
 all the other trees were eagerly ransacked. The crop always 
 fell to strangers or to members of other tribes in the town. 
 One day I asked one of the family in question what would happen 
 if he succumbed to temptation, and he replied, a little awk- 
 wardly, but in all sincerity, that his teeth would drop out, 
 
THE "TABU"— GOOD AND EVIL 149 
 
 On? of the broad distinctions between the Poly- 
 nesian immigrants and the combination of Melanesians 
 and the aboriginals was that both the latter practised 
 witchcraft (the world-wide witchcraft of primitive 
 man) by certain dealings with the hair, nails, etc., 
 of their enemy ; the Polynesians, on the other hand, 
 had no reason to do this, for an equally effective magic 
 lay conveniently at their hand in the dread " essence " 
 that emanated from every chief. In Tonga it was 
 only necessary to take some article of clothing of one's 
 enemy and lay it for a while on the chief's grave, 
 afterwards replacing it again where it would be used 
 by the unfortunate victim. But public opinion was 
 so much against this that it was seldom done, and 
 moreover (as we in our cold scientific superiority 
 might surmise) it would not really take effect unless 
 a hint were breathed to the victim of what had been 
 done, and then he at once had his remedy by getting 
 the living chief to remove the " tabu." Of course 
 there might be a time when the chief was not avail- 
 able — away at sea, or at a great distance — and perhaps, 
 too, the living chief might not be so powerful as the 
 deceased ancestor of the tribe. Be that as it may, 
 it is certain that " witchcraft " was less practised in 
 Polynesia than in Melanesia, which is, even to-day, 
 full of it. 
 
 So far we have been concerning ourselves only with 
 the evil side of the " tabu." But it had its benefits 
 as well, the dread invisible power of the king helped 
 on his people against their enemies in war, and the 
 same power made the land fertile and fruitful in peace. 
 If he placed his " tabu " over a piece of land for a season 
 
150 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 the produce grew with redoubled vigour, the trees 
 groaned with the weight of their yield. (The real 
 effect was that the trees were not intermittently 
 despoiled of their fruit, and the crop to be taken away 
 at the end of the time was therefore a big one.) When 
 a feast was to be prepared for, or a time of scarcity 
 was to be anticipated, a tract of produce-bearing land 
 was put under a " tabu." The king touched the 
 land ; at first, no doubt, by actually walking round 
 the boundaries, though later he merely made a 
 declaration that he had set a " tabu " on it ; and at 
 the end of the period the " tabu " was removed with 
 much ceremony. And since the land had been 
 " touched " by the king, illness or death would strike 
 the person who — even in ignorance — trespassed upon 
 it or removed the fruit. Therefore, so that all should 
 be warned, signs were placed at the boundaries that 
 the land was " tabu." These consisted of some well- 
 known emblem easily recognized by all, such as an 
 inverted coco-nut shell on the top of a tripod of sticks, 
 or a coco-nut leaf split and tied, skirt fashion, round 
 a tree. And to this day one sees these signs on the 
 boundaries of food-gardens, or coco-nut groves, in Fiji, 
 to show either that the land has been " tabu'd " for 
 the general good by the chief (nowadays with the 
 agreement of the council of elders, and with only a 
 lurking, would-be sceptical belief in the magical 
 consequences of breaking it), or else — to what prosaic 
 depths have we descended — to show that some private 
 owner is on the alert and prepared, if necessary, to 
 prosecute trespassers ! 
 One other instance of the royal " touching " neces- 
 
A DISAPPEARING BELIEF 151 
 
 sary to remove a " tabu " is that of the kings of 
 Futuna or Home Island, near Fiji, who on the occasion 
 of their coronation had among other things to tap 
 the sacred turtle with a bamboo sceptre to take away 
 its " tapu " before it could be cooked and distributed 
 for the feast. 
 
 But though the belief in the effects of contact with 
 a chief is fast disappearing, the customs for averting 
 his wrath and a shooting forth of his power are still 
 observed, even though little understood. Any visitor 
 to Fiji will notice how a well-behaved Fijian, after 
 handing anything to a chief, or speaking to him, or 
 touching him, will softly clap his hollowed hands 
 once or twice. And since they have always considered 
 the mysterious white strangers from across the sea 
 as coming from the gods (the " papa-langi," who had 
 burst through the heaven boundary), they do the same 
 to them, especially if of what they estimate to be 
 " chiefly " rank. 
 
 With reference to this custom, now become one of 
 respect rather than of warding off magic, one may 
 mention another custom of respect that is used in 
 Fiji to high chiefs, and has sometimes in similar fashion 
 been — quite improperly — applied by the natives to 
 senior white officials. That is the low long-drawn 
 cry of " Tama " (literally " Father ") that is respect- 
 fully emitted by any little knot of people when the 
 chief passes by. He is the lineal descendant of the 
 great god, of their Sky-father (for it is obviously a 
 Polynesian-originated custom), and is therefore thus 
 saluted ; but the curious thing is that it is considered 
 quite wrong to give the " Tama " after sunset. This 
 
152 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 has not been hitherto explained, but my reading of 
 it is that after sunset the Sun-god (or his representa- 
 tive) is not supposed to be present at all, is hypothetically 
 absent and invisible, so that it would be obviously 
 wrong to recognize his presence. 
 
 Now since it was the king-priest who put the 
 " tabu " of the gods (or of himself) on anything, it 
 was therefore necessary when the proper time came 
 that either he, or the priests acting on his behalf, 
 should remove it. This removal was always accom- 
 panied, as I have mentioned, by certain ceremonies 
 somewhat differing in the various island groups, but 
 on the whole being wonderfully in harmony. And 
 the chief part of the ceremony was invariably the 
 sprinkling of water — one of the many customs of 
 immense antiquity afterwards assimilated into the 
 Christian Church. 1 In connection with this there was 
 a curious result in the early missionary work in the 
 Pacific. The missionaries usually found — as long as 
 they were not running full-tilt against old-established 
 customs, and as long as they kept on the right side 
 of the king — that the people were extraordinarily 
 amenable to the teachings of the new faith, especially 
 the Old Testament ; and this was very natural, for 
 had they only known it the teachings of Moses and 
 of the established religious observances of the islanders 
 were merely two anciently separated branches of 
 the same Semitic or pre-Semitic tree. But when it 
 
 1 The same idea moves the Jew also, after even the reading 
 of the dread and hallowed scriptures (the Law), to rinse his 
 hands. So also to exorcise in the Christian Church the " tabu " 
 power of the Devil ! vide the " Lay of St. Nicholas," in the 
 Jngoldsby Legends, 
 
WATER REMOVES THE "TABU" 153 
 
 came to baptizing and sprinkling water on the heads 
 of the new converts, according to the tenets of the 
 Christian Church, a certain amount of difficulty arose. 
 For this particular rite removed " tabu," the very 
 thing which was the whole object and being of " the 
 sacredness of the hair," as we have seen in the previous 
 chapter ! It was therefore, one may imagine, a some- 
 what meagre and perfunctory baptizing that the first 
 members of the flock received, till the king gave 
 consent to this extraordinary action of the strangers. 
 
 I think there can be no doubt that fresh water was 
 the original medium for removing " tabu " (probably 
 founded on the simple act of washing oneself to remove 
 — literal — " uncleanness " after the congealed blood 
 and filth of sacrifices) ; but when the people reached 
 the Pacific and came in some instances to five on small, 
 sandy, and coral islands, often waterless, or with 
 streams that dried up at certain times of the year, 
 the next best thing obtainable was coco-nut water ; 
 and this became in time the correct thing, even in 
 islands where water could be procured. 
 
 The obvious things requiring removal of " tabu," 
 or dangerous influence, were such matters as contact, 
 direct or indirect, with a chief, with the sacred dead, 
 with the act of " tatu-ing " (a sacrificial rite), or with 
 a marriage (a sacrifice to Fertility). 
 
 In New Caledonia (which was, like Fiji and many 
 other islands in Melanesia, at one stage in its history 
 quite a " Polynesian " island) a commoner sprinkles 
 himself with water when approaching a chief in order 
 to address him. In Aurorae Island (Ellice Group) 
 there was a large clam-shell of water just inside the 
 
154 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 temple door, and petitioners to the god Tapu-ariki 
 used to sprinkle themselves before approaching him. 
 (Compare this with the " Holy water " basins just 
 inside the doors of our own churches.) 
 
 In Samoa the priest sprinkled water on the people 
 who had had anything to do with a corpse at a 
 funeral. In Tonga fish was rubbed on the hands of 
 the men who had to lie near the grave for a hundred 
 nights to guard it, but I cannot explain this, unless 
 it was something to do with a totem idea, for there 
 were totems in Tonga. In Fiji it is related by 
 Williams that at the funeral of Tui Cakau a woman 
 sprinkled one threshold with water while the corpses 
 were being taken out at the other (Tui Cakua himself, 
 as I mentioned previously, being taken through a 
 hole made in the wall ; these other corpses were those 
 strangled to accompany him to the other world). This 
 was evidently to purify the threshold of this charnal 
 house, so that newcomers could have one door to 
 enter b}', the other door being too violently " tabu'd " 
 by the corpses to be available for some time to come. 
 
 " Tatu'ing " was a rite peculiarly sacred, and was, 
 as I shall presently show, so intimately associated 
 with the first signs of puberty that it may be regarded 
 in its origin as a sacrifice to the Fertility God (who 
 is, of course, merely another manifestation of the 
 Sun-god). It was therefore only to be expected that 
 after " tatu'ing," and the consequent close approach 
 to the gods, a removal of the " tabu " was necessary. 
 This was accomplished in Samoa by a solemn sprink- 
 ling of coco-nut water, just as was done after contact 
 with the sacred dead ; in New Zealand the " ta,bu " 
 
MANAHIKI MARRIAGE CEREMONY 155 
 
 remained the whole time the man was being " tatu'd " 
 — sometimes for months, a cause of great inconve- 
 nience to him, and could only be removed on the 
 completion of the final piece of decoration. 
 
 For the same reason, of association with Fertility, 
 marriages had something " tabu " about them. At 
 the Manahiki marriages the priest handed a green 
 coco-nut first to the man, then to the woman, that 
 they might each touch the water in it ; and the man's 
 sister then opened another one and threw it up in the 
 air. All the party then went in pairs down to the 
 beach to touch the sea with their feet, as an indica- 
 tion that the " tabu " was now removed. 1 This 
 abstention from the sea during a period of " tabu " 
 is a curiously persistent idea right through the 
 Pacific. Until the fourth day brides in Fiji might 
 not touch the sea ; for four days after he had set 
 things in train the worker of magic in the Lau Islands 
 could not venture near the beach ; and in the same 
 islands for eight nights after the death of the " Sau " 
 the sea was forbidden to all. There was at Waimoro 
 (Fiji) a sect of men called " the followers of Roko 
 Moko " — the great lizard-god.* This god and his 
 family entered into these men and caused them to 
 become invulnerable. They had to keep apart from 
 their women-folk for twelve months, to eat special 
 foods, and their feet were never to touch the sea. If 
 their duties were faithfully carried out any injuries 
 that should have come to them in battle were deflected 
 into a well-known log of wood that lay at the bottom 
 
 ' Dr. G. Turner. 
 
 ' Fiji and the Fijians, by Williams and Calvert, about 1848. 
 
156 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 of the river near their town ; and after a battle the 
 curious might dive down and observe the fresh wounds 
 upon it. 
 
 To return to the coco-nut water. Just as it was 
 used as an antidote to the " tabu " in Polynesia, so 
 was it used as an antidote to magic in Melanesia, and 
 in all probability was an idea borrowed from the 
 Polynesians during their stay there en route. It is 
 recorded that a man in the Banks Islands, being jilted 
 by a vacillating damsel, proceeded to cast a spell 
 over the young lady. To his horror he discovered 
 that he had made his magic too strong, and brought 
 an epidemic on the whole tribe. So he climbed a 
 coco-nut tree, and, opening a nut, sprayed it in the 
 direction of the village to the complete satisfaction 
 of every one concerned. In the same group bands 
 of magicians acted in concert ; but, there being " no 
 honour among magicians," after a good day's work 
 they mutually sipped from the same coco-nut, ,to ward 
 off the consequences if any one of the partners should 
 turn upon the rest the magic they had just been 
 creating ! * 
 
 In Faka-ofu (Union Group) sick people were sprinkled 
 with coco-nut water, and at the same time a little from 
 the same nut was poured on the sacred stone of Tui 
 Tokelau, the god. It must be understood that " stocks 
 and stones ", whether carved into human semblance 
 or left untouched, were never, in the Pacific, wor- 
 shipped as gods themselves, but were merely regarded 
 as temporary settling places for the god's agency, or 
 convenient depositories for his " influence." Conse- 
 « History of Melanesian Society, by W. H, Rivers, 
 
SPRINKLING THE ANTIDOTE 157 
 
 quently, when the antidote was sprinkled upon them 
 it was not impertinence to the god, but merely an 
 apologetic raising of a barrier against the evil effects 
 of some " tabu " which they had unwittingly broken. 
 In just the same way at Tikopia the two stones of 
 the gods were sprinkled at times of sickness or famine. 
 Finally, in Samoa the priests scattered coco-nut 
 water over the warriors just before a battle, to ward 
 off the " tabu " that the god of the other side might 
 have laid on them, thus allowing all to start fair. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 FIRST-FRUIT OFFERINGS TO THE SUN 
 
 We have seen in Chapter II how the daily birth and 
 death of the Sun was a matter of vital importance 
 to primitive man, how his daily life was completely 
 ruled by it in a way that we, with our artificial means 
 of light and heat, can hardly realize. Almost equally 
 important to him was the rotation of the seasons, 
 the annual coming of the harvest, when, from a time 
 of scarcity he began to feel the joys of living once 
 more. Food was the great keynote of his life (it is 
 to some of us still). And he realized that it was the 
 great Sun that ruled the harvest, that, if angry, would 
 scorch up and shrivel the tender shoots, that, if forget- 
 ful, would only appear spasmodically in the chilly 
 distance of mist and cloud, causing the crops slowly 
 to fade away in a fruitless immaturity. 
 
 But the Sun itself might also pine away and die 
 for ever, which would be the most terrible catastrophe 
 of all. Every year, after reaching its maximum, 
 and when each day it began to get farther away and 
 to spend daily less and less time with us, it seemed 
 that such a fatality might happen. It was therefore 
 necessary at all costs to feed it up and " keep it 
 going," hence, as we have seen, some of the vital 
 
THE "FIRST-FRUITS" 159 
 
 essence it had expended on us had to be returned to 
 it again in the shape of a living sacrifice. Blood had 
 to be offered to it to rejuvenate it. 
 
 In addition to this, however, there was also, as we 
 have seen above, the matter of the possible anger or 
 forgetfulness of the Sun, and it was obvious that to 
 keep in its good books it must be propitiated and 
 humbly thanked each year for the bountiful crops it 
 had given. The first and finest portions of that 
 harvest must be sacrificed to it (sacrifice means, of 
 course, merely to " make sacred," not necessarily to 
 kill), or it would refuse to help again. Therefore arose 
 the great annual ceremony of the " First-fruits ". 
 associated with Fertility and all that the word 
 implies. 
 
 In all parts of the Pacific where there are traces of 
 the Sun-worshippers this ceremony held a most important 
 place in the religion of the people, and we are fortunate 
 enough to have, in Mariner's account of the " Inachi " 1 
 a very full description, too full to be entered into in 
 detail here, of the ceremony as it occurred in Tonga 
 before the coming of the white man had sponged from 
 off the Polynesian slate nearly all traces of their ancient 
 institutions. The chief points to note are that the 
 offerings were made to Tui Tonga, the divine king 
 (the separation of the Spiritual and Temporal kingship 
 having taken place some three hundred years before 
 this), and were made at the most hallowed place 
 possible, viz., the graveside of the latest Tui Tonga 
 
 1 " Inachi " actually means the " sharing-out," i.e. division 
 of the offerings. It took place about November, when the 
 first yams were ripe of the crop planted about May. 
 
160 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 to join that god whose earthly representative he had 
 been. The whole people joined in this very impres- 
 sive rite, and a long procession of solemn worshippers 
 carried the offerings to the high wooden conical 
 towers * erected to receive them, while the priests 
 blew the conch-shells used for religious ceremonies. 
 The yam, the staple food-crop of the nation, was 
 the produce selected for the offering, and these were 
 carefully bound round with slips of pandanus leaf 
 (coloured red), so that not a portion of the yam, now 
 highly charged with the " tabu ", could be touched 
 by impious fingers. In the subsequent division the 
 major portion of the whole enormous presentation 
 was allotted to the Tui Tonga, the remainder being 
 equally divided between the priests and the temporal 
 king. 
 
 In New Caledonia the "First-fruits" took place about 
 the same time of the year ; no women were allowed to 
 be visible for the five days preceding and during the 
 ceremony ; and the yams, wrapped in leaves to ward 
 off the risks of touching them, were carried in proces- 
 sion before high wooden images of the god. In Tonga, 
 where food was merely baked in the Polynesian 
 " lovo " or earth oven, the subsequent cooking of 
 the yams (cooking, by the way, removed the " tabu ") 
 was a simple matter ; but in New Caledonia, where 
 the Melanesian custom of boiling in pots was in vogue, 
 it was necessary to have special " tabu " pots reserved 
 for this cooking, and for this only. The same thing 
 happened, as we shall presently see, in the cooking 
 of human sacrifices. 
 
 1 These were possibly phallic emblems. 
 
THE "NANGA" CEREMONY 161 
 
 In Fiji there were two distinct traces of " First-fruits " 
 ceremonies, of which the most anciently established 
 there was that of the offerings to Ratumaibulu (" My 
 Lord from Bum " '). This rite took place in December, 
 and the earliest yams, called " Ai Sevu " (the First- 
 fruits) were solemnly offered to the god at his temple 
 to the sound of the sacred conch-shell blown by the 
 priests. We have already seen (page 64) how the 
 serpent — that universal emblem of Fertility — was 
 sacred to him, and how he is also connected with the 
 Sun. 
 
 In addition to this there was the extremely interest- 
 ing " Nanga " ceremony, introduced not so very many 
 generations ago, says tradition, by " two little old 
 men," who had drifted across " the sea " from the 
 north-west. This was a combination of " secret 
 society " and of " First-fruits " to the god of Fertility ; 
 and the visible tokens of circumcision — one part of 
 the initiation ceremony of the youths — were offered 
 up to the god, just as in ancient Egypt and Mexico. 
 At a later stage in the performance women were ad- 
 mitted, and scenes of a licentious character ensued, 
 the universal idea of primitive man to ensure fecundity 
 in the harvest. The offerings of yams apportioned 
 to the god were so very " tabu " that none dared to 
 eat them, not even the priests, and they were left to 
 
 1 " Bulu " is, I consider, an unaltered Polynesian name. 
 U and O are often interchangeable in Fijian, the tendency being 
 for the Fijian to turn the Polynesian U into O. Thus the Fijian 
 Island Moala was known to the old Polynesians as Muala (and 
 is often still so called by the islanders to the eastward of it). 
 When Bulu becomes Fijianized it is changed to Buro, which 
 is found as " Buro-tu," or Holy Buro (their name for Paradise, 
 the place they will return to after death). 
 
 11 
 
162 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 rot Yet a very small portion of them were partaken 
 as a sort of sacrament by the initiates, the lower half 
 wrapped in leaves so that there might be no risk of 
 touching by the hands. 
 
 The most curious part of the whole affair was that 
 the chief priest at one part of the proceedings called 
 out — evidently referring to the ancestors : " Where 
 are they ? Are they gone to Tonga Levu ? Are 
 they gone to the Deep Sea ? " The fact of all these 
 obviously Polynesian customs, and of an appeal to 
 those who may have passed on to " Tonga " a typical 
 Polynesian place-name, 1 makes one think that the 
 two Melanesian founders were descended from some 
 little " dropped colony " of Polynesians left behind 
 in the onward march of those people through Melanesia 
 to the east. The stone remains (including pyramidal 
 structures) forming the enclosure wherein the cere- 
 mony took place are so exactly like the similar temples 
 of Tahiti and Hawaii that the argument becomes 
 stronger than ever. It is only in comparatively recent 
 years that these " Nanga " stone remains have been 
 explored in Fiji ; it is therefore very likely that there 
 may be similar ones not yet discovered in the far less 
 known New Hebrides or Solomon Groups, where Poly- 
 nesian traces are often found in the most unexpected 
 spots. 
 
 In the Gilbert and Ellice Group the First-fruits are 
 offered to the god Tapu-Ariki (which merely means 
 sacred king) by each family " at a stone " set up to 
 
 1 Tonga also means "the south," but as the place is here 
 called Tonga Levu one may assume that the reference is to a 
 place, probably the well-known Tonga, of which the forefathers 
 of the performers may have heard from some returned wanderer. 
 
EATING THE GOD IN MEXICO 163 
 
 him. 1 But it is not made clear whether the stone was 
 an altar-table or simply a monolith. If the latter, 
 as seems most probable, it was possibly one of the 
 phallic emblems of Fertility scattered so profusely 
 throughout the Pacific. Similar offerings were made 
 at Tanna, and in one or two islands in the Solomons. 
 In the latter group Mr. Woodford, late Resident Com- 
 missioner, describes an interesting glimpse of the 
 ceremony he was able to obtain on one occasion. The 
 " First-fruits " were the early Canarium almonds, a 
 staple food of the people ; and they were burnt on 
 a little wooden structure, one of the men explaining 
 to him that none dared eat the new crop till a portion 
 had been offered to the god, or — as he expressed it 
 in " Beche-de-mer " English — " Devil he eat first, 
 all man he eat behind." 
 
 In New Zealand, Samoa, Tahiti, Easter Island, 
 and right across the Pacific to Mexico and Peru the 
 " First-fruits " were offered. In Acosta's History of 
 the Indies an interesting account of the ceremony in 
 Mexico is given, when the Aztecs used to eat the new 
 corn baked — at a sacred fire — in the form of an image 
 of the great god Huitzilopotchli.* (This partaking 
 of the body of the god in the form of bread is, of course, 
 a very ancient communion service and sacrament of 
 primitive man from earliest times ; taken in order 
 to acquire the moral characters of the god ; and sur- 
 vives to the present day.) The new corn was filled 
 with the very essence of the god, and imparted some 
 
 1 Hale, United States Exploring Expedition, 1838. 
 
 ' Acosta describes these cakes as being baked and brought 
 in by virgins, with reddened cheeks, and red parrot-feather neck-, 
 laces and bracelets. 
 
164 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 of the same to the worshippers. The later develop- 
 ment was the mere offering of the " First-fruits," not 
 actually eaten as representing the god. The early 
 stage was seen in Mexico ; the Fijian Nanga ceremony 
 may be considered to be an intermediate stage where 
 the sacramental food is eaten, but not made to mimic 
 the actual shape of the god ; while the late stage is 
 found in the New Caledonian or Tongan ceremonies, 
 where the only trace of the original idea is in the 
 " tabu " character of the yam. 
 
 In the Indonesian Islands of Minehassa, Celebes, 
 and Buro similar First-fruit ceremonies are per- 
 formed ; in these cases the local staple food, rice, 
 being used. We thus have the custom extending 
 right along the line of the seafarers through to 
 America. 
 
 But the custom can also be traced back from 
 Indonesia in the other direction, with the same ideas 
 of the Sun and Fertility-god, the same communion 
 and partaking of the sacrifice. In India and along 
 the coasts of the Indian Ocean it was prevalent, and 
 when the Eastern -Mediterranean is reached we find 
 it was most marked of all places. The Semitic peoples 
 carried it through to Britain, perhaps even before 
 Greece and Rome had fully developed their Eleusinian 
 mysteries and saturnalia ; and our own May-day 
 customs (May in the northern hemisphere bringing 
 forth the earliest crops as November does in the 
 southern) are the direct descendants of it. 
 
 The Phoenician Baal or Bel, the Sun-god, is found 
 in the word " Beltane " (Bel's fire) in Scotland, and 
 particularly Cornwall, where bits of the Eastern language 
 
"MAY-DAY" CUSTOMS 165 
 
 so often peep out here and there. 1 And the May-day 
 custom there was, and probably still is, to kindle greater 
 fires on that day. The May-pole is, of course, a phallic 
 emblem ; the May Queen was given a husband to 
 ensure Fertility (just as the marriage of Adonis and 
 Aphrodite) ,» and at Hone village, Dartmoor, a sacri- 
 ficial ram was tethered to a stone menhir (phallic 
 emblem), then slaughtered, roasted whole at the May- 
 fire, and partaken of by all the people.3 
 
 It will have been noticed how frequently a stone 
 or wooden phallic emblem appears in all these 
 " Fertility " ceremonies. The serpent was, of course, 
 the living emblem of the same import, and appeared on 
 the porticoes of Egyptian temples as a snake on each 
 side of a sun-disc ; and in Mexico as a carved wooden 
 serpent-collar placed round the neck of the human 
 victims to the Sun. Dengei, the serpent god in Fiji, 
 is thought to have been an introduction of Lutu-na- 
 sombua and his followers (mentioned on page 78) ; 
 and the serpent appears also in Fiji more directly 
 connected with the Sun in the case of Ratumaibulu. 
 Snakes are comparatively rare in Fiji, and if one were 
 found it was carefully anointed with oil and taken 
 to the temple. The last year I was in the Lau Islands 
 I found my native police sergeant carefully oiling two 
 snakes he had caught, and which he intended to take back 
 to his district. And he was a most regular chapel-goer ! 
 
 '- Britain was so full of Sun-worship that it was called by 
 some ancient nations " the Isle of Beli." Antiquarians tell us 
 that there was actually a great Sun-temple on the present site 
 of Westminster Abbey. 
 
 • This survived quite lately in Hertfordshire. 
 
 3 Notes and Queries, First Series, vol. VII. 
 
166 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 In those smaller islands where no snakes were found, 
 or even in the larger ones where they happened to 
 be scarce, the immigrant people often chose the next 
 best thing they could get, that is, the sea-snakes or 
 water-eels. In Samoa, especially in Manua Island, 
 there was a recognized Eel-god, named Fuilangi (the 
 Sky Creator) * ; and in Tikopia we have already seen 
 (page 48), that the people good-naturedly sacrificed to 
 the sea-snake in order that their bishop's steamer might 
 safely weather a storm. Tasman records that in 1643 
 a Tongan, seeing a water-snake among the rocks, 
 carefully picked it up, placed it to his head (the sacred 
 part of him), and then put it back again in the water.* 
 Even to-day I have noticed that Tongans always treat 
 with great respect these black and white ringed snakes 
 that are so common in the reef-pools left by the sea 
 at low tide. 
 
 All over the Pacific is found that world-ancient 
 creation myth of Father Heaven and Mother Earth 
 being separated, thus allowing their children (mankind) 
 to breathe and have light. In some parts, as at 
 Manahiki, it was Maui, as himself, who raised the 
 Sky and kept it up with props ; in others it was Ru 
 or Lu (in Egypt it was Shu, and in India Ru-dra) ; 
 but in the Gilbert, Ellice, and Tokelau Groups it was 
 always done by some god in the guise of a serpent 
 or sea-eel. All these snakes and phallic emblems are 
 but representatives of the reproductive power of the 
 
 1 In Hudson's Island (Ellice Group) he was represented by 
 a monolith instead of a living snake, but the Sky was pushed 
 up off the earth by an eel. 
 
 1 Historical Collection of Discoveries in the South Pacific Ocean, 
 edited by Dalrymple. 
 
"FORBIDDEN TO THE SUN" 167 
 
 Sun, a power highly to be desired for the crops, but 
 not so desirable where it concerned the women-folk 
 of the tribe. The men had no wish (apart from the 
 danger) to take their brides already in a state of 
 pregnancy brought about by the Sun, as it was sup- 
 posed would often happen if the girl had been exposed 
 to his influence. Consequently in most of the islands 
 the girls were kept secluded in a comparative dark- 
 ness before marriage ; and in New Ireland and Tahiti 
 this was carried out to an extreme degree, the wretched 
 girls in the former place being kept for years in wicker 
 cages in their homes, and never allowed out till after 
 sunset, and then only in the vicinity of the cage • ; 
 while ia Tahiti the regulations were hardly less strict. 
 In Fiji the young women had to undergo a temporary 
 period of detention indoors from puberty until marriage, 
 which usually took place soon after. They were during 
 this time known as " Tabu Siga," or forbidden to the 
 Sun, and it was then that their " tatu-ing " was 
 usually done.* 
 
 In Samoa the same custom must have once existed, 
 for there is a folk-tale about a king's daughter, named 
 Sinu-leana (" White-of-the-Cave "), who was kept 
 secluded in a gloomy cavern. It tells how Tangaroa 
 had once spied her near the entrance and would not 
 be denied ; and after sending various emissaries to 
 fetch her, such as Thunder, Lightning, Rain, etc., 
 he eventually lowered a net to the mouth of the cave, 
 entangled her in it, and drew her up to the Sky. Their 
 son was named Pili (" The Entangled "), and when 
 
 1 The Melanesians, by Codrington. 
 1 Fiji and the Fijians, by Williams; 
 
168 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 he grew to manhood he received his father's permission 
 to visit the earth, and he taught the people irrigation, 
 making giant Taro courses at Upolu that stretched 
 right across the island. 
 
 Similarly, in Tahiti, the Sun, as the Rainbow God, 
 managed on one occasion to elude the vigilance of 
 the parents, and crept in through an unguarded window. 
 Eventually a girl baby was born, who was brought 
 up by the gods out at sea on the great ocean, and 
 was only returned at puberty to her mother. Hence 
 it is stated her female descendants have always had 
 to be taken to sea for their confinements. 
 
 The custom of secluding the girls from the Sun's 
 rays until marriage was also followed in Indonesia 
 and up into the Mediterranean (it is. hinted at in the 
 old Greek folk-tales) ; and the stories of it — if not 
 the actual custom — were brought to us in England 
 either by the Scandinavian vikings, or possibly even 
 by the earlier Phoenicians. We know it well in the 
 guise of " There was once a lovely princess, who was 
 shut up in a tower by her father, the king." 
 
 We have just now seen that the Fijian girl's " tatu- 
 ing " was done indoors, during a particularly sacred 
 time. So also was the " tatu-ing " of all Polynesian 
 chiefs performed indoors, in strict seclusion. To 
 ascertain the reason for this it will be necessary to 
 glance at a typical Polynesian representative of the 
 Sun-god. This was the divine Tui Tonga. His blood 
 was so very sacred that it might not on any pretext 
 be shed ; he might not be incised, as all the rest of 
 the Tongan males were at puberty ; he alone might 
 not cut his head or cheeks in mourning, even for the 
 
" TATU " 169 
 
 nearest relative, as the other Tongans did ; he alone 
 might not be " tatu-ed ". I He could not give up his 
 blood because he was almost the same as the god 
 himself, and the god must not shed any of the divine 
 blood ; he needed all of it to keep his vitality strong 
 for the great task of fertilizing the earth. So, in a 
 minor degree, a Polynesian Sun-descended chief, full 
 of divinity, should not give up overmuch of his blood, 
 save in battle ; and if his Sky-parent knew of it he 
 would doubtlessly be very angry. Consequently it 
 was done under the protecting shelter of a house. 
 
 But as the losing of the sacred blood was obviously 
 a very solemn occasion, the youth himself became 
 extremely " tabu " during the process, so much so 
 that in New Zealand a chief might not touch his food 
 with any part of his skin ; he could not lift it with 
 his hands, .he could not have it in contact with his 
 face. His food had therefore to be poured in a liquid 
 state into his mouth through a sort of funnel by a 
 slave ; and some of these beautifully carved wooden 
 food funnels may be seen in the British Museum. 1 
 
 1 The king-priest in the Cook Islands was also debarred from 
 the " tatu," and it would probably be found on investigation 
 that it was not to be done by any other of the " divine kings," 
 not only in the Pacific but in other places where " tatu " might 
 be practised among the rest of the people. We know that at 
 one time the common people " tatu-ed " in Japan. 
 
 1 The " Moko " or " Tatu " in New Zealand is a specialized 
 form, and is not done by puncturing but by actually incising 
 grooves, just as their wood-carving was done. The pigment 
 was then rubbed in. This being more likely to cause inflam- 
 mation even than ordinary " tatu-ing " it might be thought 
 that the funnel was necessary because of the swollen face ; but 
 in certain other island groups where ordinary " tatu-ing " was 
 carried on the men had also to be fed during the " tabu " period. 
 
170 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 In the Marquesas, again, the operation was distinctly 
 a religious ceremony, and the young man was closely 
 secluded in the house while it was being done. So, 
 too, was it a sacred affair in the Marshall Islands 
 and, as we have seen, in the religious Fertility-cult of 
 the Tahitian " Areoi " societies it was an essential 
 feature. 
 
 Now, though both sexes were " tatu-ed " in Poly- 
 nesia, it was, owing to the religious nature of it, a 
 ceremony for men rather than for women. Women 
 were very little " tatu-ed " compared with the men, 
 and in their case there was no " tabu " associated with 
 it. Among the true Melanesians, on the other hand, 
 there being no religious feature about it, there was 
 no special reason why the men should be '* tatu-ed " 
 at all, though they had their women-folk " tatu-ed " 
 to ornament them and make them more attractive 
 from a sexual point of view. 1 Thus we get the two 
 main distinctions between Polynesian and Melanesian, 
 viz., that in the former it was principally the men 
 that were " tatu-ed," and not the women ; while in 
 the latter it was the women and not the men. The 
 demarcation line is clearly shown falling between 
 Fiji and Tonga ; and the natives invented an anecdote 
 to account for the discrepancy, saying that the idea 
 
 1 It might be argued that if it was for ornamental purpose* 
 their lords and masters would also adopt it, with the child- 
 like vanity of primitive races. So, no doubt, they would if 
 it had been the slightest use, but " tatu " pigments simply 
 do not show against their blue-black skins, so when ornament 
 is required they use cicatrization, the raised weals showing 
 up well. The women, having lighter and more delicate skins, 
 can as a rule make use of real " tatu," though there are some 
 islands where even their skins need cicatrization and not " tatu " 
 
"TATU" OF RELIGIOUS SIGNIFICANCE 171 
 
 of " tatu " was originally taken from Fiji to Tonga 
 by a messenger who was told before leaving that it 
 was the correct thing to " tatu " the women and not 
 the men. Being a rather dense young man, he had 
 to repeat this to himself all the way over lest he should 
 forget it, but unluckily on landing at Tonga he stubbed 
 his toe on a stone, and promptly blurted out : " . . . 
 ' Tatu ' the men and not the women " ! 
 
 Now it will have been noticed that the " tatu-ing " 
 of Fijian girls took place at puberty. In Polynesia 
 also, and in fact all over the Pacific, the operation 
 was performed — on both sexes — at this time. (In 
 East Papua after the first " kill " ; in Tikopia the 
 males after incision, the females at the first signs of 
 puberty.) It would seem, then, from what has been 
 mentioned above that it must be a religious rite 
 connected with Fertility and the divinity of the Sun. 
 In fact, in certain islands it is so essentially part of the 
 religion that in the after-life the " untatu-ed " ones 
 are turned back from Paradise. 
 
 It has been said that in some parts of the world 
 " tatu-ing " originated as a tribal distinguishing sign, 
 and was preceded by the more primitive painting. 
 This may have been so in the case of the Polynesians 
 long before their arrival in the Pacific, but the present 
 religious significance seems to be of immense antiquity, 
 even though the tribal distinctions may have still 
 been kept up, possibly without knowledge of the reason. 
 This may perhaps account for the special curvilinear 
 type of " tatu " used by the Maoris, the Hawaiians, 
 and the Easter Islanders, differing from the straight 
 lines of most other island groups. In Indonesia the 
 
172 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 Dyaks of Borneo and the Mantawai Islanders adopt 
 the curvilinear pattern, and this may possibly be some 
 clue to the special route of those Polynesians just 
 mentioned. 
 
 In Papua and Easter Island we have the simple 
 painting carried out side by side with the " tatu-ing " ; 
 but in the latter island the painting of little girls ' 
 with concentric rings on the back, just as is depicted in 
 many of the stone images, was possibly because they had 
 not yet arrived at puberty and so could not be " tatu-ed." 
 
 I am afraid I have been digressing shamefully from 
 the original subject of sacrifices to the Sun ; but to 
 me the problem of " tatu " and its reasons has always 
 seemed particularly interesting. Before leaving this 
 chapter a word must be said on the extraordinary 
 " fire-walking " ceremonies, and of their connection with 
 the Sun-cult and Fertility. The association, as far as 
 Mythology is concerned, has been discussed on page 73. 
 
 I will not enter into a long description here ; it is 
 sufficient to say that it has been found in several 
 places in the Pacific, but only in the Polynesian part 
 of it, and has been much written upon. It is true 
 that it is found in Fiji, but only in the distinctly 
 " Polynesian " island of Benga (known in the ancient 
 Polynesian traditions as Peka, see page 99),* and in 
 this island only one section of the people can do it ; 
 while the power to perform it is looked upon by all, 
 including the performers themselves, as something 
 
 « An old Easter Island custom described by Mrs. Routledge 
 in Folk-lore, December, 1917. 
 
 « Williams (Fiji and the Fijians) records that long before 
 the year 1800 the people of Benga asserted that they were the 
 subjects of "the Sky." 
 

 
 ' 71 ' 
 
 ■i H 
 
 'dm * v 
 
 / ■ ' 'I fit ■•' ' •■■•■ s 
 
 -/VJJ 
 
 A TATUED MAORI CHIEF, WEARING FLAX CLOAK. 
 (Photo by permission of the Agent-General for New Zealand.) 
 
 To face p. 172. 
 
FIRE-WALKING 173 
 
 mysterious, handed down by their ancestors, and of 
 a quasi-religious nature. 
 
 A wide shallow pit is made and a great fierce fire of 
 timber kindled over the whole extent of it. Big smooth 
 rounded stones are sandwiched between the firewood, 
 and quickly get into an almost " red-hot " condition. 
 The blazing timber is at last raked off, and the men, 
 entering the pit and carrying sacred Ti-leaves in their 
 hands, proceed to walk in bare-footed procession round 
 it on the surface of the fiery stones, and apparently 
 without suffering the least inconvenience. Many 
 white people have witnessed these performances and 
 examined the feet of the natives afterwards, and one 
 white man at least (Dr. Craig, of Raratonga) has tried 
 it himself, but only succeeded in burning his feet ! 
 The secret is probably either in some preparation 
 which they put on their feet beforehand, or — what 
 is more likely — in the extraordinarily thick hard soles 
 of the people, which are not in contact with the stones 
 for a sufficiently long time for the heat to attack the 
 nerve-endings. 
 
 Now this ceremony is, or was, carried out in other 
 parts of the world ; in Indonesia (branching off to 
 Japan, China, and Tibet), in India, back to Egypt, 
 and even across the Mediterranean and up to Bulgaria. 
 In India and Egypt palm-leaves were carried ; in Fiji 
 leaves of the sacred Ti ; in China, actual images of 
 the gods. And this last has given us a possible clue • 
 to the origin of the ceremony, for it has been suggested 
 that the images of the gods were taken into the furnace 
 to give them heat and " sunshine"; in other words 
 to renew the vitality of the god. Is it not possible 
 
174 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 that the palm-leaves (probably sacred) and the Ti- 
 leaves (known to be sacred) are symbolic representa- 
 tions of the god ? 
 
 The ceremony found in other parts of the world 
 of " jumping through the fire " — with which may be 
 associated the passing of ailing children through the 
 hole in the prehistoric " ring stones " which were 
 arranged so that the sun shone through them at special 
 times — has probably a somewhat different origin, and 
 is thought to be merely connected with the idea of 
 Fire or Sun purification from disease. 1 
 
 This " renewal of vitality " is also evident in another 
 custom in Tahiti, where, on the illness of a great chief, 
 no fires were allowed throughout the island, the obvious 
 idea being that as the vitality, well known to be the 
 common possession of both the Sun (with its symbol 
 the Fire) and of the Sun-descended chief, was getting" 
 less it would be exceedingly dangerous to waste still more 
 of that precious energy or vitality by lighting numerous 
 other fires. The association between the Sun-god and 
 the Fire is, of course, very clearly shown in the altars 
 with their " eternal fires " kept perpetually burning 
 as the symbol of the Sun, and never allowed to die, 
 lest — by means of that subtle sympathy clearly under- 
 stood by primitive man — the Sun itself would in conse- 
 quence die also. These eternal fires were kept up 
 
 1 I have never been quite satisfied with this explanation as 
 to the passing of people through the ring stones. My own theory 
 (possibly others have thought of it, too) is that the "ring", 
 like the " menhir ", is a sexual emblem, and that the whole 
 thing is the ancient idea of re-birth, which we have to this day 
 in the Bible as " being born again to remove sin." In the Pacific 
 there is the very old myth of Maui attempting to be born again 
 to which there is a parallel folk-tale about Manu in India. 
 
THE SACREDNESS OF FIRES 175 
 
 in Mexico, Peru, and other ancient abodes of Sun- 
 worship ; and have come down to us as a relic in the 
 ever-burning lamps of Hebrew Synagogues, and of 
 Byzantine and Catholic Churches. 
 
 That the Fire was particularly sacred (merely as an 
 emblem of the divine Sun) is shown by its constant 
 association with the temples, as in Hawaii, Tahiti, 
 Faka-ofu, and other places ; and also with the sacred 
 burial grounds, as in Easter Island, where fires were 
 kindled before the stone images, which were erected 
 at the burial places. It is a distinctive feature, too, 
 in the initiation ceremonies at Santo, in the New 
 Hebrides, where " at each rise in rank the novice 
 receives the new Fire, rubbed on a special stick, and 
 decorated with flowers ; and certain ceremonies attend 
 the cooking of the first food with this new Fire. It 
 is then carefully tended in the fireplace, and if it goes 
 out it has to be rubbed afresh with the stick." > 
 
 The " tabu " nature of the Fire is also illustrated 
 in other parts of the Pacific in the distinction between 
 the sexes and their use of it ; for in the Marquesas 
 it was strictly " tabu " for the women to cook at the 
 men's fire, which had to be specially reserved for 
 their food. In Tahiti the sacred turtle could only be 
 cooked at the Sacred Fire in the temple, and not at 
 any ordinary fire outside ; while in Samoa, as we have 
 seen, the fire was vitalized anew each night and appro- 
 priate prayers offered up to the god. In the next 
 chapter I propose to show how the sacred character 
 of the Fire was associated with the sacrifices to the 
 Sun-gods. 
 
 1 Two Years in (he Western Pacific, by Dr. Speisser. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 OTHER OFFERINGS TO THE SUN 
 
 We have just seen how, in Tahiti, the sacred turtle 
 could only be cooked at the Sacred Fire in the temple. 
 Throughout Polynesia a very strict " tabu " surrounded 
 the turtle, and on no account could it be eaten, even 
 by the king, unless a portion of it had first been 
 offered to the god. At Futuna the king had to remove 
 its " tabu " x before it could be divided out (page 151) ; 
 and even the dividing out had to be most carefully 
 performed, as it was a dish strictly for " the sons of 
 the gods," and should any but the highest chiefs partake 
 some evil fate would surely befall them. King Pomare 
 of Tahiti in 1812 announced his breaking with the 
 ancient religion of his forefathers for the new faith 
 of the white men by first of all having a turtle cooked 
 in his own kitchen, and next having it served up 
 directly to him and the chiefs he had invited, without 
 its being previously presented at the temple.* Despite 
 
 1 If " unclean " in the language of the Bible did not mean 
 merely " dirty " or " defiled," but rather " forbidden " or 
 " tabu," then the turtle (or tortoise) comes under this heading 
 in Leviticus xi. 29, as an ancient Semitic " tabu." In China 
 it was an evil or unlucky animal, and the distinction between 
 evil and " tabu " is merely nominal. Compare the " King's 
 Evil." 
 
 > Polynesian Researches, by the Rev. William Ellis. 
 
 176 
 
THE SACRED TURTLE 177 
 
 this bold example of their sacrilegious king none of 
 the nobles dared to touch it, though at ordinary times 
 they might have enjoyed it. 
 
 The division of a turtle being, therefore, a matter 
 of careful etiquette and delving into ancestry, it 
 brought on many a quarrel ; and, indeed, was the 
 cause of the last cases of cannibalism in the Lau 
 Islands, when Tui Mavana (I knew his son well, he 
 probably joined in the feast) being angry with Tui 
 Yaro for eating a turtle that he considered should 
 have been handed over to himself as senior chief, 
 called together his men and nearly exterminated the 
 Tui Yaro family, afterwards cooking and eating the 
 slain. The sacred conch-trumpet was always blown 
 by the returning canoes after the capture of a turtle, 
 the only other similar occasion of its being blown 
 was when they returned with human flesh. In 
 fact, in the Lau Islands, human flesh was, by a 
 euphemism, spoken of as " Vonu Balavu " or " Long 
 Turtle." 
 
 There is a pretty little fairy story * told in the 
 Fiji-Tonga-Samoa Group of how a certain Samoan, 
 named Lekambai, was once wrecked out at sea, and 
 how he swam and swam until at last he drifted to 
 a high rock set by itself in the ocean. He climbed 
 this rock till at last he came to the Sky-kingdom. 
 After he had rested, the Sky-god took compassion 
 on him and told him that if he climbed down again 
 he would allow him the use of the divine turtle upon 
 which to be carried back to Samoa ; but that he must 
 be sure and give it, as a reward, a mat and a coco-nut 
 
 " Tales from Old Fiji, by L. Fison. 
 12 
 
178 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 on arrival. On reaching Samoa Lekambai in his 
 excitement forgot the turtle, and some time after- 
 wards, on going to carry out the god's command, he 
 found that the townspeople had killed it and were 
 about to cook it. He explained to them the command 
 of the Sky-god ; and, not knowing what else to do, 
 they decided to hide it, together with the mat and 
 the coco-nut that Lekambai had brought, in the 
 deepest grave ever dug. They took several days 
 digging this grave, and thought they were unobserved 
 save for a small child who was standing by watching 
 the proceedings. But the Sand-piper of the Sky- 
 king came down and lightly brushed the head of 
 this child with its wings, upon which he became 
 dumb. 
 
 Years went by, and still the child remained the 
 same — dumb, and always a child. Generations went 
 by, and still the child lived on. Then one day the 
 King of Tonga, now the conqueror of Samoa, heard 
 the tradition about the burying of the heavenly turtle, 
 and at once said to his men, " This is surely a shell 
 from which to make irresistible fish-hooks. It must 
 be brought to me without fail." But when the Ton- 
 gans went to Samoa to enquire about it no one knew 
 the place of the grave. It had been forgotten many, 
 many years ago. At last, just when the Samoans 
 would have been slain by the wrathful Tongans the 
 child recovered his voice and cried out, " Stay. I 
 can show you. I know the place." Even the Samoans 
 would not believe that the boy could know, as he had 
 never been regarded as anything but a child ; they 
 had forgotten how long he had lived. But he showed 
 
FLESH FOR SACRIFICES 179 
 
 them the spot, and after much digging they recovered 
 the shell, all but one piece. Fearing the king's 
 anger at not getting the lot they decided to drift 
 out to sea, anywhere, and at last reached Kandavu 
 Island (Fiji), where their descendants have remained 
 ever since. 
 
 I quote this story for two reasons ; one is that it 
 seems to throw a little sidelight on the " Tonga-Fiti " 
 conquest of Samoa, which one may suppose to have 
 taken place some time before A.D. 1250, and the other 
 is that it implies some connection between the Sky- 
 people and the turtle. The turtle symbol likewise 
 appears frequently among the mysterious hieroglyphics 
 of Easter Island, and I have supposed that this appear- 
 ance may possibly be connected with the giant tortoise 
 of the Galapagos Islands, and even with the tortoise 
 of Peru. 1 And in the other direction, if one section 
 of the Polynesian people really did come from India 
 and the valley of the Ganges, as many indications 
 seem to show, it may be found that the tortoise was 
 once a particularly sacred object there — Indian scholars 
 will know this better than I do ; and in connection 
 with this there should not be overlooked the magni- 
 ficent great jade tortoise, now in the British Museum, 
 from the Jumnah Valley, close to the Ganges. 
 
 But the turtle was not alone in being set apart for 
 religious sacrifices, for two other varieties of flesh, 
 curiously dissimilar, were also made use of for this 
 purpose. These were pig and man. To understand 
 something of the reason for the selection of pigs — ■ 
 generally considered as accursed, unclean beasts — ■ 
 
 1 The turtle or tortoise is a tribal totem in New Mexico. 
 
180 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 for sacrifices, it will be necessary to wander a long 
 way back, back to the mythology of the ancient world. 
 And there we find the origin of the hatred, mingled 
 with the fear, of this animal ; for was it not the great 
 Boar who once defied, and nearly killed, the Sun ? x 
 What, then, is a more fitting sacrifice to appease the 
 Sun's wrath ? 
 
 This legend is one of the old astronomical myths 
 of the world, and is found from the sunny plains of 
 India to the ice-bound mountains of Scandinavia. 
 But the Boar is the great emblem of Fertility, and 
 therefore, if it were offered up to " feed " the Sun, 
 the Sun could absorb its fertile powers, and become 
 even yet more capable of producing fertility for the 
 earth. This, probably, is the real reason of the sacri- 
 fice, and the legend was built up afterwards to account 
 for it. Most of the great " Semitic " division of man- 
 kind sacrificed the Boar to Bel, the Sun-god, 2 (and 
 probably, as was so often done, partook of the sacrifice 
 afterwards) but the Hebrews abstained from eating 
 it in any form, partly because they were ordered to 
 forswear Bel and all his works,3 and partly, no doubt, 
 owing to those extremely sensible laws of national 
 hygiene drawn up in the Book of Leviticus ; for truly 
 
 1 The Phrygian Attis was killed by the Boar. 
 
 » This is why we have the Boar's Head at Yuletide, from our 
 earliest " Iberian " ancestry in England, who were Semitic 
 rather than Aryan. 
 
 3 Though they were soundly rated by the prophet Isaiah for 
 backsliding, and eating pork, Sir Jas. Frazer considers that 
 in earlier times pork was actually a sacred dish to them ; but, 
 being " tabu " and feared, gradually changed to being " un- 
 clean." In this there may be an analogy with the turtle, men- 
 tioned just now. In Egypt the pig was a loathed, unclean 
 animal, yet eaten once a year as a sacred rite. 
 
PIGS IN THE PACIFIC 181 
 
 the scavenging pig is no fit meat for dwellers in hot 
 climates. 
 
 Though the people of " modern " India, of the last 
 two thousand years or so, are like the Hebrews in 
 abjuring pork, they acknowledge one of their ancient 
 deities, Vishnu, or Siva, in one form as a Boar-god ; 
 a relic handed down from their predecessors in the 
 country. And if the Polynesians came from either 
 India or from the great Semitic countries of Arabia 
 and Mesopotamia one might expect them to have 
 held the Boar as something specially apart from other 
 animals ; if, indeed, they had such things as pigs during 
 their early habitation of the Pacific. Now the popular 
 idea is that Captain Cook introduced pigs to the 
 South Sea Islands, but this is quite a fallacy. Roggevein, 
 in 1722, was convinced that the Easter Islanders 
 knew and recognized pigs ; though there were none 
 actually at the time on this dry island, where the 
 droughts had probably killed them off. Cook himself, 
 when taking part at Hawaii in the ceremony of his 
 own identification with the god Lono, found putrid 
 carcases of a recent sacrifice of pigs at the temple. 1 
 An old Tongan told Dr. Brown that his mother remem- 
 bered pigs at feasts in that island before Captain Cook's 
 arrival ; in fact, there is no doubt whatever that they 
 were in the Pacific before the famous Englishman, 
 although he of course brought an improved Euro- 
 pean pig. And pigs were there even before the early 
 Spanish voyagers, for they record finding them in 
 
 1 Probably allowed to decay, just as the yam offerings at 
 the Nanga ceremony, because it was entirely reserved for the 
 god and too " tabu " to be divided up among the worshippers. 
 
182 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 Melanesia. So the derivation of the name " Vuaka " 
 from the Spanish or Portuguese " Puerca " is as much 
 a fairy-tale as the famous derivation of the Fijian 
 " Koli " (really the ancient Polynesian " Kuri ") for 
 " dog " from a chance acquaintanceship with a Scotch 
 Collie. " Vuaka," or " Vua'a " is probably onomato- 
 poeic, from the pig's ordinary grunting. Dr. Rivers 
 considers that pigs, like dogs and fowls, were intro- 
 duced by the Polynesian immigrants many centuries 
 before Cook or even the Spanish voyagers had ever 
 heard of the Pacific. Owing to the long distances 
 and the difficulties of keeping them alive, these pigs 
 did not reach every island in the Pacific, though 
 Captain Porter in 1813 records a definite tradition 
 of them being brought "by a god called Hai'i " to 
 the Marquesas some twenty generations before his 
 time, which would work out at about a.d. 1300. 
 
 That pigs were regarded as in rather a different 
 category from most other living creatures except man 
 and turtle, the other two sacrificial objects, is shown 
 in several ways. Its flesh, like theirs, was often 
 " tabu " to commoners and to women (this was especi- 
 ally marked in the Marquesas). It was distinctly 
 a creature for sacrifice, differing from dogs, fowls, 
 fish, etc. 1 Its skulls were often preserved ; and in 
 parts of the New Hebrides, such as Efatu Island, its 
 skulls were actually put in the grave with important 
 men, and a fire kindled over all to ensure a safe return 
 to the Sun ! 
 
 » The Dyaks of Borneo, a Polynesian type of people, in the 
 track of the Polynesians, to this day use pig's blood to purify 
 the ground if they think some crime against the gods has been 
 committed. — Natives of Sarawak, by Ling Roth. 
 
PIGS— HATED, FEARED, SACRIFICED 188 
 
 Pigs played a most important part in the proceed- 
 ings of secret societies, both in Melanesia and in the 
 Areoi Society of Tahiti ; and in the Nanga ceremonies 
 of Fiji they were specially ear-marked, or rather tail- 
 marked, for the sacrifice. Their flesh, " tabu " and 
 wrapped in protecting leaves, was tasted by the 
 initiates along with the sacred yam ; and their still 
 bleeding entrails were cast over other prone men to 
 make them represent slain corpses. At Santo (New 
 Hebrides), the chief man receives his offerings of pigs, 
 and kills them while doing a solemn dance on a pre- 
 historic dolmen, the use and meaning of which has 
 been forgotten, though the vague memory remains 
 of its association with the offerings of the boar. In 
 Malikula the re-made " ancestors " lining the " gamal " 
 or communal house (mentioned on p. 118) often carried 
 a sacred conch-shell in the right hand and a pig's jaw 
 in the left. At San Christoval (Solomon Islands) a 
 pig is killed, without losing blood, by strangling ; and 
 a portion of the meat is then burnt at a fire on a stone 
 altar, the priest afterwards pouring a coco-nut shell 
 of blood, obtained on the cutting up, back on to this 
 Sacred Fire. 
 
 It may be thought that if the pig were at one time 
 held in such a peculiar position — hated, feared, sacri- 
 ficed—it could hardly be relegated to the common- 
 place situation it has to-day of being a favourite 
 article of food, a pet in the houses. 1 But it must 
 be remembered that over a thousand years have 
 
 * In some islands it is nearly as common to see a pet pig 
 following a man about as it is to see a dog ; in others, the more 
 primitive Melanesian ones, little pigs have been seen taken by 
 a woman to her breast alternately with her baby ! 
 
184 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 elapsed since those times, the people have moved to 
 a different quarter of the globe, and — especially in 
 Melanesia — have blended with other races. But in some 
 places, as I have shown, the dim memory yet remains 
 of its being a creature to be sacrificed to the Sun, 
 and connected with dolmens. 
 
 We now come to that last and greatest sacrifice 
 of all, the sacrifice of man. Here again it is necessary 
 for us civilized creatures of the twentieth century to 
 step out of ourselves for a moment and glance at things 
 from a different perspective, to see things from the 
 view-point of people who lived one or two thousand 
 years ago ; for that is really the vision with which 
 these isolated peoples of the Pacific looked until some 
 few score years since. It was manifest to them that 
 the Sun needed sacrifices of fertile things, such as 
 First-fruits and the Boar, in order that it might make 
 the earth fertile ; but even more important than the 
 temporary benefit of a good harvest was the dread 
 possibility that without new vigour instilled into it 
 the Sun might actually die. Hence the most powerful 
 sacrifice of all was needed. 
 
 This dread, I think, rather than the mere desire 
 to appease wrath, influenced the sacrifice of a child 
 if the harvest failed, and similarly if the life of the 
 king (the Sun in human guise) looked like failing. 
 This latter was done in Tonga when Mariner was 
 actually there, as a last resource after the dying king 
 had been carried round to all the different temples 
 in vain. It was only an extension of this idea that 
 caused the relatives of chiefs to follow suit ; and 
 occasionally, almost in despair, to sacrifice a child, 
 
ONE IDEA OF THE GREAT SUN-GOD, 
 TANGAROA, THE CREATOR, FROM 
 THE AUSTRAL GROUP, TO SHOW THE 
 " BUDD1NG-OFF " OF MANKIND 
 
 {Photo by permission of the Brilislt Museum and 
 London Missioniiiv Society.) 
 
 i'. 184. 
 
CHILD-SACRIFICES 185 
 
 for the Tongans were really the gentlest and kindest- 
 hearted of people where children were concerned. 
 And I think a minor degree of the same custom was 
 the lopping off of a finger (at one time common among 
 people of Polynesian descent) J at a funeral — a partial 
 human sacrifice, it might be called — made in order 
 that the power of the newly-created deity in 
 miniature (the late chief) might quickly grow strong. 
 For the soul that had flown back to the light and 
 radiance of the great ancestor of all, in the Sky, was 
 really considered as a sort of out-growth, once separ- 
 ated off from the parent stem and now re-absorbed. 
 A good illustration of this is seen in the effigy of the 
 god Tangaroa (now in the British Museum) and the 
 little separate atoms of mankind " budding off " him. 
 
 Baal himself, when a ruler upon the earth, is said 
 to have offered up his most precious sacrifice, his only 
 son ; and from that arose the custom of child- 
 sacrifices to Moloch (the word means simply " the 
 King," and stands for Baal) in order that the Sun 
 might be strengthened. They were the " first-born," 
 the " First-fruits " for the Sun-god. The image of 
 Moloch was made with out-stretched arms, and so 
 delicately balanced that on a child being placed in 
 his hands he tilted forward, casting the sacrifice to 
 the flames below. 2 
 
 That children in Samoa were once sacrificed is 
 
 1 I remember when I first went out to Fiji the shock it used 
 to give me, till I got used to it, on shaking hands with some 
 of the older natives and feeling a finger missing. 
 
 » The sacrifice of Abraham is recalled to mind ; and the valley 
 of Tophet, of ill-omen, acquired its reputation from these child 
 sacrifiges to the fires of Baal, 
 
186 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 shown by the custom that remained long afterwards 
 of placing a child on certain occasions in a cold fire- 
 pit, a pretence that persisted like the fiction of circum- 
 cision at Savage Island. 
 
 In Ruviana and Ysabel Islands, in the Solomons, 
 children were sometimes sacrificed in the hope of 
 saving the lives of men of chiefly standing, and Dr. 
 Guppy writes regarding one such occasion : — 
 
 "... everything that had been done proving of 
 no avail, the efficacy of a human sacrifice was next 
 tried. Men were sent to steal a victim. A child 
 about three or four years old was fixed upon . . . and 
 there, beside the dying man, the victim's throat was 
 cut, and as the life blood ebbed away the old man 
 called upon the Tindalo to take the life he now was 
 offering in lieu of that he hoped to save . . ." 
 
 Though it was not only children but grown men 
 who were called for if the vital necessity of the Sun 
 demanded it. The clearest instances of this, perhaps, 
 were found in Hawaii and Tahiti ; and in ancient 
 Mexico, where, after the zenith of midsummer, it was 
 feared that the Sun would slowly disappear and die 
 if not " replenished " by the living heart of a man. 
 Such sacrifices, of course, meant cruelty, but they 
 argued that it were better that one man should suffer 
 than the whole world die. Our own religion is full 
 of traces of such ancient cults, blended, altered, and 
 improved almost beyond recognition as man grows 
 more civilized. In Japan they ceased the actual 
 sacrifices of man about two thousand years ago, and 
 substituted images of clay. But it would seem a 
 strange god that demanded the sacrifice — for that is 
 
INSTITUTION OF HUMAN SACRIFICES 187 
 
 what it amounted to — by fire, and alive, of " 5 bishops, 
 21 clergymen, 8 lay gentlemen, 84 tradesmen, 100 
 labourers, 55 women, and 4 children " between the 
 years A.D. 1554 and 1558 in this England of ours ! 
 
 Native traditions tell us that human sacrifices were 
 instituted at Tahiti together with the worship of the 
 god Oro, Lono, or Rongo ; and again that the practise 
 was first introduced to Hawaii from Tahiti some time 
 between a.d. 1000 and 1250. We may surmise (page 
 106) that it was also first started in the Cook Islands 
 about the same date, and the same god Rongo is 
 associated with the custom. So that it almost looks 
 as if one race of people migrating over the Pacific 
 carried the idea of human sacrifices with it. 
 
 In Samoa there are several early traditions, wrapped 
 in the guise of myth, regarding human sacrifices, such 
 as at Papatea, where it is said that once upon a time 
 the Sun demanded the sacrifice of a human being, 
 and that soon the habit grew strong upon him, so 
 that he must have them more and more frequently 
 and in larger numbers. Nothing would satisfy him, 
 and at last there came a time when for eighty days 
 in succession many men were being offered up twice 
 daily, at sunrise and at sunset, so that there was 
 weeping throughout the land. Now there was a 
 beautiful girl named Ui, whose younger brother was 
 the next one marked down for the sacrifice, so she 
 decided to fly with him to another island and escape 
 all these terrible demands of the Sun. They reached 
 Manua Island; and here, too, they found that the 
 sacrifices were going on, so in desperation she offered 
 to marry the Sun if he would stop his calls for the 
 
188 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 sacrifices of men. He consented, and from that time 
 dated its cessation in Samoa. 
 
 Dr. Stair was told another Samoan legend that 
 once a man was offered up every sunrise on a Pandanus 
 tree, and that the tradition supposed that the people 
 who did it came from the Union Group. 
 
 It is difficult to read between the lines in these tales, 
 except that human sacrifices were once apparently 
 very common in Samoa, and possibly in the Union 
 Group ; and that they were connected with Sun- 
 worship. In Hawaii we have unfortunately actual 
 evidence in a case that reaches nearer home to us, 
 for it was there that the flesh of Captain Cook was 
 offered up on a sacrificial fire ..." on a hearth raised 
 18 inches above the ground and circled by a curb of 
 rude stones, in a small enclosure about fifteen feet 
 square surrounded by a wall five feet high." » 
 
 It will be noticed, by the way, that once more it 
 is the god Rongo, Oro, or Lono that is associated with 
 the human sacrifice. There was also said to be a god 
 on Maui Island (Hawaiian Group) called Ke-oro-eva, 
 whose temple had an inner compartment containing 
 an altar for sacrifices. And I think it may be the 
 same one as that Oro-keva that was mentioned in 
 the tale of Akapura and her ten brothers, in Chapter VII. 
 Oro was the god of War, but in some parts of the Pacific 
 the Sun-god was also the War-god. Would it be 
 beyond probability to consider the Egyptian Hor, 
 the Rajput Hor, and the Pacific Or-o as one and the 
 same god ? This has been suggested before, and I do 
 not think the suggestion should be lightly thrust aside. 
 1 Ellis, Tour Through Hawaii, 1826, 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 CANNIBALISM 
 
 We now come to what is to most people the strangest 
 and most revolting custom that has ever existed on 
 the face of the earth — Cannibalism. It is thought 
 that people who practise this must be the most degraded 
 outcasts of humanity, sunk to the lowest depths, worse 
 than the ravening beasts. But, like many other things, 
 it is, after all, a matter of perspective. As one learned 
 and much-loved missionary once wrote : — 
 
 "... There is something so repulsive to us in 
 the idea of cannibalism that most people, I think, 
 picture the people who indulge in it as being particu- 
 larly ferocious and repulsive. The fact is that many 
 of them are no more ferocious than other races who 
 abhor the very idea of eating the human body. Many 
 cannibals, indeed, are very nice people, and except 
 on very special occasions there is no apparent difference 
 between them and non-cannibal tribes. . . ." 
 
 At my first station in Fiji, in the Singatoka district, 
 which extended up to the Tholo Mountains in the 
 interior, I knew some highly respectable old gentlemen 
 with venerable white beards and benevolent coun- 
 tenances, who delighted to sail toy boats on the river 
 to amuse their small grandchildren. These were 
 notorious ex-cannibals, but their dignified manners 
 
 189 
 
190 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 and gentle politeness would have set an example to 
 many London drawing-rooms to-day. 
 
 Most customs of " uncivilized " people are to us 
 strange, many are revolting until we look on them 
 with an understanding eye, and learn the reason and 
 cause of their origin. And though cannibalism in the 
 Pacific, and especially in Fiji, eventually degenerated 
 into the most horrible practices imaginable, yet the 
 origin of it was inspired by the simple religious rites 
 of a mild-mannered people. 
 
 After their labours in their gardens or among the 
 herds, humble thanks for the bounty of the god, and 
 prayers for a plentiful harvest were offered up, together 
 with the first young shoots of the crop and the first 
 offspring of the herd. A morsel of these was partaken 
 of by the worshippers with the god, in order that part 
 of the health, strength, and fertility of the sacrifice 
 might pass to them also. And so their descendants, 
 moving on to the Pacific, continued the practice ; 
 and even when a human being was required by the 
 great Sky-god, a tiny portion had to be tasted by 
 the worshippers to complete the ceremony. In Hawaii 
 quite early records show that only the priest was 
 supposed to share the offering, and he only pretended 
 to eat, though this probably was a late survival from 
 still earlier times when the priest, and the worshippers 
 also, had to eat. In Mindanao, in the Philippines, 
 the priest alone had to taste the flesh. In course of 
 time, as the Polynesians degenerated, the worshippers 
 partook more and more of this " burnt offering," until 
 a positive liking for the cooked flesh was engendered, 
 especially when it is remembered that they were not 
 
CANNIBALISM— ORIGINS 191 
 
 really a vegetarian race and had not been able to 
 bring their animals (sheep and cattle) with them ; 
 and that even their pigs were at first few in number, 
 reserved for sacrifices, and had not survived the 
 journey to all the islands. 
 
 Quite a different origin of cannibalism as practised 
 in the Pacific was that caused by " magic." This 
 was, as may be expected, found among the Melanesians, 
 and developed along different lines ; but converged 
 and joined with the other variety when the aboriginals 
 and the negroid Melanesians mingled with the immigrant 
 Polynesians, not only in the Western, but also in the 
 Eastern, Pacific. This " magic " was the fear of the 
 ghost of the dead man and what it could do. If you 
 had slain a man, his ghost would injure you unless 
 you had been careful to incorporate a bit of him inside 
 you, in which case he would refrain, as he would then 
 be obviously only hurting himself ! To us it may 
 seem a poor sort of argument, but to the primitive 
 man it was the soundest of logic. That both these 
 principles of cannibalism eventually degenerated into 
 the two evil passions of sheer gluttony and revenge 
 (and I put gluttony first as being the more bestial 
 of the two) will be shown later. 1 
 
 ■ It has often been suggested that cannibalism was caused 
 by the desire to acquire certain of the envied properties of the 
 slain. So it was, but I have already started off with this as 
 the first and primal cause, namely, the partaking of the sacrifice 
 of a fertile object with the god. The sacrifice was considered to 
 become incorporated with the god, and after it had been offered 
 up and tasted by him you were really partaking of the actual 
 body of the god, and acquiring his virtues. It is needless to 
 enlarge upon this point, but parallels in modern religions will 
 occur to every one. 
 
192 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 If we now look at some of the ceremonies connected 
 with cannibalism we shall plainly see how it was 
 originally a purely religious rite ; and we can trace 
 the gradual degeneration of the practice to the cul- 
 minating point of horror which was reached in Fiji 
 during the first half of the last century. 
 
 From Prescott's description we have a very good 
 idea of the sacrificial ceremony, ending in the partaking 
 of the flesh, as it occurred in Mexico. The living man 
 was bent backwards on the sacrificial altar on the 
 top of the pyramid, the priest killed him by a stab 
 in the chest, and, cutting out the heart, held it up 
 for a moment in silent offering to the great Sun. The 
 image of the god was then " fed " (it was Huitzilo- 
 potchli, god of War, who was, as elsewhere, closely 
 associated with the Sun) and in the feeding process 
 its countenance became reddened with the sacrificial 
 blood. The rest of the body was then cast down to 
 the great crowd of worshippers reverently standing 
 below, that each might partake of a small portion 
 with the god. Throughout the ceremony a special 
 drum was rolling out its call, telling the world that 
 a sacrifice was being offered to the Sun. 
 
 Unfortunately we had no Prescott in the Pacific 
 at the period when human sacrifices in their early 
 religious form were prevalent, and can only draw our 
 conclusions from the customs that lingered on after- 
 wards, and from the stone remains of the pyramids, 
 temples, and altars that in many places still defy 
 the hands of time. These stone remains I propose 
 to describe in a later chapter; and at present shall 
 confine myself to a survey of the customs that show 
 
A TYPICAL CANNIBAL FEAST 193 
 
 how cannibalism, even at its worst in Fiji, was never 
 entirely forgotten as having been originally a sacred 
 rite and associated with the ancient religion of their 
 forefathers. 
 
 Cannibal feasts in Fiji have been so often written 
 about by white eye-witnesses, Waterhouse among 
 them, that it is really unnecessary here to describe 
 one. I will merely give the leading features of a 
 typical one that any of my old friends mentioned 
 above might have taken personal part in at Singatoka. 
 The first thing noticed by the old men and women 
 left in the village would be the distant booming of 
 the conch-shells on the returning canoes of the warriors, 
 announcing victory and a return with " bakola " or 
 bodies of the slain. The men would then begin to 
 prepare the " lovo " or great shallow pits in the earth, 
 lined with stones, for cooking the feast ; while the 
 women would dress themselves up in leaves and neck- 
 laces (their usual dress was nothing but a narrow grass 
 girdle when I first arrived in that district) and troop 
 down to the beach to meet the heroes of the hour. 
 As the canoes neared the shore a special " bakola " 
 yell, a peculiar shriek, would proceed from the men 
 on board. (I have heard my men give, in moments 
 of excitement, the same triumphant yell, but now 
 adapted to a different purpose, when an exceptionally 
 large fish had been secured in my fish-fence and was 
 being dragged up the beach.) They also started to 
 dance the " thimbi," or death-dance, which was re- 
 sponded to from the beach by the women, who each 
 minute were getting more excited, and who — on the 
 bodies being cast ashore— proceeded to perform a 
 
 13 
 
194 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 licentious dance before them, with various indescribable 
 actions, no doubt a vestige of the Fertility-cult that 
 was in former times associated with the offering to 
 the Sun that was about to be made. The bodies were 
 then dragged up the beach and hastily carried to the 
 priest at the temple, 1 where they were formally offered 
 up to the god. (At Bau all of them, whether dead 
 or still living, were at this time brained by being dashed 
 against a monolith just outside the temple. This, I 
 have no doubt, was originally intended as a phallus, 
 and is one more association with the Fertility-cult ; 
 at the same time the action dissipated the malignant 
 power contained in the head, as described on page 119. 
 The stone is still there, but now used, I believe, as the 
 base of a font in the Wesleyan church.) Throughout 
 the ceremony a special drum-beat, called " Derua," and 
 only sounded at this time, was rolling out, announcing 
 to all that the bodies were being offered up. 
 
 The next stage was to prepare the " bakola " for 
 the oven, and this was done by an experienced butcher, 
 who, taking a knife of split bamboo 2 (sharp as a razor, 
 as any one who has lived in the tropics knows ; and 
 re-sharpened by the simple process of splitting off 
 another thin slice from the same piece) proceeded to 
 
 1 This offering up to the god was essential. Even when they 
 were gradually being turned from cannibalism by the combined 
 persuasions of missionaries, white settlers, and captains of 
 men-of-war they could not for a long time forego this part of 
 the ritual. The missionary Waterhouse notes with triumph 
 that on Verani and his followers being ambushed and killed 
 by Tui Levuka and his men, Tui Levuka for the first time agreed 
 to relinquish the bodies, and that " after presenting them at the 
 temple " (sic) he handed them to him, the missionary, to bury. 
 
 » This bamboo knife was usually taken from a grove of bamboo 
 specially " tabu-ed " for this purpose. 
 
"TABU" AND CANNIBALISM 195 
 
 dismember the body. An eye-witness describes the 
 quick neat way it was done, by first disarticulating 
 the four limbs at the hips and shoulders ; next opening 
 the abdomen with a deep straight incision and removing 
 the viscera ; and finally severing the soft parts of the 
 neck with a circular sweep and twisting the head off 
 the vertebral column. The bodies were then removed 
 to the " lovo," the stones being by this time red hot, 
 and covered over with a thick layer of leaves, and 
 over the whole about a foot of earth or sand was 
 shovelled, making an enclosed oven for steaming, on 
 the same principle as " paper-bag " cookery. I can 
 testify to the excellence of this way of cooking as far 
 as pigs are concerned. 
 
 Vegetables were cooked in a similar but separate 
 " lovo," and special ones were introduced that had 
 the power of counteracting the dread " tabu " that 
 all knew (another memory of the ancient days) to be 
 associated with this sacrificial feast. These were the 
 Malawathi, Tundao, and Boro-dina. 
 
 After this first cooking, the bodies were then re- 
 divided into smaller parts, so that every family in 
 the town should have a portion, even if it were only 
 a very little piece indeed ; and — contrary to usual 
 custom — this was taken into the houses and eaten 
 behind closed doors after a second cooking in a special 
 " tabu " pot. It was " tabu " or forbidden food to 
 the women, and even by the men it had to be eaten 
 with a special wooden fork, a unique implement for 
 natives, who, for all other foods, dipped their fingers 
 in the dish (as our Elizabethan ancestors did). Should, 
 at any subsequent ordinary meal, food be eaten which 
 
196 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 by accident had been cooked in the " bakola " pot, 
 something very dreadful would happen, the least 
 result being that one's teeth would drop out. The 
 Roko-tui or king-priest (or his representative priest 
 at smaller functions) had to see that every morsel of 
 the " bakola " was consumed. Waterhouse describes 
 this as follows : " . . . the remaining portions were 
 diligently collected by the titular king, whose peculiar 
 province it is to see that the bodies are consumed. 
 ... To make the hashed meat more palatable he 
 caused it to be made up with coco-nut into ' vakalolo,' 
 or puddings. ..." 
 
 Another curious thing is that the Fijian, usually 
 so extremely particular about the slightest suspicion 
 of taint in his food — a wise precaution in hot climates 
 — could and did partake of this " sacred " food even 
 when in a more than merely tainted condition ; and 
 apparently without harm to himself. 1 There is no 
 doubt that a rapid degeneration of the people as regards 
 cannibalism took place between the end of the eigh- 
 teenth century and the middle of the nineteenth, 
 when it sank from a religious tasting of the temple 
 offering to a gluttonous desire for quantities of this 
 particular food. And so great did the desire become 
 that the tainting of the meat was never allowed to 
 be a bar to the satisfying of one's appetite. It is 
 recorded that in 1853 a canoe, sailing from one Fijian 
 island to another, capsized, and her crew of sixteen 
 drifted on to an intermediate island ten miles from 
 
 1 Of course we eat pheasant in a positively smelling state, 
 and cheese that wriggles with putrefaction, but we are people 
 on an altogether higher plane ! 
 
"WHITES" SELDOM EATEN 197 
 
 Ovalau. Here they were promptly killed (on the 
 " salt water in the eyes " theory) and eaten ; but 
 parts of the bodies floating away from where they had 
 been staked in shallow water, drifted to Ovalau, and 
 were there at once eaten by the people " although in 
 a much decayed condition ". At Moala Island the 
 natives on one occasion deliberately exhumed some 
 bodies for " bakola " ; while a Jew storekeeper, 
 probably fearing a similar fate, actually on his 
 death-bed persuaded Calvert, the leading missionary, 
 to send his body to his wife in Sydney in a cask 
 of rum ! 
 
 As a matter of fact whites were seldom eaten (the 
 natives said they tasted " too salt ") and I think there 
 was always a lurking fear of the white man's superior 
 " tabu " hovering around him. During the whole 
 time that missionary enterprize in Fiji synchronized 
 with cannibalism only one missionary was killed, and 
 he really brought it on himself through ignorance of 
 native ways and an obstinate defiance of their ancient 
 customs. They even went to the extent of warning 
 him on more than one occasion. 
 
 But there was no such compunction where their 
 own people were concerned, and if some of the 
 episodes here given are revolting, it is only to show 
 to what depths this " Melanesian branch " of the 
 Polynesian race could sink, when the torch of un- 
 restricted license was applied to the fuel of negroid 
 bestiality inherited from the aboriginal side of their 
 ancestry. 
 
 There was a time in Fiji when the whole race was 
 split up into a number of small communities, little 
 
198 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 republics, that had no intercourse with each other, exactly 
 as to this day exists in the similar Melanesian areas, 
 as, for instance, the Solomon Group. Consequently 
 there was very little real fighting, merely occasional 
 skirmishes, because each party was afraid of the un- 
 known and consequently magnified the strength of 
 the other. As a result there were not many bodies 
 for cannibalism to be practised upon, and there were 
 no large masses of serfs to be taken wholesale into the 
 conqueror's dominions, to be regarded as mere chattels, 
 and in the light of herds of animals waiting for the 
 feast. Thus a king or chief had only his own small 
 tribe to hold sway over, and they were all his relatives, 
 all descendants of the same ancestor, all co-chiefs — 
 even in a minor degree — with him. And they would 
 brook no undue cruelty or despotism on his part ; in 
 fact the chief was a very small person. The period 
 I speak of was, of course, long after the ancient Poly- 
 nesians had left Fiji. Then, from the interior, came 
 down the Bau people, descendants, as I have sup- 
 posed, of the Polynesians, but tainted with perhaps 
 centuries of slow mingling with the aboriginals and 
 their bestial ideas, and proceeded to establish a 
 kingdom, an empire, on the coast ; absorbing whole 
 tribes from other parts as their serfs and vassals, and 
 holding unlimited and unchecked sway. The natural 
 result was that these children, for they were but 
 children, by unbridled license became changed from 
 a mild-mannered people to a brutal race of savages, 
 when once their animal passions were aroused. They 
 now had slaves, chattels, to do what they liked with, 
 and the sequence was only natural. Cruelty reigned 
 
\* 
 
 AN EASTERN FIJIAN. 
 
 Note the Polynesian face and Melanesian hair. 
 
 {Pholo from Government Handbook, Fiji.) 
 
 To face p. 198. 
 
FROM RITUAL TO GLUTTONY 199 
 
 supreme ; they knew no better. 1 They inherited from 
 their Polynesian ancestors a vague memory of the 
 ceremonial ritual of partaking with the god at the 
 sacrificial feasts (and this observance they had no 
 doubt kept up in a rough form all the time), but 
 with the new ideas, the numerous wars to need 
 frequent sacrifices to the gods, and the unlimited 
 supply of material for the sacrifice — which must be 
 entirely consumed, 3 the partaking of the body 
 took on a new guise and degenerated into wholesale 
 cannibalism. 
 
 Jealous rivalry and conceit — two other childish 
 traits — were also prominent factors. Other tribes with 
 a certain amount of Polynesian blood still left in them, 
 such as the people of Rewa, were about this time able 
 to subdue their neighbours and found kingdoms ; 3 
 and even in times of peace much jealousy existed 
 between the big chiefs, while the same childish vanity 
 reflected itself in the minor chiefs also. In the time 
 of Thakambau, the last King of Fiji (who ended up 
 as a man of fine moral character and a loyal supporter 
 of the British Government, dying, respected by all, 
 
 1 Even to the civilized Romans, slaves were merely chattels 
 and could be thrown into the ponds to fatten carp for a gour- 
 mand's meal, or tied up alive for the beasts to give sport to the 
 elite of Roman society. The abhorrence of cruelty, either to 
 men or to animals, is a modern idea even in England, while it 
 has hardly yet started in many continental nations. 
 
 1 Compare the Semitic " Pascal-lamb " ; and also " the 
 peculiar province of the titular king " just mentioned. 
 
 3 Both these two kingdoms of Bau and Rewa were largely 
 helped to prominence by the aid of " beach-combers " with 
 one or two old fowling-pieces, more deadly against natives 
 armed only with clubs and stones than a howitzer against troops 
 armed only with rifles. 
 
200 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 in 1881) x the Butoni people came in on a ceremonial 
 visit, and the different chiefly families of Bau vied 
 with each other to provide feasts for their visitors. 
 Now Bau happened just then not to be at war with 
 any one, so there was rather a dilemma as to" bakola." 
 The first night's feast, however, passed off successfully 
 by the Vusaradave family being able to trap two men 
 on a small islet not far off. 
 
 But when Thakambau's turn came he was not going 
 to be outdone by the others, so he exercised his prero- 
 gative as conqueror of Rewa and ordered the town 
 of Nasilai to provide sufficient " bakola " to beat 
 his rivals. Unfortunately only one man was forth- 
 coming, so the Lasakau people — whose duty it was 
 to provide both fish and " bakola " for the Bau auto- 
 crats — were ordered to procure a further supply. The 
 Lasakau warriors thereupon ambushed fourteen women 
 and one man, a truly heroic feat, and though the 
 missionaries' wives managed to beg off three of them 
 (this was in the declining years of cannibalism) the 
 remainder became Thakambau's feast for the Butoni 
 guests. He would at this time really have been satis- 
 fied to furnish pigs as his contribution had his vanity 
 not been in question. 
 
 Again, in 1854 the Bau people made an unsuccessful 
 raid on Sawakasa, a town up the coast. On nearing 
 Bau, on their return, they proceeded to dance the 
 " thimbi " on one of themselves, laid out on the deck 
 to represent a corpse, rather than have their conceit 
 mortified by the jeers of their fellow-townspeople. 
 
 1 His postage-stamps, with C.R. for Thakambau Rex (Fijian 
 spelling) are a desideratum for every schoolboy's stamp-album. 
 
HISTORIC FEASTS 201 
 
 They then crept in after dark and pretended they 
 had already held their feast outside the town. On 
 another occasion a Bau chief, recently appointed 
 governor of a conquered province, ordered his new 
 subjects to prepare a food presentation for him to 
 take in to the King at Bau. But when it arrived 
 it struck him that his own importance would be con- 
 siderably enhanced if he added " bakola " to it, so 
 he had two of the bearers of the food tribute killed, 
 and sent the whole offering along — the present of 
 " a great man." But the most extraordinary instance 
 of the lot was that of three rival villages in compara- 
 tively recent times, who each prepared a feast to 
 celebrate the opening of a school, and who each killed 
 a man to put on the top of the pile of food, thinking 
 to go one better than their neighbours ! z 
 
 These, however, were only small affairs compared 
 to some of the great cannibal feasts that have been 
 recorded. In 1862 Captain Jenkins of H.M.S. Miranda 
 wrote that the Serua people " had just eaten five men 
 and forty women and children at one time." In 1853 
 Tui Kilakila, an important chief, had a hundred men 
 cooked for one feast at Natewa, on Vanua Levu Island. 
 On the victory of Bau over Rewa between four and 
 five hundred men were killed and eaten, Thakambau 
 clubbing to death his own brother-in-law, the King 
 of Rewa, after he had surrendered. 
 
 Captain Erskine, R.N., on a visit to Fiji in H.M.S. 
 Havannah in 1849, noticed that all the lower branches 
 of a big tree outside the temple at Bau had been lopped 
 off. On making enquiries he was told that this had 
 
 1 Official correspondence re Fijian native population, 1885. 
 
202 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 been done to make room for the huge mound of eighty 
 bodies presented to the god and afterwards eaten 
 a few weeks before. At Bouma it is recorded that 
 once it took two whole days to do the cutting up and 
 cooking of the bodies, and that they were actually 
 too many to eat ! 
 
 Thakambau once punished, in a peculiarly revolting 
 manner, the Namena people for rebellion. It appears 
 that Wainiu, his own brother, decided to submit no 
 longer to his rule, and fled to his mother's place at 
 Somo Somo, persuading on the way the Namena people 
 also to turn against Thakambau. He thought, too, 
 that he had succeeded in getting Verani, a powerful 
 chief, and through him the Christians of Viwa, on to 
 his side ; for Christianity was beginning to be used 
 by the chiefs, as in the old Roman days, as a pawn in 
 politics. But Verani only promised in order to betray ; 
 for he arranged that Thakambau and his Bau warriors 
 should at the critical moment fire blank cartridges 
 at the Viwa men, who would have retired into the 
 Namena stockade, and that these Viwa men should 
 thereupon admit the enemy and join with them in 
 attacking Namena. This happened as arranged, and 
 over a hundred of the Namena people were killed 
 and taken to Bau and eaten. (Eighty women who 
 had fled into the hills were, according to custom, 
 strangled by their friends on the news arriving about 
 their husbands.) 
 
 But the most horrible thing of the whole lot was 
 Thakambau's special punishment to two selected men 
 as a warning against rebels. First of all their veins 
 were opened and a certain amount of blood drunk 
 
CRUELTY MEANINGLESS 203 
 
 in banana-leaf cups ; then their arms and legs were 
 cut off and cooked and eaten in their presence ; then 
 their tongues were drawn out with fish-hooks and cut 
 off and roasted and eaten ; and as they were not yet 
 quite dead their entrails were finally removed through 
 a hole in their sides after the manner of killing turtle ! 
 
 Cruelty had apparently no meaning at all. (One 
 wonders whether the " civilized " child, who tears 
 wings off flies, if left to grow up absolutely unchecked 
 and with ever-increasing facilities put in his way to 
 be cruel, would end up by being a monster ? It may 
 be only a matter of education and environment after 
 all, but it is a problem, anyhow, that one hopes could 
 not occur.) A couple more instances of this utter 
 lack of feeling for others will suffice to finish this 
 unpleasant subject. One day the King of Rewa had 
 a badly-cooked meal served up to him. He had the 
 cook, a woman, sent for. " What is your hand given 
 you for but to cook my food ? " said he ; and turning 
 to a man standing by he ordered him to chop it off. 
 " Now let her eat it," he added ; and it was promptly 
 thrust into her mouth. But lest it should be wasted 
 it was then taken away and cooked and brought in 
 again as a dish for supper ! 
 
 On another occasion Thakambau, after a conquest 
 at Verata, ordered all the children of the town to be 
 taken back to Bau and tied to trees, so that his own 
 boys could be well trained in the use of the bow and 
 arrow. This order was carried out, and these wretched 
 children were thus done to death by slow torture. 
 Yet this same Thakambau, having given up canni- 
 balism and heathenism (both, I think, merely through 
 
204 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 the stern pressure of political necessity at the time) 
 did eventually become a completely changed man, 
 for which every credit should be given to the mission- 
 aries, and also the better class of white settlers, who 
 were now beginning to drift into the country. 
 
 At the beginning of this chapter I quoted a para- 
 graph that pointed out that cannibals were not 
 necessarily ferocious. After what I have just written 
 it might be thought that this statement must be in- 
 correct, but it is not so. Fathers, still gory with the 
 blood of recent victims, have been seen returning to 
 the village to play with their small sons ; in fact, even 
 in the earliest days of white settlers, a Fijian man was 
 always found to be the gentlest and kindest of nurses 
 for white children, and is so down to this day. The 
 explanation is that these revolting feasts were very 
 good examples of the influence of " crowd psychology " 
 upon easily swayed minds. Ordinarily a mild-mannered 
 person, a South Sea Islander when in a mob loses all 
 self-control, and blindly lets himself go to the passion 
 of the moment. A description of a very degenerate 
 orgy is here given from an old book, showing what 
 could occur the moment the restraint of ceremony 
 was removed. 
 
 '"Do what you like with them ! ' said the king. 
 Whereupon there rose a sudden yell. A great rush 
 was made down to the water-side, and the bodies 
 were dragged hither and thither, as the people 
 struggled with one another over them, many clutching 
 at the same body, cutting them up from limb to limb, 
 tearing them asunder, and snatching the pieces out 
 of each other's hands. And the yells rose louder and 
 
CANNIBALISM— LAST EPISODE 205 
 
 louder as the people grew ever fiercer in their eager- 
 ness, women and children also mingling with them in 
 the struggle, their shrill voices rising high amid the 
 uproar. . . ." 
 
 This crowd instinct is well seen to-day in the religious 
 " revival meetings " occasionally held in Tonga and 
 the Lau Islands, and called the " Polotu." On these 
 occasions the people of both sexes throw reserve to 
 the wind and stir themselves up to a supreme pitch 
 of religious fervour, ranting and declaiming and des- 
 canting, confessing their sins, and generally carrying 
 on in an altogether extraordinary fashion. It was 
 this same instability of mental equilibrium that was 
 the cause of the wholesale " wildfire conversions " 
 when first the missionaries came amongst them, and 
 when the people had received permission from the 
 chiefs to " try the white man's gods." 
 
 It is a relief to leave these scenes of cannibalism, 
 as it was at its worst in Fiji, from the time of the 
 transformation of small republics into big monarchies 
 (I speak, of course, in relative terms) down to a few 
 years before the ceding of the country to Great Britain 
 in 1875. The final episode occurred about ten years 
 before I arrived in the Colony, when there was, in 
 1895, a small uprising in the Mathuata Province, and 
 after presenting " kava " at the grave of the ancestor 
 for his help (!) these chapel-goers of Seaganga town 
 set upon a loyal town near them, and having succeeded 
 in killing two men, cooked them and ate them, It 
 is to be hoped that this will be the last case to blot 
 the history of Fiji, but there is always that " crowd 
 psychology " question to be dealt with. 
 
206 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 Before turning to the one or two remaining customs 
 that once had a now forgotten origin in Sun-worship, 
 it may be interesting to refer again for a moment to 
 the ceremonial part of a cannibal feast, and see how 
 the ritual was influenced by an earlier set of rites. 
 First of all the sacred conch-shell is blown, a trumpet 
 characteristic of religious ceremonies such as the pre- 
 sentation of First-fruits and the burial of Sun-descended 
 chiefs. The conch was reverently placed in the right 
 hand of the ancestor gods at Malikula Island, and it 
 has also been found under peculiar circumstances as 
 a relic of a dead and forgotten people in Samoa, in 
 a spot untrodden for centuries, where an ancient one 
 had been carefully left on the top of a hidden dolmen 
 in the mountains of Upolu, to be referred to later. 
 
 Then the " thimbi " or death-dance, responded to 
 with licentious movements by the women on shore, 
 surely significant of a Fertility meaning in the sacrifice. 
 Then, like ancient Mexico, the actual presentation to 
 the god at the temple (which, by the way, was always 
 on the top of a high mound, even a pyramid in early 
 days, according to old descriptions) ; the special drum- 
 beat (possibly originally to drown the victim's cries — 
 an unwilling victim at the ancient Semite sacri- 
 fices was considered unacceptable to the god) ; and 
 the subsequent distribution of the flesh among the 
 worshippers. 
 
 The " tabu " nature of the meat and all connected 
 with it is of special interest. The sacrificial knife 
 must be from a sacred grove, the cooking pots are 
 surrounded with a deadly " tabu," the meat must 
 not be touched by the hands but partaken of with a 
 
SEMITIC DERIVATION OF RITUAL 207 
 
 " tabu " fork. Certain vegetables are eaten to counter- 
 act the dangerous " tabu " when the meat gets inside 
 the stomach, and — like all other things concerning the 
 gods — it is " tabu " to the women-folk. 
 
 The king-priest, probably dressed in fillet and breast- 
 plate, had to see that every particle of it had been 
 consumed (a vivid picture of the Hebrew " Pascal- 
 lamb " ceremony), and the origin of the eating of it, 
 even if tainted, probably arose from this, the meat 
 going bad very quickly in hot climates, yet the sacred 
 duty being paramount. Finally, a special language 
 was employed for everything connected with the 
 ceremony, just as it was also used for the gods and 
 the chiefs, the Sky-people. 
 
 Everything points to its being an ancient Polynesian 
 ceremony, handed down from Semitic ancestors, 
 and garbled and confused in the general degeneration 
 that occurred in the Pacific, which was enhanced by 
 the mixture with the Melanesian negroid element. 
 There is only one more rather surprising thing to be 
 mentioned, and that is that certain tribes in Fiji never, 
 from first to last, partook of this loathsome dish of 
 their fellow-creatures ; and the reason for this I propose 
 to discuss in the next chapter. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 TOTEMS; KAVA ; AND NAMES 
 
 I have just stated that certain tribes in Fiji never 
 indulged in cannibal practices. This somewhat extra- 
 ordinary distinction in a nation that is, or rather was, 
 almost wholly cannibal becomes easy to understand 
 when we consider the question of belief in the after- 
 life of the soul. Primitive man not only believes 
 that after the death of the body the soul will still con- 
 tinue to live, but he even believes that the soul may 
 on occasion become separated from the body while 
 the latter is still alive. (I have often noticed how a 
 servant will waken a chief very carefully and gradually, 
 by scratching on his sleeping-mat — they have done 
 the same to me — so that the absent soul might have 
 plenty of time to reach the body, which it can only 
 do without risk when the body is asleep, or in a semi- 
 waking condition.) 
 
 It is perfectly clear, he argues, that if, for instance, 
 the body is asleep in a canoe out at sea, yet during 
 that time the person has been home to his village, 
 seen and talked to people, and on waking remembers 
 what white men call the " dream," the soul must have 
 made the journey. 
 
 In fact, in some countries, such as Sumatra, he 
 
FOUNDATION OF TOTEMISM 209 
 
 will say more than this, and declare that the soul may 
 be split up, one part remaining in the body while the 
 other parts wander about in separate men, animals, 
 or things. His mental outlook on things supernatural, 
 or what he considers supernatural, is confused ; he 
 is apt to mix up abstract ideas and concrete facts, 
 just as a child does. 1 And thus with primitive man, 
 owing to the fluidity of his ideas, which wander out 
 of the separate compartments in which they are strictly 
 restrained by civilized people, there arose the cult 
 of Totems. 
 
 This is specially marked in North America and 
 Australia, and is found in the Pacific among Melanesian 
 people, and a part of the Polynesian people. It has 
 been suggested that the earlier Polynesian immigrants 
 did not bring with them a totem-cult, but that it was 
 built up among them, after their arrival, upon a found- 
 ation of a belief in re-incarnation — which they did 
 bring with them. 2 Later immigrants, especially to 
 the Solomons and Bismarcks, brought an actual totem- 
 cult, and between the two there is now a distinct belief 
 in many parts of the Pacific that a portion of the soul 
 of a certain family resides in a certain living creature, 
 which creature is obviously not to be killed or eaten 
 by members of that family. This same principle was 
 undoubtedly the origin of the animal crests borne by 
 
 1 The lower class natives of South America on first seeing 
 the early Spanish cavaliers considered the horse and man as 
 part of each other, a strange combined monster (in the same 
 way, no doubt, arose the very ancient European myth of Cen- 
 taurs), and having once adopted the belief, for a long time could 
 not quite give up the idea, even when they saw the man-half 
 separated, temporarily, from the horse-half. 
 
 ' History of Melanesian Society, by W. H. R. Rivers. 
 
 14 
 
210 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 many people in civilized countries, though few realize 
 the true meaning of them. 1 
 
 So, then, we have some families whose ancestor 
 was, and totem is, a snake ; others, a certain kind 
 of fish ; and others a man. And for this reason, 
 rather than for humane or refined motives, did some 
 tribes in Fiji, notably the Nakelo people, always refuse 
 to eat man. Some tribes, no doubt, were conquered 
 serfs and had the duty of providing and bringing in 
 the dish of " man " to their masters, which duty might 
 therefore " tabu " them from partaking of the food ; 
 but this cannot be the real reason, as, on the one hand, 
 the Tui Thakau family, the senior chiefs of Thakaun- 
 drove, never touched man ; while on the other hand 
 the Lasakau people, whose special duty it was to bring 
 in the man-meat to their Bau over-lords, were them- 
 selves cannibal ; so the Totem explanation must be 
 the correct one. 
 
 In the Melanesian secret societies there is always 
 an underlying idea of Death — sometimes the very 
 name, such as Ta-mat6, signifies it — and it is thought 
 that one of the main reasons for their existence was 
 to enable the initiate, by passing through the portals 
 of death, to project some of his own soul to the family 
 totem, and to receive in exchange some of the soul 
 of the same totem. In the " Duk-duk " society of 
 New Britain the initiate is " killed " by a blow of 
 a stick — often a very real blow, too — and though in 
 the Nanga of Fiji the initiate is not " killed," yet he 
 
 1 It has been suggested that the man, lion, ox, and eagle 
 of the four Evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, were 
 relics of a totem idea. 
 

 
 (') (2) 
 
 (i) NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN TOTEM POLE. 
 (Photo by permission of the Canadian Pacific Railway Co.) 
 
 (2) CARVING, PROBABLY TOTEM, FROM NEW ZEALAND. 
 {Fit*. 119, Ethnographical Handbook, British Museum > 
 
 To lace p. 210. 
 
SECRET SOCIETIES 211 
 
 is brought into intimate contact with " dead " men 
 and smeared with their "blood." Doctor Rivers 
 points out that the Ta-mate societies had no totems 
 in the accepted sense of the term, as the members 
 were permitted to eat the family animals ; but, after 
 all, the abstention from eating is not so much the 
 main idea, as actual possession of a family animal. 
 Uncivilized peoples often ate the thing they revered 
 most, out of affection. This, in fact, was a cause of 
 cannibalism in certain parts of the world, but not so 
 much in the Pacific, where the two chief causes were, 
 as I have said in the previous chapter, magic to prevent 
 the ghost of a slain enemy harming one, and religion 
 as an act of sacrifice. 
 
 Now the various totems are so numerous that it 
 would be almost impossible to classify them here, 
 though I believe that a thorough and minute inves- 
 tigation would repay the trouble taken, in view of 
 the aid it would give in the tracing of different migra- 
 tions among the islands. The " Kalou Vu " or ances- 
 tral gods of the tribes in Fiji are founded on the same 
 principle, and the tracing of these has already been of 
 some help in the work of the Commission enquiring 
 into the ownership of lands in the Colony. So, also, 
 in a wider sense, the finding of bird and fish devices 
 on the pyramids of Tahiti as well as in the Solomon 
 Islands may be one more link in the chain of evidence 
 that connects the older inhabitants of the Eastern 
 Pacific with the West. Almost every creature, and 
 even trees and inanimate objects, too, have been 
 adopted, but the one creature whose absence always 
 puzzled me was the pig, the animal so important to 
 
212 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 all religions and other functions in the Pacific. I 
 remember once talking to Doctor Rivers about this, 
 and we could neither of us at the time fit in an ade- 
 quate reason. It has only lately occurred to me that 
 the explanation probably is that the immigrants who 
 brought the pig into the Pacific also brought with 
 them the ancestral hatred for it. It was purely a 
 sacrificial animal, and only in later times, or during 
 the long voyage, did sheer necessity start the practice 
 of eating it. 
 
 Even in the Solomon Islands the totem idea is less 
 a tribal matter than a personal or small family con- 
 cern, and in this it differs from the cult as found 
 among the North-American Indians, where whole 
 tribes have one totem in common, such as the deer, 
 the eagle, or the beaver (though individuals may also 
 have a personal totem). In the Solomons a head of 
 a family, dying, will tell his sons for the first time 
 which animal or fish he is — and he really believes it 
 — and henceforward that creature may not be eaten 
 by his family. 1 
 
 There was a man in one of the Solomon Group who 
 regularly swam out to a man-eating shark who haunted 
 the locality, and calling it up to him, gave it food. 
 It was his " ancestor," and would not harm him ! 
 In the same way there is still, I believe, at Taveuni 
 Island, Fiji, a turtle that will come and be fed in 
 response to the calls of a certain family ; and natives 
 in the Tholo mountains go to a cave to feed an eel 
 that comes in response to the singing of a few lines 
 of a song. Mrs. G. Wright of Suva gave me the verse 
 1 The Melcmesians, by Codrington. 
 
THE FAITH OF THE "SKY-PEOPLE" 213 
 
 that the people still use, but I have unfortunately 
 mislaid it. 
 
 This belief in the transmigration of souls while the 
 body is still living precedes the belief in the future 
 existence of the soul after the body is dead ; in fact 
 the latter was probably built up on the foundation 
 of the former. If the immigrants to the Pacific who 
 brought with them the ceremonial kava-drinking were 
 the ones who brought the re-incarnation theory (which 
 in Melanesia became converted into a totem-cult) * 
 it must have been these same people, after passing 
 on to the rest of the Pacific — to " Polynesia " — who 
 gradually built up from their re-incarnation idea the 
 belief in the future life, always tinged with the shadowy 
 faith of a " return to the land whence they came." 
 They were the " Sky-people," their fathers had come 
 from the far horizon, they were descendants of the 
 Sun. And where the Sun went each night to rest, 
 so, also, after death, would their souls travel to the 
 West. 
 
 As for the ceremonial kava-drinking, it is now such 
 an outstanding feature of South Sea Island life, or 
 perhaps rather of Polynesia, that it has become 
 commonplace, and few realize the inner meaning of 
 it. Yet its prevalence in most parts, in marked con- 
 trast to its absence in others, has made it of immense 
 value as a sort of test, a criterion by which we may 
 say, " Here live a certain people who have always 
 followed this practice, while there live another people 
 
 1 The Melanesian influence in the Fiji-Tonga-Samoa Group, 
 especially the latter, accounts for the existence of totems in 
 those islands. 
 
214 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 who know it not." It is only on the boundary line 
 — and what an important boundary it is ! — that any 
 difficulty arises, and we have to decide whether the 
 half-hearted kava-drinking there found is merely 
 adopted from neighbours ; or is a vestige of an ancient 
 practice now almost forgotten ; or is even the original 
 practice itself, which in other places has developed 
 into a fuller growth. And to this investigation the 
 Rivers Expedition to Melanesia in 1908 paid special 
 attention. 
 
 It is perhaps unnecessary here to state that Kava, 
 Hava, or Ava, is the dried root of a species of pepper ; 
 and that it is macerated in water, strained, and the 
 resulting liquor partaken of. It is not fermented, 
 and in the diluted form, as used in Polynesia, it is 
 innocuous, giving merely a sharp, refreshing sensation 
 in the mouth ; but it is distinctly an acquired taste. 
 Taken in excess it exerts a temporary paralyzing effect 
 on the limbs, and chronic topers are apt to become 
 lethargic and dull. 
 
 But all this is the modern use of kava as a beverage. 
 It is with the original method of taking it as a religious 
 rite or ceremony, that we are here more directly con- 
 cerned. And from the mass of ceremonial that even 
 now in Polynesia hedges it in, and from a knowledge 
 of how it is used in parts of Melanesia to this day, we 
 are able to pick out sufficient data to enable us to 
 form some idea of its early use by the immigrants 
 who first introduced it to the Pacific. 
 
 In the first place it is important to note that the 
 universal method of maceration of the root was always 
 to chew it, the chewed pulp being placed in a wooden 
 
THE PREPARATION OF KAVA 215 
 
 bowl and then mixed with water to form the drink. 
 It is only of recent years that the condemnation by 
 the whites of this method has in many places caused 
 the substitution of pounding or grating. Young people 
 with clean sound teeth were always selected for the 
 chewing, and they had to rinse their mouths out first. 
 The idea may seem obnoxious, but, given perfect health 
 on the part of the chewer, it is really a matter of senti- 
 ment. In my early years in Fiji, up in the Tholo 
 Mountains, I have at official ceremonies occasionally 
 had to take a cup of kava made in this way, but I 
 confess I did not like it ! Even then the chewing 
 method was disappearing, and now it has been stopped 
 by law, since the advent of tuberculosis among the 
 natives has introduced a distinct risk. 
 
 Now why should the kava ever have been chewed 
 at all, when pounding or grating is just as easy ? 
 Doctor Rivers considers that the explanation may 
 be that the immigrants chewed betel in their previous 
 homes in Indonesia ; and, not finding betel in most 
 islands in the Pacific, got hold of another leaf 
 (and finally its root) as a substitute. This is pro- 
 bably correct ; but it must be remembered that the 
 kava chewing was, as will be presently shown, an 
 ancient religious rite, and betel never really seems 
 to have had religious ideas attached to it. Is it there- 
 fore possible to trace the practice farther back still ? 
 As another writer points out, 1 there is a religious drink 
 partaken of in the mythology of a very ancient land 
 — India. This drink, " Soma," occurs frequently in 
 the old tales of the gods of the northern parts, along 
 1 Who are the Maoris ? by A. K. Newman. 
 
216 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 the valley of the Ganges, where no doubt one portion 
 of the Polynesian race passed through, but it is difficult 
 to ascertain what it was or what was the method of 
 its preparation. But farther back still, in the dim 
 past of the Mediterranean peoples, we have the legends 
 of the Saturnalia, of the Bacchanals and how they 
 chewed the sacred ivy leaf to send them into a religious 
 frenzy, and of the prophetess of the Sun-god, Apollo, 
 who used the chewed laurel to get inspiration and 
 the divine commands. It seems not unreasonable to 
 suppose that the people who chewed kava to get into 
 close relation with the gods (the same frenzy was still 
 produced in the Polynesian priests) may have had 
 vague memories of the olden days when their ancestors 
 in the northern hemisphere used the northern plants, 
 the sacred Ivy and the Laurel, for the same mystic 
 purpose ; or even that the old Soma myths of India 
 were founded on traditions born from these same 
 earlier people. 
 
 That kava was distinctly a sacred herb is shown 
 in many ways. In some of those remote islands which, 
 although geographically in " Melanesia " are actually 
 Polynesian, a piece of kava must be held in the hand 
 when about to address a god (through a priest), or 
 a chief, who is, of course, god-descended. The same 
 custom formerly held in Fiji. This is not for presen- 
 tation, but evidently as a safeguard for the holder, 
 something to counteract the " tabu " — a sort of " touch 
 wood," in fact ! 
 
 It is, like most other things of a religious nature, 
 used only by men and not women, and in the Banks 
 Islands even the touching of it by women is a sacrilege. 
 
KAVA— "TABU" ONLY TO WOMEN 217 
 
 There is obviously a strong " tabu " surrounding it, 
 but — except to women — there is no actual " tabu " 
 on the kava itself. The articles connected with it — 
 the cups, the strainer, the bowl (especially the latter) 
 are all " tabu " — but the use of it for religious pur- 
 poses was never " tabu." Even at the funeral rites 
 at the death of the sacred Tui Tonga, when nearly 
 everything of ordinary routine was forbidden, there was 
 never a " tabu " on kava, and kava is the only thing 
 that is not " tabu-ed " by the dread touch of a chief. 
 This inherent force in it may account for its being able 
 to counteract another " tabu," as mentioned above. 
 
 In the Banks Islands a libation of it was poured 
 out to the gods, and only the higher ranks in the 
 Ta-mate' secret society might drink it. After swallow- 
 ing it any drops left hanging about the mouth are 
 blown out and some small petition to the gods is made. 
 To this day in Fiji you can hear one say, " Oh, for 
 a fair wind," " For a good yam crop," etc. At Pente- 
 cost Island "... a rich man, after drinking it, will 
 take sugar-cane in his mouth, and after spitting this 
 out will utter a long drawn-out cry, which is a sign 
 to every one that he is a rich man. . . ." (Rivers). 
 
 In Fiji in former times, when purely a religious 
 affair, it was made as a concentrated solution in a 
 small shallow cup or bowl (there is one in the British 
 Museum marked " a priest's kava-bowl, Fiji "), and 
 it then had much more powerful effects. The myths 
 of Mangaia Island (Cook Group) have it that Miru, 
 the dread goddess who presides over the lower regions, 
 stupefies her victims with strong kava before sending 
 them to their doom. In the New Hebrides it is still 
 
218 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 made as a very strong solution, and by two men sitting 
 facing each other, each with a cup. They pour it 
 from one to another, making it froth, and it is then 
 taken with all due solemnity. At Tanna Island it 
 is drunk only after prayers to the gods ; at Vanikolo 
 it forms an important part of the annual religious 
 ceremonies connected with " the sacred Heads, the 
 Moon, and the Mountain " (see ante) ; in fact through- 
 out the Pacific it was evidently an ancient sacred rite. 
 We have an interesting account in Cook's Voyages 
 of how " Ava " was solemnly chewed and partaken 
 of on the pyramid at Hawaii at the ceremony of Captain 
 Cook's identification with the god Lono ; while the 
 presentation of kava to the Ancestor-gods was a very 
 necessary antecedent to the final outbreak of cannibal- 
 ism in Fiji, not so very long ago. 
 
 With such a strong religious force pervading all 
 connected with it, it is no wonder that the utensils 
 employed in the making of kava should have been 
 very " tabu." It would seem almost as if this kava, 
 being, as it were, part of the essence of the gods, could 
 impart a " tabu " to all things it touched (though 
 since it was necessary for man to incorporate within 
 himself some of this essence, the fluid itself would 
 not be " tabu "). Therefore the bowl was " tabu," 
 and — 'just like the sacred chiefs themselves — ought 
 not to touch the ground, lest (using a modern electrical 
 simile) a dangerous " contact " might occur. For 
 this reason, probably, rather than for actual stability 
 — which could easily have been brought about by 
 merely flattening the bottom of the bowl — did they 
 always have wooden legs put to them. In some islands 
 
THE "TABU" OF THE KAVA BOWL 219 
 
 they were placed on insulating rings of stones, while 
 the hollow on the top of the great trilithon at Tonga 
 may have been merely for an exceptionally sacred 
 kava bowl. At Gaua, in the New Hebrides, where 
 there are many other traces of the " kava-people," 
 are great stone boulders, hollowed out as bowls. 
 Exactly the same idea was, and maybe still is, believed 
 in at home, in Scotland, where "... the vessel in 
 which the healing water from the sacred well was 
 carried was not allowed to touch the ground." T 
 
 So, also, the coco-nut shell cups which conveyed 
 the kava from the bowl to the drinker had in olden 
 times an insulating handle of sinnet, more for this 
 reason, I think, than because they were " chief's 
 cups." There is now in the Cheltenham College Museum 
 a good specimen of one of these cups presented to me 
 by an old chief in Fiji. 
 
 It will have been noticed how this Ava or Kava 
 ceremony has been associated (even in Melanesia 
 where chiefdom is not really now recognized or remem- 
 bered) solely with " chiefs." In Fiji the only one 
 who might wear a Sun-turban at such a sacred cere- 
 mony was the Roko-Tui. These " descendants of the 
 Sun " looked upon the performance as a most solemn 
 religious rite, connected with the god. The kava had 
 to be chewed, and not prepared in any other way ; 
 while a strict " tabu " — that ancient custom of the 
 Sun-people — surrounded the whole affair. 
 
 Finally, its very name, " Ava ", was, as I shall show 
 in a later chapter, very possibly derived from the 
 ancient Ava, the original home of the builders of the 
 1 The Hebrides, by Gordon Cumming, 1883. 
 
220 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 great Sun-temples. There was something very peculiar 
 about this name. It is thought that it was not really 
 a definite name of a city or place, such as we know 
 place-names to-day, but rather had a more indefinite 
 meaning, such as merely " the sacred city," or " the 
 temple." In fact the same rule probably governed 
 it as that governing the names of chiefs in the Pacific 
 even to-day, i.e. that it is dangerous to mention one's 
 name, as this amounts to a setting free of a part of 
 oneself, a prey for any malignant spirit in the neigh- 
 bourhood to snatch up and bear away for ever. It 
 was just this idea in Egypt that caused the people 
 always to have two names, the real name which was 
 never spoken, and the false name which could be 
 mentioned freely and on all occasions. This custom 
 was also prevalent in ancient Greece (the Eleusinian 
 priests), and in the west as far away as Madagascar. 
 I think the English equivalent may be the bad luck 
 of " breaking a mirror," the origin of which, no doubt, 
 was the idea that part of one's soul — .the reflection- 
 was thereby injured. So strong was this belief about 
 names in the Pacific that in olden times the chiefs' 
 names were not given in the kava circles, but on each 
 man's turn being called out some other name such 
 as (in Fiji) " Ko koya mai Viria," " he from Viria "— 
 understood by all — was given instead. 
 
 For the same reason a big chief, on succeeding to 
 the chiefdom, was always the cause of certain changes 
 in the language, especially if he happened to have 
 a name that was the same as some article in common 
 use ; for the nation at once had to coin some new 
 word to describe this article, rather than risk the 
 
NAMES: THEIR "TABU" 221 
 
 chief's welfare by a promiscuous use of his name. 
 Thus the old name for Pape-ete (the principal town 
 of Tahiti) was Vai-ete, literally " vessel of water " ; 
 but since Vai happened to be the name of a reigning 
 chief, the word Pap6 had to be substituted. It was 
 bad enough to have one's name uttered by someone 
 else, but far worse to have to say it oneself, to have 
 to give up part of one's own entity with one's own 
 living breath. For this reason I have sometimes 
 found Fijians very averse to giving their names — 
 occasionally even as witnesses in Court ; and they 
 would turn in a helpless sort of fashion to someone 
 near by, who would say it for them. It was at the 
 greatest moment in a Fijian's career, when he received 
 the honour of knighthood — for such it really was — ■ 
 that a new name was given to him, and given in a 
 rather remarkable manner. 
 
 When a Fijian had proved his manhood and valour 
 by slaying an enemy in battle he was, on his return, 
 installed with much ceremony in the rank of " Koroi." 
 As the canoe drew up to the beach before the assembled 
 people his spear was exhibited with a fluttering pennon 
 of " tappa " attached, and immediately on landing 
 he was conducted to the temple, where a reed was 
 placed to represent him. He was then anointed 
 with oil and turmeric, and had to undergo a fasting 
 vigil for three days, not being allowed to lie down the 
 whole time, nor might his feet touch the sea. The 
 older men had exchanged weapons with him, and had 
 even re-exchanged them with others, there being a 
 belief that some of the special quality in them gained 
 by killing a man might pass on to the new owners. 
 
222 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 (The same thing was noticed by onlookers at Captain 
 Cook's death, when the dagger that killed him was 
 rapidly snatched from hand to hand by the natives 
 as a source of immense power.) On the third day 
 was the consecration ceremony, when, amid solemn 
 silence, the priest came out and gave forth the new 
 name to the waiting multitude. On the last day was 
 the drinking of the sacred water at the temple, all 
 the people now remaining in their houses behind closed 
 doors. This is altogether one of the most curious 
 ceremonies of the Pacific, and is obviously of very 
 great age, and not now easily explainable. To me 
 the most inexplicable thing of all is why the candidate 
 for knighthood should not have been allowed to lie 
 down during his three days' fast. Was it to prove 
 his fortitude, or was it that he had to keep always in 
 the humble crouching position, being in the presence 
 of the gods ? This crouching in the presence of the 
 gods (or of the god-descended chiefs) is essential 
 through Polynesia, and back to the islands of Indo- 
 nesia, to Siam, ancient Japan, and India. It is still 
 customary in Fiji for the commoners to stop, lower 
 bundles from their shoulders, and crouch down by 
 the roadside when a chief passes, that they might 
 not by any chance be elevated above his head ; and 
 the Lau people accorded me the same privilege by 
 always dismounting from their ponies when passing 
 me, or even my house. 
 
 Many amusing consequences follow the restriction 
 against the (literal) elevation of a commoner above 
 a chief. The Rajah of Lombok in the Celebes, ordered 
 out a new carriage from England, but when it arrived 
 
THE ELEVATION OF CHIEFS 223 
 
 it was discovered that the coachman would have to 
 sit on a box seat above the Rajah. The difficulty 
 could not be adjusted and the carriage was never used. 
 A King of Tonga was more ingenious, however, for 
 when he discovered that the first native missionary 
 would be preaching from a pulpit higher than the 
 head of the king, he quickly ordered a similar pulpit, 
 but somewhat higher, to be made for himself, which 
 satisfied all parties, except perhaps the missionary ! 
 When the Hawaiians were first conducted over Captain 
 Cook's ship the thing that surprised them more than 
 all the guns and strange foreign things was the fact 
 that a deck should be over Captain Cook's cabin, and 
 that the men should be allowed to walk on it. 
 
 All these customs seem at first sight strange, and 
 perhaps foolish, but there is a reason, often extending 
 back to the mists of antiquity, for them all. During 
 the last few chapters I have endeavoured to show 
 the meaning of some of them, and how, in a people 
 shut off from the rest of the world as the natives of 
 the Pacific have been, the customs brought with them 
 from the land of their origin have been retained and 
 crystallized in a form still recognizable, and nearly as 
 valuable to the investigator as the tangible stone 
 remains which I propose to describe in the following 
 chapters. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 STONE REMAINS 
 
 Throughout the length and breadth of our own 
 country, from John o' Groat's to Land's End, and 
 from Kent to the West of Ireland, we come across 
 at unexpected places great stones so regularly placed 
 in relation to each other that the hand of man is 
 obviously evident in their erection. Apart from single 
 standing stones (menhirs) the commonest combination 
 was one flattened stone resting upon two or three 
 others, usually called a " dolmen." For a long time 
 they were regarded with awe as " fairy " stones, some- 
 thing supernatural. Their use and meaning had been 
 lost ; the very people who had placed them there 
 had been forgotten ; but vague folk-tales still clung 
 to them, traditions which in the course of centuries 
 had turned to myths. 
 
 And when, in the eighteenth century, a few learned 
 men began to speculate about such things, they were 
 thought to be altars (" Druid's altars " was the 
 favourite expression), and it was gravely explained 
 that sacrifices were formerly made on the top of them. 
 Then someone noticed that it was usually the under 
 surface of the table-stone that was flat and smooth, 
 the upper being left convex and in the rough state. 
 
ALTARS— TOMBS— SUN-MEASURERS 225 
 
 This tended to upset the altar theory, and strengthened 
 a growing idea that they were sepulchres, with the 
 inner surface smoothed for the better appearance of 
 the vault within. As human remains were found in 
 many of them this theory is probably correct, as far 
 as it goes. In fact, both theories, together with a 
 third about to be mentioned, may be correct as regards 
 different epochs of time, and successive waves of 
 culture. 
 
 But there were others of them still to be accounted 
 for, the rough stones irregularly dropped in a slanting 
 fashion on the top of others, and one end often higher 
 than the other. So purposeless did they seem that 
 the theory that they had accidentally been left like 
 this by the washing away of the earth beneath them 
 was generally accepted, until it was noticed that there 
 was apparently a certain method in their relation 
 to some adjacent menhir, or to their orientation with 
 regard to the sun. 
 
 Of late years this sun theory has been satisfactorily 
 worked out, and the stone groups have been taken 
 seriatim by careful observers x and proved to show 
 a relation to the great time periods of primitive man, 
 that is, the solstices and equinoxes. I said " primitive " 
 man, but there seems little doubt that the people who 
 set up these carefully arranged " time clocks " over 
 two thousand years ago had no mean knowledge of 
 astronomy and the movements of the heavenly bodies ; 
 a knowledge very important to them as agriculturists 
 and followers of proper planting seasons. 
 
 1 Dr. A. M. McAldowie, F.R.S. Edin., among others has 
 published interesting brochures on prehistoric time measurement, 
 
 15 
 
226 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 But apart from the indefinite myths surrounding 
 these stones we have an interesting corroboration 
 regarding their use as Sun monuments in their very 
 names themselves, names associated with the ancient 
 Sun-god Baal, and still in use by the country folk in 
 the neighbourhood. Such designations as Belas Knap 
 or Baal's Knap (Gloucestershire) ; the Bawd Stones, 
 for Balder-stone or Baal's stone (Staffordshire) ; the 
 Friar's Heel, for Freas Heol or Ascending Sun (Stone- 
 henge) sufficiently indicate the original connection. 
 
 When, at a special time of the year, such as at the 
 solstice, the rays of the rising sun passed underneath 
 the table-stone (probably smoothed for this reason) 
 and struck the neighbouring pillar, it was known that 
 the critical moment had arrived, and no doubt a 
 sacrifice was simultaneously made, an offering to the 
 god. 
 
 These stones, associated with an ancient Semitic 
 people who lived in Britain, or with a people in Britain 
 who derived their knowledge and customs from the 
 Semites, were similar stones to the ones which in later 
 times came to be deified by the Sabaeans as phallic 
 emblems, though with them also the original use was 
 for sun-measurement. And the same menhirs and 
 table-stones are found right along the route, through 
 Indonesia and into the Pacific. When the sun-origin 
 of them came to be forgotten the table-stones often 
 ceased to be raised from the ground, and one can 
 hardly doubt that the " dissoliths " — consisting of an 
 upright menhir standing by a horizontal slab-stone, 
 described by W. J. Perry in his book The Megalithic 
 Culture of Indonesia — were phallic emblems, used as 
 
SUN-STONES— CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER 227 
 
 such by a degenerate people whose ancestors had 
 put up somewhat similar stones for a study of the 
 sun's movements ; though the raised table-stones — 
 dolmens — are, as in the Pacific, also occasionally found. 
 
 As one may imagine, burial-places are often dis- 
 covered in close proximity to these sun-stones — some- 
 times the dead were actually buried inside the dolmen 
 — for the Ancestor-cult was undoubtedly closely asso- 
 ciated with the Sun-cult : and because of these two 
 circumstances temples would in time come to be built 
 round the central stones, where also the sacrifices 
 were conducted. Such, no doubt, was the origin 
 of places like Stonehenge, where the Sun-cult had 
 advanced to a highly organized state, probably im- 
 proved upon by alien successors of the original, and 
 more primitive, worshippers. 
 
 In the Pacific one can only hazard a guess as to the 
 chronological sequence of events, but it seems probable 
 that the pyramidal ancestor-tomb preceded the walled- 
 in (but roofless) temple and that the dolmen came 
 between them ; though during the transition periods 
 no doubt a combination of any two of these would 
 be likely to occur. The walls of the open temples 
 were unmortared, the stones being merely fitted in 
 together, and though they were often immense struc- 
 tures and cleverly built, capable of withstanding any 
 ordinary phenomena of nature and the preying hand 
 of time, they could easily be dismantled when man 
 required their stones for other purposes. The result 
 is that when the worship for which they were built 
 came to an end they were quickly pulled down, and 
 but few now remain in the complete state to show 
 
228 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 what they were once like. A little sidelight on how 
 the destruction of many of the antiquities of the 
 Pacific came about is shown in an old missionary 
 book I picked up not long ago, wherein is stated : 
 " . . . upwards of fifty persons were employed in 
 carrying stones from an old Heiau, which they were 
 pulling down, to raise the ground and lay the founda- 
 tion of the place of worship (a chapel). It was a 
 pleasant sight to view the ruins of an idol's temple (sic) 
 devoted to such a purpose ! . . . " 
 
 The pyramids of the Pacific, being usually mere 
 mounds of earth faced with stones, were also easily 
 destroyed, the stones being used for other purposes ; 
 and of many known ones that were complete when 
 Captain Cook described them hardly a vestige now 
 remains. But the dolmens, being great stones useless 
 for ordinary purposes, have in many cases been left 
 untouched, in some instances the religious beliefs of 
 the inhabitants, though altered out of all recognition, 
 still protects them, and they remain as they were when 
 their Asiatic builders of many centuries ago first placed 
 them there. And the interested enquirer may see 
 them and compare them with the similar structures 
 erected by a similar people in our own islands at the 
 dawn of history. The late Mr. Sterndale described 
 one that he came across up-country in Upolu, Samoa. 
 I give his own description of it, but would call parti- 
 cular attention to the " cairns in rows," the stone 
 pavement, and the association of the conch-shell, 
 sacred to the Polynesian immigrants to the Pacific : 
 "... Here were a great number of ' cairns ' of stones, 
 apparently graves, disposed in rows among huge trees, 
 

 DOLMEN IN CORNWALL. 
 
 DOLMEN IN THE NEW HEBRIDES. 
 
 To face p. 238. 
 
A SAMOAN DOLMEN 229 
 
 the uplifting roots of which had overturned and 
 destroyed very many of them. There was one great 
 banyan tree which I approached, and, perceiving a 
 cavity, entered. . . . The floor was of flat stones, the 
 walls of enormous blocks of the same placed on end, 
 the roof of intertwisted trunks of the banyan, which 
 had grown together into a solid arch. In the centre 
 was a cairn, or rather a cromlech, 1 about four feet 
 high, formed of several stones arranged in a triangle 
 with a great slab on the top. Upon it was what 
 appeared to be another small stone, but which on 
 examination turned out to be a great conch-shell, 
 white with age, and encrusted with moss and dead 
 animalculae. ..." 
 
 I am inclined to think that the " cairns in rows " 
 were comparable to the stone alignments at Carnac, 
 Amesbury, etc., and to the " streets of small pyramids " 
 near the two large ones that stand twenty-four miles 
 from the capital in Mexico. The " huge trees " were, 
 of course, things of modern growth in that tropical 
 climate. 
 
 In Huahine Island (Society Group) there is a typical 
 
 dolmen, standing in the centre of a " marae " (these 
 
 " marae " of the Society Islands properly consisted 
 
 of a walled-in, stone-paved area, with a pyramid at 
 
 one side of it ; but the term has by many writers been 
 
 loosely applied to any building of a sacred nature in 
 
 those islands). In other groups of Polynesia these 
 
 dolmens will no doubt be discovered in time, but it 
 
 ' This description was written in the early 'eighties, and 
 dolmens were then often erroneously described as " cromlechs," 
 but the context makes it plain that a dolmen or table-stone was 
 intended. 
 
230 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 is in the New Hebrides that, owing to the investigations 
 of Dr. Speisser, they have so far been found in greater 
 numbers than anywhere else ; and generally, curiously 
 enough, in association with the dancing grounds. At 
 Vao there are no less than five of these dancing grounds, 
 plentifully strewn with menhirs, slabs, dolmens, etc., 
 and with tall, upright, wooden gongs or drums ; at the 
 south side of Malekula Island are others ; at Santo 
 is the dolmen on which the priest, dancing, receives 
 and kills the sacrificial pigs (described in Chapter XI). 
 At Gaua Dr. Speisser speaks of " pedestals " for pig 
 sacrifices, and at Malo of " altars," both of these terms 
 I have no doubt being intended for dolmens. I have 
 mentioned how these stone remains are associated 
 with the dancing grounds. Stevenson, describing the 
 ruins of a sacred paved temple in the Marquesas, wrote : 
 "... in the old days ... no dead leaf was suffered 
 to rot upon the pavement. The stones were smoothly 
 set, and I am told that they were kept bright with 
 oil. . . . There were places for the chiefs, the drummers, 
 the dancers, the women, and the priests. The drums, 
 perhaps twenty strong, and some of them twelve feet 
 high, continuously throbbed in time. . . . 
 
 In Sterndale's description of the Samoan dolmen 
 it will have been noticed that it was placed in the 
 centre of a stone pavement, and the one at Huahine 
 Island is similarly situated. These pavements were 
 used for religious dances, which formed part of the 
 sacred ceremonies and which were no doubt forerunners 
 of most of the South Sea posture dances which exist 
 to this day. I have already called attention to the 
 association of pig sacrifices with the dolmens. One 
 
EVOLUTION OP PACIFIC PYRAMIDS 231 
 
 may therefore picture a people of Semitic ancestry, 
 cousins perhaps of the early inhabitants of Britain, 
 who worshipped the Sun, probably used the dolmens 
 for sun observations, sacrificed animals — possibly also 
 men — to the Sun, and performed religious dances 
 during the ceremony. And these people extended 
 right across the Pacific. 
 
 At the beginning of this book I suggested how the 
 pyramid might have come into existence, and how, 
 from being the tomb of a dead ancestor, it became 
 an altar for a sacrifice to the living Sun. In the Pacific 
 we usually find them in the transition stage, and they 
 were made as follows. First of all a rectangular wall 
 about four feet high, of flat stone slabs, placed on their 
 sides, is set up around a tomb. The space inside is 
 filled in with earth or other stones up to the level of 
 this wall, and then another similar wall, but of narrower 
 compass, is set up on this flat mound. This in turn 
 is filled in, and another smaller wall built on top, until, 
 by gradual steps or terraces, each smaller than the 
 one below, the structure begins to resemble a pyramid. 
 In some islands, as in Tahiti, the complete pyramid 
 shape is attained (see illustration facing page 34) ; in 
 others, as in the Lau Group, only the bottom layer, 
 or perhaps two layers, were built. In Tonga we some- 
 times have the half-way stage, the grave of Fatafehi 
 being a huge structure 156 feet by 140 feet at the base, 
 with four terraces to the top. These Tongan terraced 
 graves, by the way, were called " langi " (lit. the Sky), 
 an evident connection with the " Sky-people " who 
 trace their descent from the Sun. 
 The pyramid became the " high place " (sternly 
 
232 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 condemned in the Bible) at which to worship the 
 original parent of the ancestors, the Sun. In Mexico 
 it attained its most complete state as a place of 
 worship, 1 and it was also the older form of temple 
 in Hawaii, holding chief place until the walled-in 
 enclosures were introduced from " the south " about 
 the twelfth century. We know that in Tahiti the 
 " marae," or sacred place, was a pavement at the 
 foot of the pyramid, surrounded by a low wall. 
 Originally, no doubt, even in Tahiti the only sacred 
 place was the pyramid itself, the tomb of the ancestor, 
 the walled-in pavements being added later, and pro- 
 bably lesser chiefs being buried under them. And it 
 was just the same in Hawaii. The pyramid was the 
 principal structure until the walled-in enclosures were 
 introduced, and then gradually the pyramid lost its 
 significance, while the enclosure was improved until 
 it became a specialized form of temple, though always 
 without a roof, as was only natural when one remembers 
 that the whole spirit of the worship was the veneration 
 of the heavenly bodies. Although in Hawaii the 
 pyramid may have lost its original significance as 
 the grave of the first ancestor, now forgotten, yet 
 the custom of laying the offering on the grave still 
 remained (as, indeed, it does with us when we lay 
 on a grave a wreath or a bunch of flowers). 
 
 The Heiau or temple, called Kanaikahaora, at Hawaii, 
 is described as having " inside the enclosure an altar, 
 which was a mound paved with smooth stones, upon 
 which the offerings were laid." 
 
 1 The great pyramid at Boraboda in western Java was, I 
 understand, rather the tomb of a dead king than a Sun-temple. 
 
STONE PAVEMENTS 233 
 
 A description of one of the smaller pyramids at 
 Tahiti will explain how the " pavements " came into 
 existence. "... There stood a pyramid fourteen feet 
 high, and on each side of it a pebble-paved area over 
 the graves of chiefs (which, after all, is how the dead 
 used to be buried beneath the floor of our own old 
 churches) ; and there was another pavement close 
 by, nearer the sea, and sacrifices were made on it, 
 the bodies being afterwards buried beneath it. . . ." 
 
 These stone pavements in time came to be very 
 important, especially as all the ceremonies, religious 
 or otherwise, were conducted on them. Some in 
 the Marquesas were as much as two hundred yards 
 long, the immense flat blocks forming them being 
 perfectly smooth and particularly suitable for the 
 religious dances. At Tahiti the archery contests took 
 place on them (the bow was a sacred implement of 
 Polynesia and no longer used for fighting, being a 
 relic of the earlier times when the Polynesian immi- 
 grants had introduced them as a weapon to the Pacific). 
 These contests were surrounded with a particular 
 " tabu," special clothes had to be worn for them, and 
 at the finish the competitors had to bathe to remove 
 the " tabu." It was on these pavements, too, that 
 the solemn councils of the chiefs were held, each person 
 having his appointed throne or seat, which was sacred 
 to himself or his descendants. I quote from two well- 
 known modern Tahitian antiquarians (Tati Salmon 
 and Miss Henry) : " . . . Some members disappeared 
 and their seats in the family ' temple ' remained un- 
 claimed. ..." "... the ' marae ' at Opoa was 
 famous all over the Pacific as the meeting place of 
 
234 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 all branches. On the right of it were eight ancient 
 stone slabs recording eight successive kings of Opoa." 
 Stevenson also especially remarked the chief's seats 
 in the " marae " at the Marquesas. He says : " . . .The 
 public ' high place,' such as I was now treading, was 
 a thing on a great scale. As far as my eye could pierce 
 through the dark undergrowth the floor of the forest 
 was all paved. Three tiers of terrace ran on the slope 
 of the hill ; in front, a crumbling parapet contained 
 the main arena ; and the pavement of that was pierced 
 and parcelled out with several wells and stone en- 
 closures. No trace of any superstructure remained, 
 and the scheme of the amphitheatre was difficult to 
 seize. I visited another in Hiva-oa, smaller but more 
 perfect, where it was easy to follow the rows of benches, 
 and to distinguish the isolated seats of honour for 
 eminent persons. . . ." 
 
 And, as might be expected, these ancient pavements 
 were affectionately cherished by those who had a 
 right to a seat upon them. There is a long folk-tale 
 about a giant named Hono-ura who made an unwilling 
 journey from Tahiti to Hiva. As he leaves the shores 
 he bids adieu to well-remembered places and mourn- 
 fully cries out, " Farewell to my pavement, and fare- 
 well to my ' leaning-stone ' (his throne)." 
 
 In some islands these great morticed and fitted 
 stone pavements ran down to the sea. Such have 
 been described in the Marquesas, the Carolines, Society 
 Islands (Huahine), and Fiji (Ringolds). It is possible, 
 of course, that these cyclopean causeways were for 
 shipping purposes, but one is tempted to think that 
 they may have had some religious significance in con- 
 
IMAGES 235 
 
 nection with the sea-gods, such as we know exists 
 even to this day in Fiji. A year or two ago I had 
 occasion to hold an enquiry at Lomaloma (the Lau 
 Islands) into some illegal " magic " that was being 
 carried on, and during the investigations it transpired 
 that a number of men had been building a temporary 
 causeway at the back of the island for the " Luveni- 
 wai " (the gods of the sea) to come up to a place 
 prepared for them on shore ! 
 
 Finally, there are the very interesting sloping stone 
 pavements at Easter Island described by the Routledge 
 expedition. At the crest of the slope were set the 
 famous stone images, watching over the dead who 
 were, just as in Tahiti, buried beneath the pavement. 
 These images were probably conventionalized repre- 
 sentations of the dead themselves, and may have 
 been considered to be, at times, abodes of the dead : 
 simulacra into which the ghosts could enter. 1 
 
 And the mention of ghosts reminds me that once 
 more I have been digressing shamefully, from pyramids 
 to pavements, and from pavements to images. With 
 reference to the pyramids I was about to say that 
 on the top of the pyramid-tomb was usually built 
 a little house for the ghost of the deceased to dwell 
 in, and various articles were placed there for his use. 
 In just the same way to-day in the Lau Islands, 
 
 1 On somewhat the same principle as the U-shab-ti, or little 
 images placed with the mummies in the tombs in Egypt. And 
 in connection with this I discovered an interesting little sentence 
 in Ellis' Hawaii, written before 1826, in which he says : 
 " Mrs. Alexander produced a parcel of little images of gods, 
 of wood, which had been taken out of one of the tombs in 
 Hawaii. . ." (!) 
 
286 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 especially in the more isolated ones, you can see a 
 one, or two, terraced grave (the rudimentary pyramid) 
 and on the top of it a little roofed shelter, with often 
 some favourite article that the dead man or woman 
 once used (in these prosaic days such things as china 
 tea-cups or glass oil-bottles — I have even seen a sewing- 
 machine — while a rather pathetic sight occasionally 
 to be noticed is the toy boat of a child). 
 
 And since the dead (the " ancestors ") and the 
 gods were so closely intermingled in the minds of the 
 people of the early cults, it was only logical that a 
 more or less temporary house should also be placed 
 on the pyramids of the gods, or at all events on the 
 more primitive ones. It was probably at this stage 
 that the types of pyramid-construction diverged, some 
 glorifying the house, which became in time the temple 
 of the god, as in the Buddhist structures (and, in a 
 minor degree, the Fijian " god-house, or temple, on 
 the top of the high " Yavu " or pyramidal mound) ; 
 others concentrating on the pyramid, to the detriment 
 and disappearance of the house, as in the Egyptian 
 and Mexican pyramids. 
 
 This was the probable explanation of the " old 
 wooden building " described as being on the top of 
 the Hawaiian pyramid where Captain Cook was for- 
 mally recognized as the god Lono. And just as in 
 Easter Island the image brooding over the tomb pro- 
 bably represented the person buried there, whose 
 ghost could at will inhabit this same image, so also 
 the " idols " in these temples were probably repre- 
 sentations of the god, who could enter them when he 
 willed. Captain King, who accompanied Captain Cook, 
 
DEIFICATION OF COOK 237 
 
 very clearly described the pyramid and the ceremony 
 that took place on it. It was a truncated pyramid 
 of an ancient type, 120 feet by 60 feet at the base, 
 and 42 feet high. Its top was flat and paved, and 
 there was a wooden rail round it on which were exposed 
 the skulls of the sacrifices (presumably both pigs and 
 men). In the centre was an old wooden building 
 connected by a stone wall on each side to the wooden 
 rail, and at the entrance to this building were two 
 large wooden images with long " inverted cones " 
 on the top of their heads (not unlike, one would 
 imagine, the hats of modern Jewish priests, but of 
 larger proportions). Their bodies were wrapped in 
 red cloth. Cook was met by " a young man with a 
 long beard " who introduced him to the images. He 
 was then led to some wooden scaffolding at one end, 
 at the foot of which were twelve images in a semi- 
 circle, and before the middle one an altar on which 
 lay a putrid pig. This was presented to him and 
 a speech made, after which it was thrown on to the 
 ground. (All offerings, even of money on to the table 
 of modern missionary meetings are " thrown " down. 
 It is the correct way, the old-world custom of casting 
 gifts at one's feet, I suppose.) It was then intimated 
 to Cook that he should accompany the priest on to 
 the scaffolding, where he was wrapped in red cloth, 
 and after certain prayers they descended, and Cook 
 was instructed to prostrate himself before the central 
 image. They then moved back to the other half of 
 the platform, where there was a " well " some three 
 feet deep and twelve feet square. In this Cook was 
 seated, and his arms supported upwards. More offer- 
 
238 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 ings were then brought to him, and kava was chewed 
 to the accompaniment of long chants. After par- 
 taking of the kava the ceremony ended. It will be 
 noticed that these " wells " occur also at the sacred 
 pavements in the Marquesas and elsewhere, but I 
 must confess that I am at a loss to find their exact 
 significance. 
 
 The truncated pyramid as described above has 
 been found, though generally in a more primitive 
 condition, in various parts of the Pacific. Mr. Stern- 
 dale, when he discovered at Samoa the dolmen and 
 pavement mentioned earlier in this chapter, also found, 
 close by, a truncated pyramid which he described as 
 being made of great blocks of lava — some of which 
 must have weighed over a ton — laid in courses. This 
 structure apparently had the corners rounded, and 
 approximated more to a cone. It was ioo feet in 
 each diameter at the base, and 20 feet high. At 
 Tinian (Marianne Islands) where Admiral Lord Anson 
 found many stone remains, there were at one place 
 two parallel lines of small pyramids, ranging up to 
 13 feet in height, a formation extraordinarily like the 
 lines of small pyramids in Mexico, and suggestive, 
 also, of the parallel lines of stone cairns that bordered 
 the causeways made for the Fijian " Luveniwai " to 
 come up from the sea. 
 
 A transition type of pyramid may be those described 
 at faster Island, a variety of the " Ahu", which were 
 of a semi-pyramid shape (Mrs. Routledge) ; while 
 a somewhat similar structure has been seen at Tonga, 
 "... a pile of stones 90 feet long, lozenge-shape, 
 and 25 feet high at the centre." 
 
THE "PAHIKA" 239 
 
 A typical association of the " pyramid " with its 
 adjacent " pavement " was to be found at Tahiti. 
 In Hawaii the enclosing wall of the pavement grew 
 higher, and the pyramid dwindled to a mere altar, 
 though before the change, mentioned previously, that 
 took place about the twelfth century, all the sacred 
 places had been, like those of Tahiti, principally 
 pyramids. Such was the old one to Lono that Cook 
 was deified at on his first arrival in Hawaii ; and such 
 also was the other one at which he was sacrificed after 
 being killed by the excited yet awe-struck natives. 
 This latter one was a ioo feet long by 15 feet high. 
 The actual cremation took place "on a hearth raised 
 18 inches above the ground, circled by a curb of rude 
 stones, which was in a small enclosure about 15 feet 
 square surrounded by a wall 5 feet high." 
 
 But the usual form of temple for many centuries 
 at Hawaii had been the walled-in space, generally 
 on a hillside, and divided up into compartments. 
 There was one called the " pahika," which was built 
 eleven generations before Ellis the missionary visited 
 it about 1820, which would make its date about 155c 
 It was 270 feet long by 210 feet wide, truly a magni- 
 ficent piece of masonry. There was another one, not 
 quite so big, but of which we have fuller details, and 
 which shows the final development of this form of 
 temple ; for while it was still new the white man's 
 religion was brought to Hawaii, and this, the famous 
 " heiau " of King Kamehameha, was probably the 
 last to be built. It was made in 1793, on the slope 
 of a hill, and was 150 feet long by a 100 feet wide, 
 with walls 20 feet high, except on the side facing the 
 
240 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 sea, where' they were only 7 feet. Inside (to which 
 access was gained by a passage between high walls) 
 it was terraced, the upper terrace being paved. At 
 the south end was an inner court particularly " tabu," 
 where the priests lived in cells, and here also the images 
 were placed, near them being the big wicker obelisk 
 into which the priest entered in order to become 
 inspired with the commands of the god. Near the 
 outer entrance to this court was the altar. 
 
 Another Hawaiian one, called Kanaikahaora, 150 feet 
 long by 70 feet wide, was interesting, as it showed the 
 mixture of the two types. It was the usual walled- 
 in temple, with special compartments, but the altar 
 was " a mound faced with stone " — in fact a degenerate 
 form of pyramid. 
 
 Some of the most extraordinary puzzles in the South 
 Seas were the Nanga temples of Fiji, which I have 
 considered in Chapter X, and may have been built by 
 stragglers from some " dropped " colony of Poly- 
 nesians. A typical one was built in much the same 
 fashion as a Hawaiian " heiau," but with lower walls, 
 and was 100 feet long by 50 feet wide, with an inner 
 court, very " tabu." This was divided from the outer 
 one by two small pyramids, and at the entrance there 
 were two more pyramids about 5 feet high. I am 
 inclined to think that remains of similar structures 
 may yet be found in some of the lesser-known islands 
 of the Pacific. Only in 1911 the late Mr. Humphrey 
 Berkeley of Fiji reported the finding of some great 
 morticed stone ruins, 250 feet long by 50 feet wide, 
 in far off Fanning Island, 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 STONE REMAINS (continued) 
 
 Like all great stone buildings of ancient times lack 
 of machinery in the Pacific was made up for by un- 
 limited human labour. Slaves built the pyramids 
 of Egypt, a whole nation was taken to make the great 
 fortress of Cuzco in Peru. 1 Fornander was told by 
 an old man who had actually helped in the building 
 of the last great " heiau " at Hawaii that thousands of 
 men from surrounding districts had been brought in 
 and encamped on the hillsides, and that their feeding, 
 work, and relaxation had all been carefully organized ; 
 while " to ensure the help of the gods " human sacri- 
 fices were made at frequent intervals ! In the same 
 way, no doubt, the huge works in the Carolines were 
 made by countless thousands of people, who once 
 inhabited a land now but sparsely populated. One 
 of the great buildings there was a many-chambered 
 rectangular temple, and in the exact centre was a 
 square vault known to this day as the " Chau-te- 
 
 1 In the time of the ioth Inca, 4,000 men quarried the stones, 
 6,000 transported them on rollers for 15 miles to the building 
 site, and 10,000 more dressed and squared them as they arrived. 
 And these 20,000 men at the end of each three months were 
 replaced by 20,000 others, and thus the work went on for many 
 years. 
 
 16 «" 
 
242 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 real." " Chau " I imagine to be a dialect variation 
 of the Sau or Hau, meaning king, of other parts of 
 the Pacific, and possibly " re-al " may have some 
 connection with Ra, the Sun. The vault was probably 
 the burial place of some forgotten king, and the temple 
 was built round it (unless, indeed, it was a chamber 
 from which to take observations of the Sun's transit, 
 just as rock chambers were hewn out for this purpose 
 by prehistoric people in England, and just as — it has 
 been suggested — the chamber at the bottom of the 
 sloping shaft in some of the Egyptian pyramids may 
 have been used). It is curious that in the centre of 
 the Hawaiian " heiau " called Kanakaheilani there 
 was a square sunk cavity known as " the bath of the 
 king," and if really used as such it was a strange 
 fitting for a temple, unless used for the removal of 
 " tabu." The original use of it may have been for- 
 gotten, it may have once been another " Chau-te- 
 real." I am inclined to think that even a burial vault 
 theory is more probable than that of a bath. 
 
 The great square stone-lined vaults were a feature 
 of many Polynesian burial places, and as the obvious 
 idea was to preserve the body of the dead (which, 
 indeed, was in some instances, as at Faka-ofu, actually 
 furthered by embalming) I cannot help thinking that 
 the stone vault in the Pacific was a makeshift for the 
 rock-tombs of Asia, where also the dead were pre- 
 served. In these coral islands there were no cliffs 
 of hard rock to be excavated, but there were ample 
 supplies of coral-limestone easily split into slabs, and 
 with these they made the " rock-tomb " as then- 
 ancestors had done I am the more inclined to suggest 
 
STONE VAULTS 243 
 
 this because we know that in many islands where caves 
 were present, they were used for the embalmed bodies 
 of the dead, as in New Zealand. This may be con- 
 sidered to be in opposition to the usual theory that 
 the stone vault of the Pacific was meant to represent 
 the house which some tribes built for their dead, but 
 when one studies the fundamental idea there is, after 
 all, very little difference. 
 
 In Tonga, perhaps, was the stone vault brought 
 to its greatest perfection. Mariner, who was present 
 at the burial of Finau, says that the vault of the king's 
 tomb was ten feet deep, and the immense stone lid 
 of it took between one and two hundred men pulling 
 with ropes to raise up one end. This vault was capable 
 of holding thirty bodies, and he remarks that when 
 it was opened there were one or two corpses there 
 that looked as well preserved as the day they had 
 first been put in. 
 
 The stone vault was also used at Rotumah Island ; 
 and in Hawaii Ellis described how he was shown ancient 
 tombs of rough lava, imperfectly covered by enormous 
 blocks of the same material, " and in which still 
 remained bones of several ancient kings " (near it 
 was one of the walled-in " places of refuge," a typical 
 Semitic institution). We have already seen how the 
 dead were buried in cavities below the sacred pave- 
 ments at Tahiti and Easter Island ; and it remains 
 to be noted how in all cases it appears to be the chiefs 
 who were buried in vaults or caves, while the commoners 
 were interred in the earth or disposed of in other ways, 
 and usually in a sitting position. 
 
 We now pass to a curious variety of megalithic 
 
244 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 monument that has roused much controversy in the 
 Pacific, namely, the great trilithon of Tonga. This, 
 with others of smaller size in one or two other places, 
 has been a matter of particular interest, as we have 
 much the same structure at home, at Stonehenge. 
 There are, however, two peculiarities about the Tongan 
 trilithon, one is that it has the hollowed basin on the 
 cross-beam, and the other is that this cross-beam is 
 morticed into the uprights. It has been pointed out 
 that the morticing of the stone structures in the Pacific 
 implies an early separation from the mainland of Asia, 
 before the use of mortar was in vogue, but the same 
 reasoning hardly applies to the trilithon, as the similar 
 ones at Stonehenge are not morticed in, and yet mortar 
 was certainly not used by the Stonehenge people. On 
 the other hand the usual method of placing a wooden 
 cross-beam on two wooden uprights in house-building 
 in the Pacific is to adze a deep groove in the head of 
 the upright in order that the horizontal beam may 
 be " morticed " into it, and sinnet lashings are then 
 applied to prevent the beam slipping in times of gales. 
 But, to mortice a huge block of stone into the stone 
 uprights, seems an unnecessary labour, as no ordinary 
 phenomenon of nature would shift such a weight, 
 even if only placed flat on its broad posts. The people 
 who built Stonehenge, and built it in no unscientific 
 manner, took no precautions of this kind, nor are 
 the trilithons in Peru (there is one near the Peru- 
 Bolivia boundary) put up in this way. From the 
 morticing alone, therefore, one might conclude that 
 the trilithon had been erected as part of a house, or 
 at least by a people who had the ordinary wooden 
 
THE TRILITHON AT TONGA 245 
 
 house-construction in their minds when building it. 
 We know from tradition that a certain Ari, about 
 a.d. 450, built at Samoa a house " with stone pillars 
 and beams," and ruins of ancient stone houses have 
 been found through Indonesia. 
 
 In the Pacific the type of temple or sacred place 
 of the gods was, with the early Polynesians, either 
 the stone pavement and pyramid, or the walled-in, 
 but roofless, " heiau " ; but this trilithon at Tonga 
 would at first sight seem to imply a support for a roof. 
 One is therefore driven to the conclusion that, since 
 the temples were roofless, it could not have been part 
 of one ; while if it had been part of a house why should 
 this part remain and all the rest disappear ? The 
 explanation seems to me to be that it was neither 
 part of a temple nor of a house, but was complete in 
 itself, a monument at which religious rites were 
 practised. 
 
 Now there are two possible meanings for it. One 
 is that it was a sacred " threshold " connected with 
 the belief in re-incarnation. We know that a totem- 
 cult existed in Tonga, and possibly also in Tahiti and 
 the Marquesas, where bird and fish emblems have 
 been found. The Polynesian threshold was a parti- 
 cularly " tabu " thing. To this day, in every respec- 
 table Fijian house there is one entrance, the special 
 threshold, that is reserved for chiefs, while the other 
 entrance is for commoners ; a remembrance of the 
 early times when only chiefs could break the " tabu " 
 surrounding it. We saw, on page 154, how at the 
 Tui Thakau's funeral a woman sprinkled one threshold 
 with water while the corpses were being passed through 
 
246 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 the other — evidently the " commoner's " threshold. 
 This was probably to remove temporarily the " tabu " 
 from the sacred threshold so as to leave at least one 
 free doorway for ordinary people to come in and go 
 out by. In other islands commoners had to get down 
 on their hands and knees when crossing a threshold ; 
 and there is also a peculiar " tabu " associated with 
 a Polynesian threshold when a son who has never 
 yet seen his father wishes to enter the house {Journal 
 of the Polynesian Society). 
 
 Was the " passing through a threshold " connected 
 with the idea of re-birth or re-incarnation ? If so it 
 might very possibly have been a feature of certain 
 of the " holy places." On the sacred pavement, 
 described by Stevenson, in the Marquesas, was " a 
 single joist, its uprights richly carved." He does not 
 mention whether this was of stone or wood, but as 
 all the rest of the structure was stone one imagines 
 this must have been also, or the difference would have 
 been noted. Carved stone pillars are recorded from 
 Pitcairn Island (where there were also " platforms " 
 and images as at Easter Island) ; and from Guam 
 (Marianne Islands). Stevenson's " joist," I suppose, 
 was a cross-beam on two uprights, in other words a 
 trilithon. When passing through the Eastern Pacific 
 I had the pleasure of meeting the Deputy Governor 
 of Tahiti and the Marquesas, and have since from time 
 to time corresponded with him, and he tells me that- 
 the stone antiquities of the latter group are fast dis- 
 appearing. To my great regret I had no opportunity 
 of calling at the Marquesas, but to any one going there 
 I feel sure that a visit to this old temple at Hatehau 
 
STONES NOT INDIGENOUS 247 
 
 would well repay the trouble in getting to it. The 
 only other known trilithons in the Pacific beside those 
 at Tonga being the smaller ones at Santa Maria in 
 the New Hebrides. 
 
 The other explanation may be that these isolated 
 trilithons were " sun-measurers," like those described 
 at the beginning of Chapter XIV. That is, that when 
 the sun just passed under the horizontal beam its 
 rays, at a special time of the year, would strike some 
 other stone in the neighbourhood. If the sun did 
 not rise off a flat horizon, but came up from behind 
 a hill, the extra height of the trilithon would be 
 accounted for. And if it were a " sun-measurer," 
 and therefore presumably associated with sacrifices, 
 the bowl on the top might be for the blood and heart 
 of the victim, or for cremating the flesh, as in Hawaii, 
 and not for kava at all. One other remarkable feature 
 about the Tongan triUthon is that the huge stones 
 (the uprights alone are each six feet deep by three 
 feet wide, and sixteen feet above the ground) are alleged 
 to have been brought from Wallis Island, 550 miles 
 to the north. Mr. Symonds, the British Consul, 
 and an amateur geologist, reported that there was 
 no trace of stone in Tonga just like this ; and, further, 
 that he had been shown the place at Wallis Island 
 where, according to native tradition, the stones were 
 quarried. There is no doubt that ancient races 
 considered certain of their stones to be particularly 
 holy, and laboriously fetched them from long distances 
 rather than use other stones which lay at hand. 
 An instance of this is our own Stonehenge, where 
 the stones of the middle ring are foreign to the locality. 
 
248 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 The people who built this Tongan trilithon may possibly 
 have lived for some generations at Wallis Island en 
 route to Tonga. It has been said that the structure 
 was put up as a penance by some conquered tribe, 
 but there is obviously more reason for it than simply 
 this. It is quite possible that a conquered tribe had 
 to do the work of erection as a punishment, but 
 the trilithon when completed was required for 
 some definite purpose, and I think one of the two 
 explanations I have given above will furnish the 
 answer. 
 
 There is another form of stone structure so uni- 
 versal in Polynesia that it causes no comment, yet 
 to any new arrival from Melanesia it cannot but be 
 a source of surprise, and that is the high stone founda- 
 tion that every house of any importance stands upon. 
 It cannot be merely a question of being raised off the 
 mud ; there is just as much mud in Melanesia as 
 in Polynesia, and, moreover, the Polynesian villages 
 in most cases are — and in earlier times always were — 
 built whenever possible on hills or raised ground. It 
 seems more probable that the immigrant Polynesians 
 when first coming to live amongst a strange people, 
 whether in Indonesia or in the Pacific, had to protect 
 themselves from any sudden onslaught, and so raised 
 their dwellings on massive foundations, to become 
 miniature fortresses. In Melanesia we find this scheme 
 still carried on in Gaua and Santa Cruz Islands, in 
 both of which there are strong Polynesian traces ; 
 and in Fiji it is noteworthy that the high foundation 
 or " yavu " is even to-day the sign of the conquering 
 " chief " class ; I have often had it indignantly pointed 
 
REPRESENTATIVES OF GODS, COOK ISLANDS. 
 
 (Pliolos by permission of the London Mi^ionoiy Society.) 
 
STONE HOUSE-FOUNDATIONS 249 
 
 out to me that " so-and-so " (some commoner) is 
 building himself a high " yavu," just like a chief ! 
 
 A foundation of a foot or two is a desirable thing 
 for native houses, to keep the damp out, and has now 
 been made obligatory by law, but some of the older 
 " chiefs " had stone foundations fourteen or fifteen 
 feet high, the greatest chief having the greatest " yavu." 
 It will be remembered (the Tongan king and his pulpit 
 was an instance) how a Polynesian chief must be, 
 literally, raised above a commoner, and this also may 
 have had something to do with it ; whilst there was 
 also, in the case of the kings of earlier days, the dread 
 power of the " tabu," and the necessity of keeping 
 the great chief as high off the earth as possible, in 
 a sort of " suspended " condition, lest by touching 
 it at the wrong time he should be doing some harm 
 to the land. Polynesian kings were always carried 
 from place to place ; and in Tahiti, on landing after 
 a sea-voyage, the king's herald would go in advance 
 to a serf village and say " I want a ' broken calabash ' 
 for the king," when the man in charge would, without 
 demur, produce some unfortunate wretch, whose skull 
 was promptly broken by a blow from a stone weapon 
 held by the herald, and whose body was taken " for 
 the king to tread on when landing," a sort of insulating 
 medium between him and the earth. I think a relic 
 of this, that is still occasionally to be seen in the Lau 
 Islands, is the " Lautafua," a long broad carpet of 
 " tappa " reaching from the sea-edge to the house 
 of reception. Ratu Sukuna, a high chief of Fiji and 
 " vasu " to the Lau Islands, was thus honoured on 
 his first return from the Great War, his canoe being 
 
250 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 bodily picked out of the water and carried, with him 
 still on it, over the great carpet for several hundred 
 yards to the house. 1 
 
 And since the idea of Fertility (and therefore mar- 
 riages) is also closely connected with the " tabu " it 
 is probable that we have a parallel custom to those 
 of Tahiti and Lau in the Cook Islands, for here a bridal 
 couple formerly walked along a human pathway of 
 young men, who threw themselves down for this purpose 
 in front of the procession. 
 
 Though the dread of touching anything " tabu " 
 was almost universal there were at least two occasions 
 when such contact was deliberately sought. One was 
 at Tonga where, at the coronation ceremony, allegi- 
 ance to the king was sworn by placing the hands on 
 the sacred kava-bowl ; and the other was also at 
 coronation ceremonies, when the king at Savage Island 
 was proclaimed king while leaning with his back against 
 a sacred stone. This latter had no doubt at one time 
 been a god, or rather a temporary place of abode for 
 a god. For just as the ghosts of the dead would at 
 times enter the images or representations of the dead, 
 such as the " re-made " men at Malekula (see page 118), 
 or perhaps the images at the Easter Island burial- 
 places, 8 so also the representation of the god would 
 
 1 This chief was at Oxford when the war started, and im- 
 mediately volunteered for service. He was wounded twice, 
 but returned again to France from Fiji in the spring of 1917, 
 with a contingent with which I myself happened to be con- 
 nected, and I take this opportunity of adding my testimony 
 to that of others regarding his high standard of duty on all 
 occasions. 
 
 Turner reported that at Nukufetau Island in the Ellice Group 
 stones were placed over the graves and heads carved on them. 
 
STONES ANIMATED BY THE GODS 251 
 
 at times become animated by the presence of the god. 
 The features of the god, and the material of which 
 the effigy was made, were really unimportant, they 
 might either be a conventional rendering of a supposed 
 likeness or else not a likeness at all, but merely a stick 
 wound round with " tappa," or a stone with some 
 feathers attached. The important thing was that the 
 god on occasion entered into this emblem and quickened 
 it with his " mana " or influence. 
 
 And therefore at Savage Island the new king, hence- 
 forward to be so closely associated with the gods, was 
 to receive this influence by direct contact with the 
 divine power that gave it. 1 There was a similar " coro- 
 nation stone " in close proximity to which the king 
 had to be seated, at Futuna Island. In these one is 
 reminded of the ancient stone let into the coronation 
 chair at Westminster Abbey. 
 
 The idea of a temporary habitation of the god is 
 implied in the very name used in many parts for such 
 " shrines " or dwelling-places, that is the " Wanka " 
 (Fijian), or " Waka " (Polynesian), meaning literally 
 the canoe or ship, in which the god might for a while 
 float. When gathering information about the old 
 gods in the Lau Islands I have often had it carefully 
 pointed out to me that, for instance, a certain stone 
 — or perhaps a living bird or fish — was not the actual 
 god itself, but merely its " Wanka." As I write this 
 it has occurred to me that the " Sau-wanka," which 
 is the Fijian name for the Javan Murex (the sacred 
 
 1 When Stevenson was hypnotizedlby a Gilbert Island magician 
 to cure a cold he was first of all made to seat himself upon a 
 sacred stone, facing the east. 
 
252 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 ceremonial offering in ancient days before the com- 
 paratively modern " whale's tooth ") was probably 
 so-called as it was thought to be the " Wanka " of 
 the Sau or King. And the same idea, and in fact 
 the self-same word, as " Waka," is used right across 
 the Pacific from " Tau-wa'a " (which may be a dialect 
 variation of " Sau-wanka ") in the Carohne Islands to 
 " Huaka " or " Waka " in Peru. And this idea of 
 the god-head resting in its ship or canoe is undoubtedly 
 the prime meaning of the sacred Ark of both the Baby- 
 lonians and the Hebrews, the ark of the Flood legend 
 being merely combined with it. 
 
 In many parts of the Pacific the entry of the god 
 into his shrine was an annual affair, and was no doubt 
 in close analogy with the Pa'e-atua ceremony at Tahiti 
 of passing the Sun's essence into his emblem (page 137). 
 At Faka-ofu Island the stone god called Tui Tokelau 
 was once a year brought out, its mats were unwrapped 
 and taken away, and it was then carefully anointed 
 with oil and wrapped up again in fresh mats brought 
 by the worshippers. Somewhat similar to this were 
 the two stone gods, male and female, of Tikopia Island, 
 who were dug up when their assistance was required, 
 washed, anointed with turmeric, and then wrapped 
 in fresh pieces of " tappa " cloth. And in the west 
 of Ireland — where, like Cornwall, so many customs 
 and stone remains are found akin to those of the Pacific 
 — there was, not so many generations ago, a stone 
 god called Neevougi, who, when his assistance was 
 wanted, was brought out, and wrapped up in fresh 
 pieces of flannel. 1 
 
 1 History of the Progress of the Reformation in Ireland. 
 
WOODEN GOD FROM COOK ISLANDS, NOW IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 
 (Photo by permission of the London Missionary Society.) 
 
 To face p. 252. 
 
GENERATIVE POWER IN STONES 253 
 
 At those times when the god did not actually 
 happen to be animating his stone the worshippers 
 paid but slight heed to this emblem, and in this is 
 the great difference between such stones, and idols, 
 which were worshipped for themselves alone. The 
 people of the Pacific can never really have been called 
 idolators, rather they were mystics, worshipping some 
 mysterious presence who only occasionally evidenced 
 his powers in his emblem. 1 In New Zealand some 
 of the priests used to wake up the sleeping god who 
 brooded in the neighbourhood of his effigy by jerking 
 the image by a string tied round its neck ; but they 
 meant no impertinence to the god himself. And thus, 
 no doubt, the King of Tahiti, on Christianity sweeping 
 over the land, felt the less fear or compunction in 
 allowing the wooden effigy of the god Oro to be used 
 as a post in his kitchen, for the presence of the god 
 had been driven away from its neighbourhood for ever. 
 
 The existence of the god in certain stones gave them 
 that special power by which they could pass on the 
 influence to other objects placed in proximity to them, 
 such as the Fijian black stone in the British Museum, 
 the " mother of tabua," which could cause the 
 "tabua," or valuable whale's teeth, to multiply. But 
 the generative idea in connection with stones was no 
 uncommon thing, probably originating with Phallic- 
 worship ; and " husband and wife " stones are known 
 all over the Pacific, and (like most other Polynesian 
 affairs) in Peru also. The great Fijian god, Dengei, 
 
 1 Although It has been Insisted on that in some parts of the 
 world an unadulterated idolatry was practised, I am rather 
 doubtful whether any primitive people really worshipped an 
 image as a permanent god. 
 
254 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 was born of two stones that lay at the bottom of a 
 moat ; O Rewau (who hated mosquitoes) was a stone 
 who had two stone wives, one from Yandua and one 
 from Yasawa ; while the first man and the first woman 
 in Lifu (Loyalty Islands) were two stones. At Hiva-oa 
 (Marquesas) there were two stone images, eight feet 
 high, of " King Takii and his wife Fau-Po'e," who 
 were said to have lived more than forty generations 
 ago ; and this may illustrate how historical people 
 may in time become mythical gods, for I think that 
 O Rewau of Fiji probably was at one time an actual 
 person and took by conquest two wives from places 
 far apart. He is now forgotten as a man but remem- 
 bered as a god. In the same way the emaciated little 
 wooden images from Easter Island, with their dis- 
 tended ears, " Punch "-like noses, 1 and goatee beards, 
 may have been a conventional rendering of a real 
 tribe of people ; and we know that one of the images, 
 beardless and with normal ears, was intended for 
 Captain Cook. The Earl of Pembroke noticed also 
 that at Huahine Island (Society Group) "... the 
 best spears almost always have a head with a nose 
 and chin like Punch's carved on them, as have also 
 their canoes. . . ." 
 
 1 The hook-noses were noticed among the living people by 
 Captain Beechey, one of the early white visitors, when he called 
 there. To-day this distinguishing feature seems to be not so 
 marked. Can the people who were of that type have been in 
 a decided minority and their characteristics rapidly stamped 
 out in a few generations ? The emaciation is extreme, but 
 they do not represent actual skeletons, as the bones of the limbs 
 are not carved. They are, therefore, not the " dead," the 
 ancestors, but rather the living, in the last stages of starvation. 
 They may therefore be intended as lasting memorials of the 
 exhausted state in which their ancestors drifted to the island. 
 
GODS SHAPED AND UNSHAPED 255 
 
 It is a curious thing that in the Western Pacific 
 (where the people were skilful carvers), and in the 
 Eastern Pacific, one finds actual stone or wood repre- 
 sentations of the gods, whereas in the Central Pacific 
 (the Fiji-Tonga-Samoa Group and " Micronesia ") the 
 gods are simply rough, untouched blocks of stone. 
 One is reminded of the order as to altars in 
 Exodus xx. 25 : " Thou shalt not build it of hewn 
 stone, . ." the Semitic idea being that to carve or 
 fashion stones with implements was to remove their 
 sanctity. 
 
 And since there were " husband and wife " stones 
 it seems possible that the little ones surrounding central 
 stones which we find in some of the Micronesian Islands 
 may be " children," but I am more inclined to think 
 that these were set up for the same reason as " crom- 
 lechs " were erected in Europe. In the Gilbert Islands 
 they sacrifice at one stone surrounded by a circle of 
 others ; and near Apia (Samoa) there was a stone 
 circle known as " the House of Fe'e " (Fe'e being the 
 old war-god, whose living shrine was the octopus). 
 There are probably other stone circles still undiscovered 
 in some of the Pacific Islands. 
 
 I have already several times referred to the stone 
 images on Easter Island, so will only mention in passing 
 that Adams, the old mutineer from the Bounty, dug 
 up several stone gods during his stay on Pitcairn 
 Island, and that Captain Beechey subsequently recorded 
 seeing four other ones, six feet high, on a stone plat- 
 form, very like the Easter Island ones. The ones at 
 the Marquesas were not unlike the Easter images, as 
 shown in the illustration facing page 82 ; and some others 
 
256 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 at Necker Island, north-west of Hawaii, were much 
 the same. It almost looks as if one race of people 
 had scattered over the above-mentioned islands, leaving 
 their stone images carved in the likeness of a man, 
 but had not reached as far as Central Polynesia. Could 
 they have come from Peru, where similar images were 
 also found ? * 
 
 In Central Polynesia the stones were rough, unhewn, 
 and shapeless, but they inspired just as much reverence 
 at the proper time. At Hudson's Island (Ellice Group) 
 the great god Fui-i-langi was a stone six feet high, 
 and before him was a stone altar on which were placed 
 skulls. There was another god nine feet high at 
 Nanumea Island in the same group, At the lonely 
 Swain Island (Union Group), now devoid of human 
 life, great unhewn pillars of stone are to be found set 
 up on end, silent witnesses of a people who once in- 
 habited the place. At Nikunau Island (Gilbert Group) 
 Tapu-Ariki was the principal god, and was indicated 
 by an upright stone ; whereas certain goddesses there 
 were represented by stone slabs laid flat, the " dis- 
 solith " of Indonesia over again ! Most of these stones, 
 like the famous mat-wrapped Tui Tokelau, were 
 smashed to powder by the early missionaries in their 
 pious zeal ; and, after all, who shall blame them ; it 
 was probably necessary to make a clean sweep of the 
 old regime, and they certainly did it ! 
 
 1 As I mentioned just now, any carved gods In the Western 
 Pacific may be due merely to the innate love of the natives 
 there for carving any thing at any time, like a small boy whittling 
 a stick. Their work, however, was usually in the form of birds 
 or fish, and only occasional figures of man were found, and 
 then nearly always Intended as " memorials of public men." 
 
SAMOAN GODS 257 
 
 The stone gods of Samoa are interesting because 
 so much of the early influence of Fiji — that Fiji that 
 was " Polynesian " when most of the Pacific was still 
 in the hands of the aboriginals — is to be seen there. 
 It is probable that when the immigrants were finally 
 expelled from Fiji many of them passed over to Samoa, 
 and this would account for them taking with them 
 (as was the Polynesian custom) some of their sacred 
 stones to be set up in the new land. In one place 
 some of these Fijian stones were preserved in a temple, 
 and when a war was contemplated the priests would 
 take them and build up a sort of wall with them, as 
 an omen. If during the night the wall fell towards 
 the East it implied defeat, but if it remained steady, 
 or even fell to the West, it presaged victory. Other 
 gods from Fiji were Tui Fiti and O le Alii o Fiti (which 
 is really the Samoan rendering of Tui Fiti) ; and of 
 human beings, such as Lau and Lii, 1 who were changed 
 into stone, there seems to be no end. 
 
 Murray found in a temple at Samoa three stone 
 gods that had special names strongly reminiscent of 
 the flowery land of China, viz : " The Enduring King- 
 dom," "The Immovable," and "The Stone-fixed-in- 
 the-Kingdom." It is possible that they were really 
 memorial stones set up to commemorate the foundation 
 of the new kingdom in Samoa by the refugees from 
 
 1 The tradition is that Lau and Lii came from Fiji and settled 
 at Upolu Island in a bay called " Sacred-to-the-gods." They 
 went off one day to another part of the country to witness the 
 building of a famous canoe by three chiefs, but lost their way 
 and never got there. In their chagrin they changed themselves 
 to stone. . . . The story as it stands is foolish and without 
 purpose, but there is probably some historical basis for the 
 episode. 
 
 17 
 
258 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 Fiji. Some day a key may be found for all these 
 mysteries ; at present we can only grope in the 
 dark, seeing a stray gleam of light here and there, 
 living always in hope, but finding the position very 
 tantalizing. 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 LANGUAGE AND PLACE-NAMES 
 
 Although the Polynesians are a people without a 
 literature, they have a very well developed language, 1 
 and a language of peculiar interest to philologists, 
 since it is one of the oldest living ones in the world, 
 and a direct descendant of one of the oldest dead ones. 
 The people, owing to their remote isolation through 
 all the centuries in the Pacific, have been enabled to 
 retain their ancient tongue in practically the same 
 state as it was when they first burst into that ocean. 
 And the philologist who first realized that in the Poly- 
 nesian tongue he had come across what was virtually 
 the extinct Turanian language must have had much 
 the same thrill as a naturalist would if he suddenly 
 came upon a giant " Moa " stalking about in New 
 Zealand. 
 
 The Turanian is of the type known as " agglutina- 
 tive," that is, its words are formed by additions of 
 other words to the main root, just as, for instance, 
 we manufacture the word " there-in." Modern examples 
 of agglutinative languages are Finnish and Turkish, 
 but the general tendency is for the agglutinative type 
 to change on further development into the inflectional 
 
 1 The New Zealand branch of the Polynesian language has 
 some 15,000 words. 
 
260 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 type. Two well-known inflectional languages that 
 succeeded the Turanian were the Semitic and the 
 Aryan, and in just the same romantic way as the 
 Rosetta stone gave us the key to the hidden literature 
 of Egypt, so also did a bi-lingual inscription on a clay 
 brick give us side by side the language of Akkad, or 
 Turanian, and that of the Semitic-Babylonians. 
 
 In tracing the remote ancestry of a people, language 
 is but a weak reed to lean upon ; for, owing to foreign 
 conquests, one may on the one hand find vestiges of 
 the same tongue thousands of miles apart yet spoken 
 by entirely different nations, while on the other hand 
 people of the same main stock and living only a few 
 miles apart may speak a quite different language, as 
 we find in the Solomon Islands to this day. But in 
 the case of the Polynesians, at all events during their 
 sojourn in the Pacific, there has been no external 
 influence to alter their speech, no conquest excepting 
 only in the Melanesian islands to shake the very roots 
 of their language. One curious fact, however, stands 
 out, and that is that (contrary to the accepted rule 
 of etymology, that " language follows the mother ") 
 the Polynesian language has remained strong and 
 still distinctly traceable in some of even the " Melane- 
 sian " islands, where the immigrant seafarers took 
 wives from the local people, because it was used as 
 a lingua franca among a number of small aboriginal 
 tribes who could not otherwise understand each other, 
 a sort of " pidgin-English " in Polynesian. 1 
 
 So then, we find one main language (subject to quite 
 minor dialect variations) recognizable in Melanesia, 
 1 History of Melanesian Society. 
 
POLYNESIAN LANGUAGE— EXTENT 261 
 
 and unmistakable throughout Polynesia, through all 
 the countless scores of islands that cover the surface 
 of the Pacific, from Australia to Canada, from Asia 
 to Peru ; and a man in the far-off Hawaiian Islands 
 can thus converse with a Maori from New Zealand, or 
 an Easter Islander with a native of Tonga — surely 
 one of the most remarkable instances of the brother- 
 hood of language the world has ever known. And 
 remarkable for this reason : the Hawaiian Islander 
 (until the white man taught him geography) did not 
 know of the New Zealander's existence, the Easter 
 Islander probably thought that Easter Island was 
 the only country in the world, for many centuries had 
 passed away since their fathers separated to plough 
 their lonely ocean ways. 
 
 Had the speech, from the beginning of the great 
 " trek," only remained as pure as it has kept since 
 the arrival into the Pacific we might have had the 
 startling effect of finding a Polynesian (once having 
 re-learnt the forgotten writing of his forefathers) read- 
 ing off with understanding the ancient clay bricks 
 of the mighty extinct civilizations of Western Asia ; 
 but it was not to be. For, during the long journey 
 of the seafarers they had become influenced by contact 
 with many alien races, and Egyptian, Assyrian, Arabic, 
 Persian, Indian, and even Mongolian languages have 
 all brought their quota to the ultimate result of " Poly- 
 nesian " as we know it ; and though we may assume 
 that the original agglutinative Turanian tongue was 
 the language of their primal ancestors there is very 
 little of a defined and pure nature about the speech 
 as we know it to-day. 
 
262 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 There was once a nation (who have been termed 
 the " Armenoid " people) who originated from the 
 country north of Mesopotamia, the cradle of the world. 
 And to them there came a time, several thousand 
 years ago, when — as nations will — they felt impelled 
 to burst the confines of their country, and — overcoming 
 all resistance — poured into the Mediterranean, becom- 
 ing a dominant factor in Egypt, and also broke through 
 to the Persian Gulf, sending out coasting expeditions 
 in each direction from there. It was probably in 
 this way that they invaded North- West India as the 
 " Turanian-speaking element " that historians write 
 of, about 2500 B.C., before the Aryans arrived on the 
 scene. The Nagas of to-day are probably their des- 
 cendants ; and in language, customs, and appearance 
 the Polynesians show many points of striking resem- 
 blance to these Nagas. 
 
 At a later time the Aryan-speaking people in their 
 turn invaded India, and no doubt dwelt for a time 
 along the valley of the Ganges, in close contact with 
 the earlier " Armenoid " settlers, until they gradually 
 pushed them outwards and onwards to Burma and 
 Malaysia, giving them, however, a few words of their 
 Aryan language in the process. 
 
 In the meantime the section of the Armenoid people 
 who had invaded Egypt had learnt from the Nile- 
 dwellers many useful ideas about shipbuilding, and 
 had sent out colonies round the coasts of Arabia, 
 eventually joining up again with their cousins from 
 the Persian Gulf and extending their expeditions along 
 the shores of India in one direction and down the 
 coasts of East Africa in the other. And in the onward 
 
HISTORY IN THE LANGUAGE 263 
 
 march of the centuries they came to be strongly 
 influenced by the Semitic element, becoming known 
 to history as the Phoenicians, the great traders of 
 the world, who even reached our own shores a thousand 
 years before the Christian era. But their expeditions 
 were always coastal ones, they had as yet no need to 
 acquire the art of crossing the vast ocean spaces. And 
 it was during these expeditions that they absorbed 
 the different elements in their language which, brought 
 down through Indonesia and the islands further east, 
 eventually became known to us as the Polynesian 
 tongue. 
 
 It is still possible to pick out some of these different 
 elements, and the fact that we find so few Sanskrit 
 words among them shows us how early the people 
 must have entered the Pacific, before Sanskrit came 
 into common use among the countries they had passed 
 through. 
 
 Before following up one or two of the more inter- 
 esting words and place-names to their source it would 
 be as well to note what changes among the letters 
 occur in the dialects of the Pacific. The commonest 
 interchanges are those of H and S, as seen in Samoa, 
 known to the Tongans as Hamoa ; and K and T, as 
 seen in Tangata, a man (New Zealand), which becomes 
 Tamata (Fijian), and Kanaka ■ (Hawaiian). 
 
 Another frequent interchange is that of R and L. 
 We thus see how Tangaroa, the god (New Zealand), 
 may become Ta'a'oa in the Marquesas, and Kanaloa 
 in Hawaii. 
 
 1 The g of ng often drops out as one proceeds east. In the 
 Marquesas many consonants drop out at every opportunity. 
 
264 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 V may become softened and aspirated to F or Wh, 
 thus Val6, a house (Fijian), becomes Fal6 (Samoan), 
 Whare" (New Zealand), and even Hale (Hawaiian). 
 
 Vowel changes are uncommon, except O and U, 
 and — occasionally — A and E. There are some words 
 that can be traced unchanged to the nations of the 
 ancient world, such as Ra, the Sun (Egyptian), and 
 Sina, the Moon (Babylonian), while Pa, a fort is, I 
 am informed, another old Assyrian word, and is also 
 found in the Naga language. 
 
 Mate - and Tabu are known in the Hebrew, 1 the root 
 of the former possibly occurring also in the Latin 
 Mors, mortis, and more nearly in the Spanish Mata, 
 kill or make die, from which the bullfight term " mata- 
 dor " is coined. (It has been pointed out that the 
 word also is found in old Arabic, and that our chess 
 expression " check-mate " is really Sheik-mat', " the 
 sheik [or king] is dead ".) The Latin word may 
 have either been given by Italy to our roving " sea- 
 farers," or else received by Italy from them, for there 
 is no doubt that they ventured not only to Italy but 
 to all parts of the Mediterranean, and even round 
 Europe to our own coasts, in their ceaseless search 
 for wealth. The Spanish variation may have come 
 from the Latin or else possibly through the Moors 
 when they overran Spain. 
 
 The misogynist who reads this chapter will see how 
 
 woman gets to every corner of the earth, for the latter 
 
 half of that modern-manufactured English word was 
 
 T When Sir Basil Thomson was acting as the white Prime 
 Minister to King George II of Tonga, the King told him one 
 day that he had discovered no less than six Tongan words in 
 a single page of a Hebrew Bible that had been given him. 
 
SOME ASSOCIATIONS 265 
 
 possibly carried to ancient Greece as yvvri by the same 
 people who took it south via India (ba-ghini), Java 
 (ba-hin6), to New Zealand (wa-hin6). Another word 
 common to England, Greece, and Polynesia is sea- 
 urchin, seen as ixivog, (Greece), and ekina (New 
 Zealand). The Greek IxQvg is also found as the Poly- 
 nesian ika, a fish ; while a word particularly inter- 
 esting to Polynesia is that word itself, for the Greek 
 vrjtroe, an island, is found (allowing for a common 
 change of S and K) » in the Pacific as nuku, in the 
 Mediterranean as Ich-nusa — the old name for Sardinia 
 — and in Madagascar, another resting place of these 
 ancient seafarers, as Nusi-Ibrahim, the island of 
 Abraham. 
 
 That they made their way inland into Africa, always 
 hunting for gold and trade, is shown by the Zimbabwe 
 ruins in Mashonaland as well as by the names and 
 words they left behind in other parts. Koro, or 
 Kolo, a town or circled fortified encampment, is common, 
 the late Sir William McGregor once told me, to many 
 parts of Africa as well as the Pacific, while the possi- 
 bilities in the name Tanganyika, so startingly trans- 
 latable as the Fijian Tanga-ni-ika, or " Bag-of-fish," 
 cannot now be so promptly dismissed as they once 
 were before we realized the great journeys that this 
 wandering people made. Ru-figi, the African river, 
 where the warship Konigsberg was run to earth, is 
 quite possibly also connected with the Fiji of the 
 Pacific. 
 
 Although the latter place is so spelled on the maps 
 
 * Namusa in the Molucca Islands becomes Namuka Island 
 in both the Fiji and Tonga Groups. 
 
266 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 it should more strictly be Viti. The missionaries and 
 sea-captains all came from the east via the Lau Islands, 
 and in that group the letter T is usually softened to 
 J. The result is that the Lau people told them that 
 the islands to the west were called " Fiji " and thus 
 the group was mapped. The general rule seems to 
 have been that in Indonesia the consonant was hard 
 and pronounced, such as S or B, which became 
 softened and aspirated as the people proceeded east- 
 ward across the Pacific. Two good instances of this 
 are shown in the word Sarong, a flax mat used as a 
 cloak in Java, which becomes Haronga, for the same 
 article, in Samoa ; the other instance being the place- 
 name Labouk' (Borneo), which gradually changes as 
 one goes east to Levuka (Fiji), Lifuka (Tonga), and 
 Lehu'a (Hawaii). From the same analogy we may 
 yet find a Biti to the west, and we do find going east 
 Viti (the British colony as it should be spelled), Ta-Fiti, 
 as it was called by the Samoans, and TaHiti in the 
 Society Islands. 
 
 And thus we can understand the changes which 
 the ancient place-name Saba has gone through on its 
 journey east (for the custom of conveying a cherished 
 home-name to the new colony, as Lincoln, Boston, 
 New York, or Gloucester have been conveyed, is by 
 no means a new idea). There was a famous Saba, 
 perhaps three thousand years ago, in Mesopotamia, 
 of which S. Laing, in his Human Origins wrote : " In 
 the eighth century B.C., Saba was then an ancient 
 kingdom, and, as the inscriptions show, had long since 
 undergone the same transformation as Egypt and 
 Chaldea, from the rule of priest-kings of independent 
 
SABA 267 
 
 cities into a unified empire. These priest-kings were 
 called Maka-rib', or high-priests-of-Saba, showing that 
 the original state must have been a theocracy and 
 the name Saba, like Assur, that of a god . . . ." 
 
 Diodorus Siculus, the old-world historian, wrote 
 of this Saba, and we have a passing reference or two 
 in the Bible where the Sabaeans (the people of Saba) 
 are stated to have been " men of stature," and where 
 " the King of Assyria brought men from Babylon, 
 and from Cuthah, and from Ava . . . and placed them 
 in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of 
 Israel " (2 Kings, chap. xvii). 
 
 Even in those early days there were, of course, 
 dialect variations just the same as to-day, and probably 
 one section of the people dropped or else aspirated the 
 letter S and interchanged the B and V. Thus, on the 
 eastern fork of the Red Sea, on the route of the Israel- 
 ites returning from bondage, is Ak-aba ; while the 
 immortal Queen of Sheba was probably the Queen of 
 Saba. Eventually this great kingdom collapsed, as 
 mighty empires have done before and will ever continue 
 to do, and was finally overthrown by the Romans 
 some little time B.C. But before this it had sent out 
 its colonies, and with them its name, stamped as a 
 landmark for all time, to be re-discovered at last in 
 the remote waters of the far Pacific. 
 
 The people can be traced from the Persian Gulf 
 right across northern India (those who took the over- 
 land route), and round the Indian coast also (those 
 who kept to the sea). I think it was S. P. Smith who 
 first pointed out that Bengal is, in the Mahabaretta, 
 called Ava. We know that Ava was the capital of 
 
268 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 Burma for the four centuries preceding 1740 ; and 
 that Pegu was formerly called by that name. In 
 Arakan the Mauri Sun-worshippers were known, and 
 at the extremity of the Malay Peninsula (the Golden 
 Chersonese) the name resumes the S once more as 
 Saba. (Was it here that the land-travellers lost their 
 influence, and the explorers taking the sea-route came 
 to their own again ?) 
 
 From there onwards Shava or Java (Sumatra, too, 
 was Java to the traders of old), Saba in North 
 Borneo, the bay of Sawa-i in Gilolo, Sawa-i in 
 Ceram, Sava between Sandalwood Island and Timor, 
 all mark the stopping-places up to the gates of the 
 Pacific. 
 
 Ongtong-Java in the Solomons, Sawa-yeki in Fiji, 
 Savai'i in Samoa, are only a few of the known names 
 that still remain. Probably scores of them have been 
 lost or changed in the ages that followed. 
 
 In Tonga the ordinary interchange of S and H is 
 shown and the name appears as Hapa'i. In Bora-Bora 
 Island (Society Group) it is Sawa-iki, in the Hawaiian 
 Group it is of course Hawa'ii. The suffix iki or i'i 
 is the Polynesian for " little " and is what one would 
 expect to be given to each new colony named after 
 the preceding older and larger one, but Smith points 
 out that since there was a Hawaiki-nui, which would 
 mean literally " Great-little-Hawa," the term is an 
 absurdity, and iki must therefore be a corruption of 
 Ariki, royal. But I cannot help thinking that if 
 after some centuries a suburb of, say, Littlehampton 
 separated off as a new town the original place might 
 without absurdity come to be known as " Great Little- 
 
LAU ISLAND TYPE. BLEND OF POLYNESIAN AND MELANESIAN — BUT LARGELY 
 
 THE FORMER. 
 (Photo by permission of A. M. Hocart, Esq.) 
 
 To face p. 268. 
 
ANCIENT IDEAS OF HADES 269 
 
 hampton." But whichever it is, the essential part 
 of the name is Hawa, Hava, or Saba. 
 
 The movement north of these seafarers does not 
 really concern this book, excepting that it is interesting 
 to see how even the Pacific Islanders have been finked 
 with ourselves by these shadowy rovers of the dim 
 ages of long ago. Sailing through the Mediterranean 
 they were the cause of the erection of a circular temple 
 to the Sun in Thrace, dedicated to Bacchus Saba-zius. 
 (The Phoenician — and Hebrew — Zaba-oth was a name 
 applied to the Sun-god in the autumn, and was adopted 
 by David.)- Diodorus Siculus, quoting from Hecataeus, 
 says : " The Hyperboreans inhabit an island beyond 
 Gaul in which Apollo is worshipped in a circular temple 
 considerable for its size and riches." This circular 
 temple, similar to the one to Bacchus Saba-zius, might 
 have possibly been Stonehenge — the " island beyond 
 Gaul " being Britain. And the name itself reached us, 
 too, in Ava-lon, the paradise of ancient forefathers, 
 which some thought was situated in the west country. 
 Glastonbury, of holy memories, has even been con- 
 nected with it. 
 
 Hades, according to ancient ideas, was the place 
 of all departed spirits, good or bad, and the idea of a 
 burning hell as a punishment is a comparatively modern 
 one. The " burning " part of it was probably intro- 
 duced by peoples who lived in the vicinity of volcanoes 
 and had the practical demonstration of what the 
 " underworld " looked like always before their eyes, 
 or else the " place of burning " may have been intro- 
 duced by Fire-worshippers, not as a punishment but 
 simply as the place of a symbolical refinement and 
 
270 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 preparation of the body for the soul before its final 
 passing on. Thus Ava-iki among the people of the 
 Pacific meant their paradise, the place their souls 
 would eventually return to, and Avaiki, among the 
 people of India, meant the fiery hades, apparently 
 very different ideas, yet, traced to their source, not 
 really so incongruous as they seem. And they both 
 arose from the real place Saba, which in the course 
 of centuries had become thus mythical and legendary 
 to the descendants of the original adventurers who 
 had set out from it. 
 
 Burotu or Burutu is another mythical paradise 
 regarded in just the same way, but by a different 
 division of that ancient people. On the river Euphrates 
 was a place called Burutu, from which this branch 
 probably came. 1 (The word " tu " means eminent, 
 holy, or upstanding, and is found in such words as 
 tu-hunga (New Zealand), a priest ; tu-ahu (New Zea- 
 land), an altar ; tu-ranga (Fijian), a chief. Thus we 
 can translate this as Holy Buro or Kuru. The name 
 is continued in Buro, the Indonesian island ; in Bourp, 
 which was the native name for San Christoval (Solomon 
 Group) before the Spaniards renamed it in 1568 ; and 
 in Matuku Island (Lau Group), where there is a tribe 
 still called the Burotu people. Burotu, Bulotu, or 
 Bulutu is the legendary " home of the departed spirits " 
 (which implies, of course, the land whence the ancestors 
 came), but this particular place seems to be exclusive 
 to the Fiji-Tonga-Samoan branch. Ratumaibulu, the 
 Fijian god of plentiful harvests and fertility, takes 
 his name " Mai Bulu " as " from Bulu." It lay 
 
 1 Journal of the Polynesian Society, vol. IV. (Dr. Carroll). 
 
MAORI— MAURI— MAHRI 271 
 
 vaguely to the " north-west," and though in southern 
 Lau this paradise is placed in the south-east it may 
 merely imply a " back-wash " of origin from the near-by 
 Tongan group. 
 
 I mentioned just now how in India there were at 
 
 one time " Mauri," Sun-worshippers. " Maori " has 
 
 been regarded so long as a name of the New Zealand 
 
 branch of the Polynesians that we have come to look 
 
 upon it as exclusively belonging to that country. But 
 
 it, like Saba, is really a name marking the route of 
 
 our seafarers all the way from western Asia to the 
 
 Pacific. Just as Saba was a name for places so was 
 
 Maori a name for people, a large division of the race 
 
 that came into the Pacific as " Polynesians." The 
 
 Mahri are still known in southern Arabia ; the Mauria 
 
 were in India (the inscribed stone pillar of Asoka, the 
 
 Maurya King, was mentioned in chapter VI) the Maori 
 
 and the Maoi in Tahiti and the Marquesas (F. W. 
 
 Christian), as well as Maori generally throughout the 
 
 Pacific, meaning any of the " old original stock." If 
 
 the Polynesians lived in America they would probably 
 
 call the descendants of " the Pilgrim Fathers " the 
 
 " Maori." Thus Maoli in Fiji is the term used for 
 
 the genuine or " national " type of the Pawpaw fruit, 
 
 in contradistinction to the other " foreign " varieties 
 
 which have been introduced from Tonga or Samoa. 
 
 And just as the seafarers took the place-name Saba 
 
 north, through the Mediterranean, as well as south to 
 
 the Pacific, so also I think it not unlikely that the 
 
 tribal name Maori or Mori r was taken to north-west 
 
 1 In the Philippines they are called Moro ; in the Chatham 
 Islands (off New Zealand), Moriori. 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 
 PARTLY ANTHROPOLOGICAL— WHO WERE 
 THE " FURTIVE-EYED " PEOPLE ? 
 
 Owing to an early medical training the present writer 
 has always had a certain interest in anthropology, but 
 it has also had its drawbacks, as it has brought with 
 it pre-conceived ideas, and one of these was that the 
 Melanesians were all to be classed together as " the 
 oceanic negroes." In later times this nomenclature 
 has, I believe, been considerably modified, and it is 
 now generally acknowledged that the Melanesians are 
 a mixture of several different races, hardly any of 
 which were really of a true negro type at all, though 
 for convenience I have in this book been referring to 
 the aggregate result as " the negroid people." And 
 it has generally been considered that these have been 
 confined to that western portion of the Pacific that is 
 known as Melanesia. 
 
 It has been so repeatedly declared that the Poly- 
 nesians — who, it is fairly certain, entered the Pacific 
 about two thousand years ago — were the first to 
 populate the eastern part of that ocean, hitherto empty, 
 that I feel I shall be thought guilty of a great heresy 
 when I state that, after careful consideration of the 
 whole problem, I am convinced that not only were 
 
 874 
 
3 -2 S 
 
THREE MAIN TYPES IN PACIFIC 275 
 
 all those eastern islands formerly peopled by " Melane- 
 sians," but that even before them there was every- 
 where a prior race of negrito aboriginals, and, more- 
 over, that both races were in existence in some islands 
 of the eastern Pacific up to within the last few centuries, 
 the Melanesian element even being in certain islands 
 in full strength when the Spaniards first explored this 
 new world. Further, I believe that not only did the 
 Polynesians pass right on to South America, but that even 
 before them the Melanesians had done the same thing. 
 And my reasons for such beliefs I will now set down. 
 
 There are at least three main types of people in the 
 Pacific, and the first of these is the Negrito, now very 
 rarely to be seen. He is a short, round-headed, frizzy- 
 haired type, without marked eyebrow ridges, and not 
 unduly black of skin. His nose is short and fairly 
 straight, but broad at the nostrils and depressed at 
 the root. He is of much the same type as the Andaman 
 Islander, and is to be seen, though often blended with 
 other races, in parts of the Pelew Islands, the Philip- 
 pines, Papua, and as the so-called pygmies of the New 
 Hebrides, described by Dr. Speisser. 
 
 He was also known in tradition in Tahiti (the names 
 of three tribes being recorded), and is probably trace- 
 able in some of the Fijian hill tribes to-day. Facing 
 the following page I give a photograph that was 
 exhibited by Mr. Hocart at a meeting of the Royal 
 Anthropological Institute, and I well remember the 
 discussion it aroused, as it was obvious that it could 
 not be reconciled with the ordinary extremely long- 
 headed mountaineer tribes, hitherto thought to be the 
 most primitive people of that group. 
 
276 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 The Negrito is dull and apathetic, and for this reason 
 probably was easily exterminated by the succeeding 
 races. 
 
 The next main type is the " Melanesian," who is 
 noted for his dark skin, overhanging eyebrow ridge, 
 sunken orbits, longer nose, projecting lips, narrow and 
 receding forehead, and generally dolichocephalic head. 
 His face is somewhat angular, he has bushy, " up- 
 standing " hair, and can grow a good beard when he 
 wishes. He is quick and furtive in his movements, 
 sulky according to European ideas, but a good worker 
 under supervision. His legs are thin and weedy, but 
 he is wiry and not easily tired. 
 
 The last of the three divisions is the Polynesian, 
 who is brachycephalic, wavy-haired (it is usually 
 round on cross-section), and without much hair on 
 the face. He has high cheek-bones, which, with the 
 hair, show the remote mongoloid ancestry, and when 
 this is strengthened in the northern islands by more 
 recent blendings from eastern Asia he frequently shows 
 a just perceptible slanting of the eyelids. (It is this 
 latter blended type that is known as the " Micro- 
 nesian.") The lips of the Polynesian are thinner, the 
 features more regular, and the chin better formed than 
 in the case of the Melanesian. 
 
 He is a virile, sturdy, well-formed type, and his 
 skin is sometimes not much darker than that of a 
 southern European. He is, even to our ideas, hand- 
 some, and he has the carriage and bearing of a race 
 of chiefs, and the intelligence to maintain by diplomacy 
 a mastery that he acquired by force of arms. 
 
 In Fiji both Melanesian and Polynesian types are 
 
& 2 
 
 
 
 >> a 
 
CHANGES IN OCEAN BED 277 
 
 still quite distinct in the western and eastern sides 
 respectively of the colony (see illustrations facing 
 pages 198 and 268), and the mental characteristics are 
 equally defined. 
 
 It is impossible to say how long the Negrito, the 
 aboriginal, has been in the Pacific, but it seems not 
 unlikely that he was able to walk across vast areas 
 of it, and make his way in rude skiffs to many others. 
 He has probably been there for untold aeons of time ; 
 although the bed of the Pacific is constantly altering 
 even now, and a dry land passage need not have been 
 so very long ago, geologically speaking, as it would 
 have to have been in the Atlantic. Volcanic action 
 and earthquakes are frequent, and apart from these 
 there is a slow subsidence apparently going on the 
 whole time. During the ten years I was in the Lau 
 Islands I happened to take particular notice of a stretch 
 of road that bordered the sea in front of my house, 
 and on which I had caused concrete mile-posts to be 
 erected when I first went there. The sea had un- 
 doubtedly risen in level (or, rather, the land had sub- 
 sided) during the time I lived there, so much so that I 
 drew the attention to it of the members of an American 
 geological expedition that visited the group at the 
 latter end of my stay. If this could take place in ten 
 years — only a few inches, but still noticeable — we can 
 understand how the great stone causeways of the 
 Marquesas and the Carolines may have been sub- 
 merged many feet in the course of centuries. 
 
 So much for the Negrito. But when we turn to 
 the Melanesian we have a problem indeed. To under- 
 stand how he appeared on the scene it will be necessary 
 
278 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 to turn once more to western Asia and the great 
 upheavals of mankind that took place there many 
 centuries ago. 
 
 The valleys of great rivers are always the most 
 fertile tracts of country, and in addition give the 
 easiest and smoothest means of progression for primi- 
 tive man, that is, by water in a boat. Therefore, when 
 the " Armenoid " people invaded India from the north- 
 west, and moved up the Indus and down the Ganges 
 they pushed out the previous settlers, or a large portion 
 of them, and these passed on by the line of least resis- 
 tance, in boats down the river and hugging the coast, 
 till they got to the Malay Peninsula and the Indonesian 
 Islands. Now these people expelled from India were 
 the early Dravidians, or Melano-Indians, a swarthy, 
 curly-haired race, a part of the "dark Caucasian" 
 division of mankind. Some of them are still to be 
 seen in Madras, the Deccan, and other places, but now 
 crossed with the later Aryan invaders, and sometimes 
 with the Armenoid people who came between. 
 
 Even they were not the first dwellers in India, but 
 it is thought that a negrito people may have at one 
 time lived here also. 
 
 These Melano-Indians seem to have had some con- 
 nection with the Hamitic people of western Asia ; 
 were noted builders in stone, in a primitive way ; and 
 were probably Sun-worshippers. And when they 
 reached Indonesia they mingled with the first of the 
 " Armenoids," who had come round by sea, and the 
 mixture — very little Armenoid — went on to the Pacific 
 to conquer the aboriginals, take their women as wives, 
 and found " the Melanesian people." They had suffi- 
 
MELANESIAN MOVEMENT COMMENCES 279 
 
 cient knowledge of sailing, obtained from the early 
 Armenoid people, to make their way from island to 
 island. More often chance directed their movements, 
 and by the help of the westerly current, and in certain 
 months the strong westerly monsoons, they drifted 
 across the ocean, and in the course of centuries reached 
 almost every island, and probably even America. 
 But they were not planned voyages of set purpose, 
 like those of the skilful Polynesians. 
 
 The first start of the movement probably took 
 place about 2500 B.C., when the earliest invasion of 
 north-west India by the Turanian-speaking people 
 occurred, the impact making itself felt all along the 
 line of the route across northern India and down the 
 Ganges, just as a railway-engine in shunting a long 
 line of trucks will communicate its thrill to the last 
 truck at the end of the line. Now the Polynesians 
 followed them up slowly, very slowly (for, unlike the 
 fierce driving out of the Dra vidians by the " Poly- 
 nesians," the Aryans pushed onwards by a slow yet 
 steady process of moral suasion aided by overwhelming 
 numbers), and reached Java and the gates of the Pacific 
 not later than the fifth century B.C. ;for had they stopped 
 in India after about 450 B.C. they would have brought 
 the rapidly-spreading Buddhist religion with them into 
 the Pacific. And they must have left Java not long 
 after the beginning of the Christian era, because we 
 know from Javan histories that the Hindus came down 
 and expelled what they called the " Rakshasas," or 
 demons, about this time ; and these must have been 
 our Polynesians. Moreover, had they stayed later 
 they would have brought the use of metals with them, 
 
280 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 and the words of a Sanskrit vocabulary. Therefore 
 the Melanesians must have been moving on into the 
 Pacific in front of the Polynesians, but more quickly, 
 at intervals during the two thousand years before the 
 Christian era ; and by the time the Polynesians arrived 
 there they would have been well settled, and have 
 multiplied to big populations, in most of the islands. 
 And through all the Polynesian mythology, legends, 
 and traditions this is very evident. (As I have said 
 before, the Melanesians left no traditional histories, 
 because they probably did not follow patriarchal 
 descent.) The first Polynesian explorers of the Cook 
 Islands " found a black people already there," and 
 an earlier god, Rongo, a dark god, a god of cruelty 
 and human sacrifices. Kup6, the Polynesian navi- 
 gator, on his second visit to New Zealand, long before 
 the time of " the fleet," found a tribe of strangers 
 there "... a thin people, with flat faces, furtive 
 eyes, depressed noses, and wide nostrils." 
 
 But we have also evidence of their presence 
 further to the east, for Quiros the Spanish leader, 
 reported that when he visited the Marquesas in 1595 
 he found the natives preparing for an expedition 
 " against a black people who lived to the south," 
 probably Tahiti. 
 
 There was constant fighting between the virile, 
 light-coloured Polynesians and these inferior " dark " 
 people, who were always being driven on to the east, 
 and the " long-ears " who were killed off at Easter 
 Island twenty-seven generations ago were probably 
 these same Melanesians. One of the most interesting 
 references we have is that of Bilbao, who reported 
 
K 3 
 
 w -a 
 
 C -H 
 
 <$ ^5 
 
"THE LITTLE PEOPLE" 281 
 
 that in 1503 he found, on the Pacific side of Panama 
 " a dark, heavily-tatu'd people, with frizzy hair." 
 And who, one wonders, was it who took the custom 
 of slit, distended ears, the " long ears," to Peru ? 
 
 At Raiatea Island, Hatonga, a Polynesian chief, 
 discovered two sorts of inhabitants, a short people 
 with little stiff curls, and a different tribe, " very dark, 
 with up-standing hair, overhanging brows, and thin 
 legs." The former I imagine to have been a negrito 
 tribe, and the latter a Melanesian one. 
 
 Judging from what we know of negrito peoples in 
 other parts of the world one cannot think that they 
 made much resistance to invasion, and it is not there- 
 fore surprising to find that even in quite early Poly- 
 nesian legends they are referred to as something rare, 
 almost monstrosities. Thus in a Hawaiian tradition 
 of about a.d. 1100 there is a reference to a sailing 
 to Tahiti and the bringing from there of " two 
 dwarfs," and other legends refer to " the little 
 people." 
 
 But the Menehune^ to whom reference is constantly 
 made, were evidently quite well known to the early 
 Polynesians, and are generally mentioned in connection 
 with the big stone works. They built the great en- 
 closures to make the " fish-ponds " at Hawaii, and it 
 seems probable that the building of the big stone 
 " fish-fences " carried on even to-day in Fiji is an 
 art handed down from the Menehune' ancestors. And 
 there seems no doubt that it was the same Menehune" 
 people who built the stone causeways, and in fact all 
 the " morticed " stone works, a people who left India 
 before mortar came into common use ; in other words, 
 
282 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 that the " furtive-eyed black people " found by the Poly- 
 nesians in all parts of the Pacific, the " Menehund " 
 (whose name, unlike the others, cannot be traced back 
 beyond India) and the early Dravidians driven out from 
 India, are one and the same people. 
 
a. 
 
 ■ ,is <» 
 
 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 CONCLUSIONS 
 
 Here I must leave these Polynesians and Melanesians, 
 both the " Children of the Sun," but of very different 
 origins. I must confess that when I started this book 
 I was influenced by the generally accepted idea that 
 any traces of Sun-cult that the Melanesians had must 
 have been received from the Polynesian immigrants, 
 but the more I have gone into the subject the more 
 I am convinced that both races were formerly wor- 
 shippers of the Sun, even if with different rites, and 
 that in both races may be found remains of the cult 
 to this day. 
 
 I have written of these people as they existed and 
 still exist in the Pacific. Of the great migrations to 
 America it is not the province of this book to speak ; 
 suffice it to say that the most feasible theory is that 
 worked out by Professor Elliot Smith, who considers 
 that a very early race of people made their way, prac- 
 tically overland, from Asia via the Behring Straits, 
 to people North America ; and that there was, much 
 later, a great movement across the Pacific by a race 
 who filled Peru and Mexico. 
 
 There is a rather interesting South American legend, 
 by the way, that is not generally known, of how, to 
 
284 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 the coast of Ecuador, close to Peru, arrived from some 
 unknown country over the sea the Cara people, about 
 the end of the tenth century a.d., and how they over- 
 came the Quitos, and introduced Sun-worship. They 
 lasted for four and a half centuries till overthrown 
 by the Peruvians, who may have been a mixture of 
 a people who preceded them centuries before with 
 a division of " the overland Behring Straits " migration. 
 
 That an early race did come across the Pacific to 
 America and roam all over it, is also borne out by 
 such little clues as the finding of a special Pacific shell, 
 the " Cassis Cornutus," carefully treasured up in an 
 ancient tumulus as far to the east as Cincinnati. But 
 of the obvious Polynesian traces in Peru there seems 
 to be no end. All through this book can be seen how 
 similar types, names, legends, customs, and stone 
 remains are constantly appearing in Peru ; and a 
 curious botanical corroboration of at least one legend 
 is that — according to de Candolle, the great authority 
 on the origins of plants — the Kumara, or sweet 
 potato, had its starting place in South America. Now 
 Maui, the hero-god of the Polynesians — who is thought 
 to have been an early voyager — went on a long journey 
 towards the rising sun, and discovered a far-off country 
 called U-Peru, and from there he brought the sweet 
 potato, known henceforward to the Polynesians as 
 " Kumara." And the ancient name in Peru for this is 
 the Umar' or Kumar'. 
 
 Strangely enough, O. F. Cook, working independently 
 of this, came to the conclusion that the coco-nut was 
 originally a native of South America, and that it only 
 drifts for comparatively short distances before getting 
 
MIGRATIONS TO AMERICA 285 
 
 water-logged or bad. 1 Consequently it must have 
 been brought to the islands by the hand of man. And 
 to some islands it seems to have been brought within 
 historical, or at all events legendary, times ; as at 
 Pukapuka Island (Cook Group) and at Manahiki. 
 
 And I think that not only did Polynesians occa- 
 sionally make their way to South America, and even 
 found nations (we are dealing in centuries, one must 
 remember, and a mere handful of people can in course 
 of time multiply enormously in a fertile climate and 
 without modern " machine-gun wars " to keep them 
 down) but also, a much simpler matter, did expe- 
 ditions sometimes sail before the prevailing east winds 
 and, more by accident than purpose, strike the out- 
 lying islands of the Pacific. Had the South Americans 
 been a nation of navigators, as the Polynesians were, 
 it would have happened more frequently. 
 
 As for the question of " civilization," I have stated 
 elsewhere that a confined island life is of necessity 
 detrimental to progress, in fact is more likely to cause 
 degeneration. That the Polynesians, an ancient sea- 
 people, moved about is one great reason why they were 
 able to keep " abreast of the times," as it were, while 
 the Melanesians, more recently a " land " people from 
 India, deteriorated in their now cramped spaces. 
 But the people who had passed across the Pacific to 
 become " Peruvians " had vast stretches of rich country 
 to move about in, and their wits were also sharpened 
 
 1 United States National Herbarium, vol. XIV, part 2. And 
 I have found a reference in an old American book, A Voyage 
 to the South Seas, by Captain Porter, 1813, to the effect that 
 the Marquesans had an ancient legend that they received the 
 coco-nut from some place called Otupu, far to the east of them. 
 
286 THE ISLANDERS OP THE PACIFIC 
 
 by contact with other adjoining peoples, descendants 
 perhaps of the " Behring Straits migrations." Conse- 
 quently they progressed in civilization. Therefore, 
 although I think that the conventional type of the 
 images, and the big morticed stone structures, at 
 Easter Island were distinctly suggestive of Melanesian 
 work and probably built by those people, I still think 
 that the ideas were too grand for such a people, and 
 that there was possibly a guiding influence from the 
 east, from Peru. Had the ideas been Melanesian 
 solely, why do we not find similar remains, of similar 
 grandeur, in any single island of " Melanesia " ; and 
 if the ideas had been Polynesian solely, why do we 
 not find similar traces in Central Polynesia ? Whereas 
 we do find vestiges not unlike them in Peru. 
 
 I am inclined to think that all three influences com- 
 bined to bring about these distinctive remains. 1 
 
 But, to sum up, any American influence in the 
 Pacific can after all be merely regarded as a " back- 
 wash " : the two great races there (apart from the 
 aboriginal negrito) were the seafaring people from 
 Mesopotamia, and the Melano-Indians from India, 
 the white race and the black race of the ancient legends, 
 the Sky-people and the Underworld-people, the wielders 
 of the " tabu " and of witchcraft respectively. 
 
 The Fair People 
 The former people have left us the dolmens, the 
 trilithons, the burial vaults, and perhaps the pyra- 
 
 1 There certainly seems to have been a strain of people there, 
 not Polynesian, not Melanesian. Gonsalez found them " bearded, 
 white, tall, and ruddy." and Roggevein noted their " acquiline 
 
THE PAIR PEOPLE 287 
 
 mids ; the latter (or probably the latter influenced 
 by the former) the morticed stone causeways and 
 pavements and heiaus. That section (the smaller 
 one) of the " Sky-people " who came entirely by the 
 sea-route brought the pearl-shell cult and held Burutu 
 as their paradise. The other division of them who 
 came by the Indian route regarded Avaiki as their 
 home of the dead. 
 
 Both branches of " the fair people " brought in 
 the old Semitic legends, stories which were ancient 
 when the Semitic offshoot, the Hebrews, incorporated 
 them in those " sacred books " which have become 
 our Bible. I give here the Flood legend of the ancient 
 Polynesians recited verse by verse by the old priests 
 of the Marquesas before there could be any possible 
 question of missionary influence. Fornander received 
 it over fifty years ago from one of the first white men 
 to live there permanently, a Mr. Lawson, who took 
 an interest in collecting the legends of the natives ; 
 and at that time the natives were as their fathers 
 were, and their priesthood was in full power. It is 
 one of those vivid glimpses of the history of ancient 
 races that are occasionally disclosed to us, and to my 
 thinking it seems one of the most romantic pages of 
 the story of man ; a voice direct from the Flood. 
 
 . . . Lord Ocean is going 
 To pass over the whole dry land 
 A respite is granted 
 For seven days 
 
 Who would have thought to bury the great earth 
 In a roaring flood ? E. 
 
 Ho, Ho, in the enclosure ! 
 Ho, Ho, the twisted ropes 
 
288 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 Here is confusion among 
 
 The generations (different kinds) of animals 
 
 Oh, we are the kind 
 
 Oh, we are the kind 
 
 Oh, we are reserved from the flood 
 
 Reserved on the flood. 
 
 The flood, the roaring. E. 
 
 And it will fall over the valleys 
 
 Pass over the plains, 
 
 It will bury the mountains, 
 
 And envelop the hillsides. 
 
 Oh, the flood, the roaring. E. 
 
 Ho, in the enclosure. 
 
 Ho, the twisted ropes. 
 
 For to tie up in couples 
 
 The (various) kinds of animals. 
 
 The white kinds, 
 
 The striped kinds, 
 
 The spotted kinds, 
 
 The black kinds. 
 
 The horned kinds, 
 
 The big lizard kinds. 
 
 The small lizard kinds, 
 
 Oh, the flood, the roaring. E. 
 
 High above the ocean 
 
 Build a house upon it, 
 
 A storied house, the house. 
 
 A house with chambers, the house. 
 
 A house with windows, the house. 
 
 A very large house, the house. 
 
 A house to keep alive 
 
 The (various) kinds of animals. 
 
 Oh, the flood, the roaring. E. 
 
 Ho, Ho, there in the enclosure. 
 
 Ho, Ho, the long twisted ropes 
 
 To tie up and make fast in couples 
 
 The (various) kinds of animals 
 
 One man before, O-Fetu-amu-amu, 
 
 One man behind, O Ia-fetu-tini. 
 
 The animals between, making great noise. 
 
 Oh, the flood, the roaring. E. 
 
A VOICE FROM THE FLOOD 289 
 
 Eh ; bear away (carry away) ; Here. 
 
 Carry away the animals. Here. 
 
 Carry them away to the sea. Here. 
 
 Oh, the long deep wood (a name for the house 
 
 or vessel). 
 Here. 
 
 O, the God of Destruction. Here. 
 O, Hina-touti-ani. Here. 
 O, Hina-te-ao-hini. Here. 
 O, Hina-te-upu-motu. Here. 
 O, Hina-te-ao-meha. Here. 
 O, Fetu-moana. Here. 
 O, Fetu-tau-ani. Here. 
 O, Fetu-amu-amu. Here. 
 O, Ia-fetu-tini. Here. 
 Oh, the flood, the roaring. E« 
 
 A man before, with the offerings, 
 
 O, Fetu-moana. 
 
 A man behind, clinging to the offerings, 
 
 O, Fetu-tau-ani. 
 
 A turtle between, making great noise. 
 
 Oh, the flood, the roaring. E. 
 
 Cut off, cut off your ear (deafen). This is a 
 
 bad house 
 For to cook food for the God. . . . 
 The four-faced priests. . . . 
 House fast asleep . . . God the Destroyer. 
 Crash, crackle. A stinking crowd. 
 Bring together, bring together 
 All the heaven-fed animals. 
 
 Sleeps the sacred supporter in this noise. 
 Noise, God, noise, with God arise 1 
 God wills it. 
 
 Here is manifest the trouble (the storm) 
 A trouble that is great and manifest, 
 And it is roaring and it is working, 
 A rain like a solid cloud. 
 Bring together, bring together 
 All the heaven-fed animals. 
 Sleeps the sacred supporter; 
 Shaken up and mixed up is the earth; 
 19 
 
290 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 I consent, and let loose 
 
 a confused noise 
 
 .... make a buzzing noise, 
 
 arise, arise, 
 
 .... I will it thus. 
 
 II 
 Oh, the . . . new, 
 Oh, the mountain ridges, 
 Some . . . men 
 Are arriving here. 
 People in the storm 
 A veil on the head 
 A paddle in the hand 
 E, arrivals, come and push back 
 The ocean to the centre 
 E, the house, E. 
 Here I am aground. 
 The Fetu-moana. E. 
 Hearken up there 
 The Lord Ocean consents 
 That the dry land appears 
 The Lord Ocean. E. 
 Ah, quick . . . the new 
 The . . . new. Here it is. 
 In channels receding 
 The Lord Ocean. E. 
 Ah ! Quick, the new . . . 
 
 . . . long, and when I . . . 
 I will offer seven sacred offerings 
 And seven sucklings that shall cry 
 To the Lord Ocean. 
 
 The Lord has assented that the earth 
 
 Shall now be dry. 
 
 E. The traveller. 
 
 The traveller of Tana'oa (the bird) 
 
 Over the sea of Havaii, 
 
 Tana'oa, rest on the curling wave. 
 
 Remain at the stern of the vessel. 
 
 Strike, strike your legs, Tana'oa. 
 
 Tana'oa, I will it thus. 
 
 Tana'oa, why do you return ? 
 
 Returned is the North Wind with the . . . 
 
 Not found is a place where to alight. 
 
SEMITIC INFLUENCE EVIDENT 291 
 
 Tana'oa, I will it thus. 
 
 Alight, Tana'oa, on the sands. 
 
 Call Tana'oa here. . . . 
 
 Do not go away. 
 
 Strike, strike thy breast, Tana'oa. 
 
 Tana'oa, Yes. I will it thus. 
 
 Eh, the traveller. 
 
 The traveller of Moepo (a second bird) 
 
 Over the sea of Havaii 
 
 Thy bones stretch hither, 
 
 Over the sea of Havaii. 
 
 Ah, alight, alight here. 
 
 Eh, the Lord Ocean. Eh. 
 
 The four bowls, and the four bowls 
 
 Are safely landed here. 
 
 Great mountain ridges, ridges of Havaii, 
 
 Great mountain ridges, ridges of Matahou, 
 
 Whereon to tread and stamp. 
 
 Ah, here is the Moepo 
 
 Bringing aloft what has been gathered. 
 
 But the Semitic, that is, pre-Hebrew, influence is so 
 evident through all the Polynesian people that it 
 seems unnecessary to now question it. The " Adam 
 and Eve " creation story, " The tower of Babel," and 
 " Cain and Abel " are only a few of the traditions 
 that must have come from the common ancestors 
 of the Polynesians and the Hebrews. The customs 
 and language derived from the same common ancestry 
 are innumerable ; I have mentioned only a few in- 
 stances of the many I have noted. So much for the 
 " fair people." 
 
 The Dark People 
 As for the Melano-Indians, it would seem that, in 
 addition to other things, they brought in the Fire- 
 cult ; the " buried-sitting " idea ; and, I think, the 
 Secret Societies, and the Skull-cult. 
 
292 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 They were, as I have already stated, the great up- 
 holders of human sacrifices, of the cult of Rongo. 
 They were the labourers, the people by whose means 
 the Polynesians were able to carry out the great build- 
 ings whose traces have been the cause of so much 
 speculation and discussion in the past. 
 
 Migrations to New Zealand 
 
 As to the New Zealand Maori, I cannot presume 
 to add anything to the theories that have already 
 been so ably put forward by Smith, Newman, Best, 
 and others. I will merely suggest that in New Zealand 
 the Indian element is so marked that I think the 
 Maoris must have been nearly all derived from those 
 Polynesians who came via India rather than by the 
 " all sea " route. And further, that the migration 
 was comparatively modern, that is, one of the last 
 waves to leave Java and Indonesia before those islands 
 became entirely " Indianized." We are even told of 
 one legend in New Zealand about a certain Puta and 
 a world upheaval, that is suspiciously reminiscent of 
 Buddha ; while Newman and Smith have given us 
 pages and pages of pure Indian folk-lore and history 
 in their account of the Maori race. And this " Indian " 
 branch of the Polynesians, grafted upon the Melano- 
 Indian people previously present in New Zealand, 
 will account for the very Indian result. 
 
 From China and Japan 
 
 Another strain that has changed the type of 
 one section of the Pacific natives, giving their slant 
 
MONGOLIAN INFLUENCE 293 
 
 eyes to the " Micronesians," is the Chinese- Japanese. 
 Although there has been no purposeful migration of 
 a nation, as in the case of the Polynesian, there have 
 undoubtedly been many drifts of odd vessels blown 
 out of their course. The Chinese say they discovered 
 America in a.d. 500, and called it Fusani, after a tree 
 which grew there. (Which is oddly like the legend 
 of the vikings and the other side of America.) In 1832 
 a Japanese junk thus drifted to Hawaii, with the crew 
 in the last stages of exhaustion ; and while I was in 
 the Lau Islands a pearling ketch from Japan was 
 wrecked there (though it is true that she had deli- 
 berately ventured in that direction, drawn by the 
 same magnet that had lured on the Polynesians of old). 
 
 A grotesque travesty of an ancient Japanese warrior 
 may sometimes still be seen in a Gilbert Islander 
 arrayed for the fray in his sinnet suit of armour and 
 octopus-skin helmet. Mr. Telfer Campbell, late Resi- 
 dent Commissioner of that Group, gave me a photo- 
 graph of one still in use in his time. It is ingeniously 
 made of thick, closely-woven coco-nut fibre, of the 
 very cut and shape of the old Japanese fighting suits, 
 with a high piece at the back for protection of the 
 neck against the double-edged, sharks'-tooth-studded 
 sword. Armour of somewhat the same pattern was 
 used in Futuna Island, the Marshalls, and the 
 Philippines. 
 
 The similar cults of the " tabu " and the king- 
 priest, and the use of tappa and head-rests, are of 
 course not attributable to influences from Japan, but 
 rather to an ancient radiating-out, to both Japan 
 and the Pacific Islands from one common source. 
 
294 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 And this applies also to the language, in many words 
 extraordinarily alike. I believe that " Taka aloha 
 kia koe " in Japanese means " My love for you." 
 And " Taku aloha kia koe " means the same thing in 
 Polynesian. 
 
 The Malays 
 
 With any modern, or comparatively modern, Mon- 
 golian intrusion into the Polynesian type should be 
 classed also the Malay strain, an influence that was 
 at one time considered so important that the whole 
 Polynesian race was roundly declared to be " descended 
 from the Malays " ! But the theory was based almost 
 entirely upon a language affinity, which, as I have 
 already said, is but a slender reed to lean upon. The 
 fact is that the Malays originated in Sumatra and 
 the adjacent islands from a strong admixture of Indian 
 and Chinese blood, with a little dilution from the few 
 " Polynesians " still left there. And the many Poly- 
 nesian words in the Malay language were picked up 
 by the Malays from Sumatra where the words were 
 still in vogue. But though the Polynesians did not 
 therefore spring as a body from the Malays yet no 
 doubt there were many stray excursions and odd 
 expeditions of Malays into the Pacific, especially to 
 the Carolines, Gilberts, and Papua. These people 
 undoubtedly introduced the " toddy-drinking " — so 
 maddening when fermented — a drink that fortunately 
 has never become universal in the Pacific. In the 
 old " cotton-planting days " some of the Line Islanders 
 started to introduce it among the Fijians, but it was 
 promptly stopped with a firm hand — one is glad to 
 
S- 'S 
 
EUROPEAN INFLUENCE 295 
 
 think that the common-sense of the chiefs had much 
 to do with this ; nowadays the coco-nuts are so valu- 
 able that even an insouciant native hesitates to kill 
 the goose that lays his " golden eggs," for the tapping 
 of the crown is generally fatal to the palm-tree. 
 
 The European 
 
 The gradual filtering in of the white man through 
 the portals of the Pacific, slow at first but ever in- 
 creasing in strength, does not concern the present 
 book. The tale of how his influence has spread to 
 the remotest wave-lapped atoll of that wide ocean is 
 a romance in itself ; a story so fascinating to me that 
 I have started to write it as a companion volume to 
 this book, and which some day I hope to publish as 
 The History of British Influence in the Pacific. 
 
 " Trade follows the Flag, the Flag precedes Trade," 
 but trade is not the only thing to build an Empire. 
 The history of British colonization in the Pacific will, 
 I think, show that we cannot and do not take up the 
 advantages of Empire without acknowledging our 
 duties to the native ; and it is our duty to see that the 
 native, who has come to look upon the British flag 
 as synonymous with justice, shall never be disappointed 
 in that belief, which shall be in the years to come the 
 new heritage of these " Children of the Sun." 
 
%2 
 
 u 
 z 
 
 o 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE ISLAND 
 GROUPS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 (The Principal Islands only are mentioned, and the nearest 
 Latitude and Longitude indicated.) 
 
 MAIN DIVISIONS. 
 
 Melanesia, roughly all the islands west of 170 E. — which are 
 
 south of the equator. 
 Micronesia, the Pelew, Marianne, Caroline, Marshall, Gilbert, and 
 
 Ellice Groups. 
 Polynesia, all the remaining Groups ; 
 
 also 
 
 Indonesia, Malay Archipelago, or East Indies, consisting of 
 
 Timor, Java, Sumatra, Borneo, Celebes, Gilolo, Buro and 
 
 Ceram. 
 Philippines. 
 Papua or New Guinea. 
 
 Admiralty Island (see Bismarcks). 
 Aneiteum Island (see New Hebrides). 
 Aurora Island (see New Hebrides). 
 
 Austral Group. 
 
 Raivaivai, I50°W. 23 S. (French). 
 
 Rurutu, discovered by Cook, 1769. 
 
 Tubuwai. 
 and Rapa Iti or Oparo, discovered by Vancouver, 1791. 
 Bismarck Group, i5o°E. 4°S. (late German). 
 
 Admiralty, discovered by Schouten, 1616. 
 
 New Britain, discovered by Dampier, who thought he 
 had found the lost Solomon Islands. 
 
 New Ireland, discovered by Schouten, 1616. 
 Caroline Group, I40°-i6o°E. 7°N. (late German). 
 
 Yap. 
 
 Ponap6 
 
 Kusaie. 
 
 397 
 
298 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 Cook Group, 160 W. 20 S. (British-New Zealand), discovered 
 by Cook, 1774. 
 Aitutaki. 
 Atiu. 
 Hervey. 
 Mangaia. 
 Raratonga (headquarters of government). 
 
 Easter or Rapa Nui or Waihu Island, 1,400 miles east of 
 Pitcairn Island, 2,000 miles from America ; perhaps 
 discovered by Davies, 1687 ; described by Rogge- 
 vein, 1721. 
 
 Efatu (see New Hebrides). 
 
 Ellice Group, 178 E. 7 S. (British). 
 Hudson or Nanumanga. 
 De Peyster or Nukufetau. 
 Ellice or Funafuti (scene of boring to prove coral-reef 
 
 theory). 
 St. Augustine or Nanumea. 
 
 Erromanga {see New Hebrides). 
 
 Esperitu Santo (see New Hebrides). 
 
 Faka-ofu (see Union Group). 
 
 Fanning Island, 160 W. 4 N. (British) cable station here. 
 
 Fatuhiva (see Marquesas). 
 
 Fiji Islands, 176° £-179° W. and i2°-2i°S. (British), dis- 
 covered by Tasman, 1643. 
 
 Viti Levu (on which is Suva, headquarters of govern- 
 ment). 
 
 Vanua Levu. 
 
 Taveuni. 
 
 Kandavu. 
 
 Ovalau (on which is Levuka, old headquarters of govern- 
 ment). 
 
 Yasawa Islands. 
 
 Lomaiviti Islands, 
 and Lau Islands (see separate entry). 
 
 Friendly Islands (see Tonga). 
 Futuna (see New Hebrides ; also Home Islands). 
 Gambier (see Paumotu). 
 Gaua (see New Hebrides). 
 Gente Hermosa (see Union Group). 
 
APPENDIX 299 
 
 Gilbert Islands or Kingsmill Islands, i7o°-i8o° E. and about 
 the equator (British). 
 Nikunau or Byron. 
 Peru or Francis. 
 
 Ocean or Panapa (enormous phosphate deposits), head- 
 quarters of government. Discovered by Mertho of 
 ship Ocean. 
 Nauru or Pleasant Island (late German) (phosphates 
 also). Discovered by Fearn, 1798. 
 'Guam (see Marianne Islands). 
 
 Hawaiian or Sandwich Islands, i55°-i6o° w. 20 N. (American) . 
 Discovered by Cook, 1778. 
 
 Hawaii. 
 
 Oahu (on which is Honolulu, headquarters of govern- 
 ment). 
 
 Molokai. 
 
 Maui. 
 
 Lanai. 
 
 Kauai. 
 
 Necker. 
 Hervey (see Cook Group). 
 
 Home Islands or Futuna, I78°W. 4 S. (French). 
 Kermadec Islands, 180 E. 30 S. (British-New Zealand). 
 Ladrones (see Marianne). 
 
 Xau Islands I76°-I79°W. I7°-2I°S. (British, under Fiji). 
 
 Vanua Balavu. 
 
 Lakemba. 
 
 Matuku. 
 
 Moala. 
 
 Mango. 
 
 Thithia. 
 
 Naiau. 
 Lifu (see New Caledonia). 
 Loyalty (see New Caledonia). 
 Maewo (see New Hebrides). 
 Malekula (see New Hebrides). 
 
 Manahiki Islands, i5o°-i6o° W. io° S. (British), discovered by 
 Pattrickson, 1822. 
 Humphrey. 
 Penrhyn. 
 
 Mangaia (see Cook Group). 
 Manua (see Samoa). 
 
300 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 Mare (see New Caledonia). 
 
 Marianne or Ladrone Islands (late German, previously Spanish), 
 
 145 W. i2°-2o° N., discovered by Magellan, 1521. 
 Marquesas, 140 E. io° S. (French). 
 
 Nukuhiva, discovered by Mendafia, 1595. 
 Washington, Jefferson, or Uahuga Island, discovered 
 
 by Mendafia, 1595. 
 Hivaoa or Dominica. 
 Fatuhiva or Magdalena. 
 Marshall Islands, 170 °E. 7°N. (late German). 
 Mo'orea [see Society Group). 
 Mota (see New Hebrides). 
 Nauru (see Gilberts). 
 Navigator Islands (see Samoa). 
 New Britain (see Bismarcks). 
 
 New Caledonia, 165 E. 22 S. (French), discovered by Cook. 
 Convict Station. Nickel deposits. Attached to it 
 are : 
 Island of Pines, 
 and Loyalty Islands : 
 Lif u ] 
 
 Mare [-Discovered by Butler, 1800. 
 WeaJ 
 New Guinea (see Papua). 
 
 New Hebrides, 167° E. 15 S. (British and French), north part 
 discovered by Quiros, 1606, south part discovered 
 by Cook, 1773. 
 Espiritu Santo. 
 Maewo or Aurora. 
 Pentecost or Araga. 
 Lepers' Island or Omba. 
 Aneiteum. 
 Erromanga. 
 Efatu or Vate. 
 Malekula. 
 Ambrym. 
 Torres Islands. 
 Tanna. 
 
 Wea or Futuna. 
 and Banks Islands : 
 
 Gaua or Santa Maria. 
 Vanua Lava. 
 Mota. 
 
APPENDIX 301 
 
 New Ireland (see Bismarcks). 
 Nikunau (see Gilberts). 
 Niue or Savage (see Tonga). 
 Ocean Island (see Gilberts). 
 Olosenga (see Union, also Samoa). 
 Ongtong Java (see Solomons). 
 Opara (see Austral Group). 
 Panapa (see Gilberts). 
 
 Papua or New Guinea, I30°-I50° W. o°-io° S. (British- 
 Australia, Dutch and late German), discovered by 
 Meneses, 1524. 
 also d'Entrecasteaux Islands. 
 Louisiades. 
 Trobriand. 
 Woodlark. 
 
 Paumotu Islands, or Low Archipelago, or Tuamotu, or Dan- 
 gerous Islands (French), I30°-I50°W. I2°-24°S. 
 (pearling industry). 
 Fakarewa. 
 Actaeon. 
 Pukapuka. 
 Mangarewa and innumerable small islands. 
 
 Pelew Islands, 135 E. 8° N. (late German). 
 Penryhn (see Manahiki). 
 Pentecost (see New Hebrides). 
 Peru (see Gilberts). 
 
 Phoenix Group, 172 w. 5 ° S. (British). 
 
 Pitcairn, i3o°W. 25°S. (British), discovered, 1769. Mutineers 
 from Bounty settled here in 1790. 
 
 Pleasant (see Gilberts). 
 
 Ponap6 (see Carolines). 
 
 Radack Islands, 171° E. 5°-i5° N. 
 
 Raivaivai (see Austral Group). 
 
 Rapa Iti (see Austral Group). 
 
 Rapa Nui (see Easter Island). 
 
 Raratonga (see Cook Islands). 
 
302 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 Samoa, or Navigator Islands, i73°w. i3°S. (British-New 
 
 Zealand), discovered by Roggevein in 1722. 
 Savaii. 
 
 Upolu (on which is Apia, headquarters of government). 
 Tutuila (on which is Pangpango, an American station). 
 Manua. 
 Olosenga. 
 
 Savage Island (see Tonga). 
 
 Sandwich Islands (see Hawaiian). 
 
 Santa Maria (see New Hebrides). 
 
 Society Islands, 150 W. 17° S. (French), discovered by Quiros, 
 1606, named by Cook after the Royal Astronomical 
 Society. 
 Tahiti (headquarters of government). 
 Mo'orea or Eimeo. 
 Huhine. 
 Borabora. 
 and Raiatea. 
 
 Solomon Islands, I55°-i63°E. 5°-n°S. (British), discovered 
 
 by Mendafia, 1567. 
 Bougainville. 
 Choiseul. 
 Ysabel. 
 Eddystone. 
 Florida. 
 New Georgia. 
 Malaita or Malanta. 
 Guadalcanal. 
 San Christoval. 
 Rennell. 
 Stewart. 
 Ulawa. 
 and Ongtong Java or Leueneua. 
 also the Santa Cruz Group, consisting of — 
 
 Duff Islands. 
 
 Vanikoro. 
 
 Tikopia. 
 
 Stewart Island (see Solomons). 
 Swain Island (see Union Group). 
 Tahiti (see Society Islands). 
 Tikopia (see Solomons). 
 Tinian (see Marianne). 
 
APPENDIX 303 
 
 Tokelau Islands (see Union Group). 
 
 Tonga or Friendly Islands, iyo -iy6 w. i6°-22° S. (under 
 British influence), discovered by Tasman, 1643. 
 Tongatabu (on which Government headquarters). 
 Vavau. 
 Hapai. 
 Namuka. 
 and Savage Island. 
 
 Torres (see New Hebrides). 
 
 Trobriand (see Papua). 
 
 Tuamotu (see Paumotu). 
 
 Tubuwai (see Austral Group). 
 
 Tutuila (see Samoa). 
 
 Ulawa (see Solomons). 
 
 Union Group, i6 5 -i7 5 W. Q°-i2°S. (British). 
 
 Faka-ofu or Bowditch. 
 
 Nassau. 
 
 Gente Hermosa or Swain or Olosenga. 
 
 Upolu (see Samoa). 
 
 Vanikoro (see Solomons). 
 
 Vanua Balavu (see Lau). 
 
 Vanua Lava (see New Hebrides). 
 
 Vanua Levu (see Fiji). 
 
 Vat6 (see New Hebrides). 
 
 Waihu (see Easter Island). 
 
 Washington Islands (see Marquesas). 
 
 Wea (see New Caledonia, also New Hebrides). 
 
 Woodlark Island (see Papua). 
 
INDEX 
 
 Akapura, 99 
 Ambrym, 74, 117 
 America, 64, 109, 117, 212 
 Areoi Society, 123, 170 
 Ari, 97 
 
 Astronomy, 41, 225 
 Avaiki, 106, 107 
 Aztecs, 163 
 
 Baal, 164, 180, 185, 226 
 Bau, 98, 194, 200 
 Beards, 101 
 Betel, 26, 139 
 Bird-cult, 109 
 Bligh, Captain, 124 
 Borneo, 117, 182 
 Breast-plates, 136, 138, 140 
 Buli ceremony, 134 
 Buro, 161 
 
 Burial upright, 125 
 Burutu, 161 270 
 
 Cannibalism, 189 
 Canoe-exposure, 129 et seq. 
 Carolines, 234 
 Castaways, in 
 Causeways, 234 
 Cave burial, 128, 242 
 Celebes, 63, 164 
 Child sacrifices, 185 
 China, 292 
 
 Conch-shell, 160, 183 
 Cook, Captain, 23, 66, 140, 237 
 Cook Islands, 102, 125, 250 
 Cremation, 127, 128 
 Cromlech, 229, 255 
 Crouching, 222 
 Coronations, 134, 250 
 Curvilinear art, 27 
 
 20 
 
 Dancing grounds, 233 
 
 " Dark " people, 291 
 
 Dauthina, 52 
 
 Dead, disposal of, 32 
 
 Deluge legend, 287 
 
 Dolmens, 224 
 
 Dravidians, 47, 278, 279, 282 
 
 " Drifts," 92 
 
 Drums, 96, 194 
 
 Duk-duk, 123, 210 
 
 Ear-piercing, 103 
 
 Easter Island, 81, 103, 117, 175, 
 
 2 35. 238, 246, 250, 280 
 Eclipses, 61 
 Ellice Group, 101, 118 
 Embalming, 125 et seq. 
 Enua Kura, 96, 97 
 Exposure of dead, 117, 125 
 Eyeball, 99 
 
 " Fair " people, 69, 286 
 Faka-ofu Island, 74, 125, 242 
 Fanning Island, 240 
 Fans, 137 
 Feathers, 24, 137 
 Ferryman of the dead, 131 
 Fertility, 29 
 Fiji, 257, 265 
 Fillets, 138 
 Finger sacrifices, 185 
 Fire-making, 29, 71 
 Fire- walking, 73, 173 
 Fire-worship, 29, 74, 125 
 Fires.eternaland sacred, 1 74, 183 
 First-fruits, 158 et seq. 
 Fiti, 266 
 
 Fornander, 23, 87 
 Foundations to houses, 248 
 
 306 
 
306 THE ISLANDERS OF THE PACIFIC 
 
 Genealogies, 23, 89 
 Geological, 277 
 Ghosts, 114, 119 
 Gilbert Islands, 293 
 Girdles, 138 
 Gold, 38 
 Gongs, 96 
 
 Haamonga, 100, 102 
 
 Hair, sacred, 119 
 
 Hawaii, 95, 232 
 
 Head — 
 
 -hunting, 117 
 magic use of, 118 
 preservation of, 118, 132 
 
 Heiau, 96, 242 
 
 Helmets, 24 
 
 " Histories," 77 
 
 Hiti, 266 
 
 Holy water, 154, 155 
 
 Huitzilopotchli, 163 
 
 Inachi, 108, 159 
 India, 216 
 Indonesia, 81, 173 
 Irrigation, 168 
 Iti, 72, 96 
 
 Japan, 186, 292 
 Java, 265, 268 
 
 Karika, 101, 104 
 
 Kava, 26, 63, 86, 205, 213 
 
 King-priest, 107, 135, 160, 196, 
 
 207 
 King's Evil, 145 
 Koroi, 221 
 
 Lautaiua, 249 
 
 " Logs " of migrations, 92, 96 
 
 Lono, 23, 66, 140, 188, 236, a8o 
 
 Ma'afu, 120 
 Malays, 294 
 
 Malekula, 117, 230 
 
 Malietoa, 101, 120 
 
 Manahiki, 117, 125 
 
 Maori, 83, 258 
 
 Marae, 229 
 
 Mariner, 146 
 
 Marquesas, 92 
 
 Marriages, 155 
 
 Mata'afu, 120 
 
 Matembula society, 123; 
 
 Maui, 57, 71, 118, 166 
 
 Maurya, 83, 259 
 
 Melanesian type, 276 
 
 Menehun6, 105, 273, 281. 
 
 Menhirs, 225 
 
 Metals, 25, 279 
 
 Mexico, 34, 175, 192 
 
 Minehassa, 132 
 
 Moe-mo6, 145 
 
 Moko, 169 
 
 Morticed stone-work, 227, 244* 
 
 281 
 Mythology, 50 et seq. 
 
 Nagas, 262 
 Names, 220 
 Nanga, 124, 161, 240 
 Navigation (see Voyages) 1 
 Negrito type, 275 
 New Caledonia, 82, 160 
 New Guinea (see Papua)-. 
 New Ireland, 167 
 New Zealand, 102, 292 
 Nuie (see Savage Island); 
 
 Orientation, 125 
 Oro (set Lono) 
 
 "Pa," 103 
 
 Pa'e-atua ceremony, 136. 
 
 Painting, 171 
 
 Papalangi, 22 
 
 Papua, no 
 
 Paumotu, 117 
 
 Pavements, 233 
 
INDEX 
 
 307 
 
 Pearl-shell, 37, 39 
 
 Peru, 80, 109, 241, 244, 272, 284 
 
 Phallic cnlt, 35 
 
 Pigs, 179, 181 
 
 Pitcairn Island, 246 
 
 Platform exposure, 117 
 
 Polynesian type, 276 
 
 Priests, 136 
 
 Pulo Nias Island, 117 
 
 Pyramids, 33, 228 
 
 Quat, 57 
 
 Raiatea Island, 11 1 
 Rainbow, 168 
 Rapa-iti, 79, 103 
 Ratumaibulu, 161, 270 
 Red colour, 135 
 Ring-stones, 174 
 Roko Tui, 107, 219 
 Rongo (see Lono) 
 Routes of migrations, 92 
 Routledge expedition, 79 
 
 Saa, 98, 116 
 
 Saba, 267 
 
 Sacrifices, J76, 179, 185, 187 
 
 Samoa, 100, in, 122, 167, 179, 
 
 255. 257 
 Savage Island, 117, 127, 251 
 Seafarers, 38, 44, 144 
 Scalping, 119 
 Sceptres, 135, 151 
 Scripts, 78 
 Seats, stone, 233 
 Secret societies, 123, 210, 291 
 Semitic influence, 291 
 Ships (see Voyages) 
 Skulls (see Heads) 
 Sky-people, 125, 179, 207, 231 
 Snakes, 165 
 Solomon Islands, 25 
 Spaniards, 23, 25 
 Spirits, 114 
 Submergence, 68 
 
 Sun, seclusion from, 167 
 Sun-shades, 135 
 
 "Tabu," 143 
 
 Tahiti, 95, 105, m, 118, 124 
 Tama, 151 
 Tamat£, 142 
 Ta-mate-liwoa, 122 
 Tane, 65, 66, 68, 70 
 Tangaroa, 65, 185 
 Tangiia, 102 
 Tatu, 154, 169 
 Taveuni Island, 97 
 Tawake, 99 
 
 Thakambau, 199 et seq. 
 Tikopia, 48, 252 
 Timor, 132, 268 
 Tinian Island, 238 
 Tonga-Fiti, 100, 179 
 Tonga, migrations to, 100 
 Torres, 57, 117 
 Totems, 132, 209 
 Trilithon, 100, 244 et seq. 
 Tui Tonga, 48, 159 
 Turanian, 46, 259, 279 
 Turbans, 135 
 Turtle, 176, 212 
 Tu-tarangi, 97 
 Tu-tonga-kai-a-iti, 99 
 
 Ui-te-rangiora, 44, 99 
 Union Group, 188 
 
 Vakadredre, 116 
 Vanikolo, 143 
 Vaults, 243 
 Viti, 266 
 Voyages, 39 et seq. 
 
 Wallis Island, 247 
 
 Wanka, '251 
 
 Water removing tabu, 153 et 
 
 seq. 
 Whites, 22, 61 
 
 Zimbabwe, 38, 265 
 
Printed m Great Britain by 
 
 UNWIN BROTHERS, LIMITED 
 WOKING AND LONDON