FOOTNOTES
[1] Captain J. Cook, Voyages, iii. 274 sqq.; G. Forster, Voyage round the World, ii. 5 sqq.; C. P. Claret Fleurieu, Voyage round the World performed by E. Marchand (London, 1801), i. 27 sqq., 55 sqq.; J. Wilson, Missionary Voyage to the Southern Pacific Ocean, pp. lxxiii. sqq., 127 sqq.; A. J. von Krusenstern, Voyage round the World (London, 1813), i. 136; Vincendon-Dumoulin et C. Desgraz, Îles Marquises ou Nouka-hiva (Paris, 1843), pp. 1 sqq., 12 sq.; Le P. Mathias G——, Lettres sur les Îles Marquises (Paris, 1843), pp. 7 sqq.; P. E. Eyriaud des Vergnes, L'Archipel des Iles Marquises (Paris, 1877), pp. 1 sqq.; C. E. Meinicke, Die Inseln des Stillen Oceans, ii. 235 sq.; F. H. H. Guillemard, Australasia, ii. 522.
[2] As to the formation and scenery of the islands, see Krusenstern, op. cit. i. 110; C. S. Stewart, Visit to the South Seas (London, 1832), i. 193 sqq.; F. D. Bennett, Narrative of a Whaling Voyage round the Globe (London, 1840), i. 299 sqq.; H. Melville, Typee, pp. 8 sq., 17 sq., and passim (Everyman's Library); Vincendon-Dumoulin et C. Desgraz, op. cit. pp. 138 sq.; P. E. Eyriaud des Vergnes, op. cit. pp. 84 sq.; Clavel, Les Marquisiens (Paris, 1885) pp. 1 sq.; C. E. Meinicke, op. cit. ii. 236 sq.; F. H. H. Guillemard, op. cit. pp. 522 sq.; A. Baessler, Neue Südsee-Bilder (Berlin, 1900), pp. 192 sq., 220 sqq. As to the extreme difficulty of scaling the mountains and precipices to pass from one valley to another, see particularly M. Radiguet, Les Derniers Sauvages (Paris, 1882), pp. 101 sq., note.
[3] Captain David Porter, Journal of a Cruise made to the Pacific Ocean, Second Edition (New York, 1822), ii. 86 sqq.
[4] H. Melville, Typee (London, Everyman's Library, no date). The first edition of this book was published in 1846. Melville's residence among the Taipiis (Typees) fell in the year 1841.
[5] P. E. Eyriaud des Vergnes, op. cit. p. 85.
[6] M. Radiguet, Les Derniers Sauvages (Paris, 1882), pp. 304 sq.; P. E. Eyriaud des Vergnes, op. cit. p. 57.
[7] Mathias G——, op. cit. p. 94.
[8] P. E. Eyriaud des Vergnes, op. cit. p. 57. Compare M. Radiguet, Les Derniers Sauvages, pp. 304 sq.
[9] H. Melville, Typee, p. 220.
[10] A. Baessler, op. cit. pp. 222 sq.
[11] M. Radiguet, op. cit. p. 304.
[12] J. Cook, Voyages, iii. 284.
[13] G. Forster, Voyage round the World, ii. 14 sq. Compare Krusenstern, op. cit. i. 152 sq.; U. Lisiansky, Voyage round the World (London, 1814), p. 85; G. H. von Langsdorff, Reise um die Welt (Frankfurt am Mayn, 1812), i. 92 sqq.; Fleurieu, op. cit. i. 96 sqq.; Vincendon-Dumoulin et C. Desgraz, op. cit. pp. 216 sqq.; Eyriaud des Vergnes, op. cit. p. 39.
[14] H. Melville, Typee, p. 194.
[15] H. Melville, Typee, p. 195.
[16] David Porter, op. cit. ii. 58 sq.
[17] F. D. Bennett, op. cit. i. 304.
[18] M. Radiguet, op. cit. p. 169.
[19] Eyriaud des Vergnes, op. cit. p. 39.
[20] Eyriaud des Vergnes, op. cit. pp. 39 sq.; H. Melville, Typee, p. 195.
[21] C. S. Stewart, Visit to the South Seas, i. 231 sq., who speaks highly of the beauty of the women. But the general opinion appears to be that the Marquesan women are much less handsome than the men. See Langsdorff, op. cit. i. 94-96; Porter, op. cit. ii. 59.
[22] F. D. Bennett, op. cit. i. 308 sq.
[23] Eyriaud des Vergnes, op. cit. pp. 42-44; Clavel, Les Marquisiens, pp. 3 sqq. Compare G. Forster, op. cit. ii. 27 sq.; Langsdorff, op. cit. i. 106-108; Fleurieu, op. cit. i. 115 sq.; Porter, op. cit. ii. 50-55; F. D. Bennett, op. cit. i. 316 sq.; H. Melville, Typee, pp. 120-124, 179; Vincendon-Dumoulin et C. Desgraz, op. cit. pp. 277 sq.; Mathias G——, op. cit. pp. 138 sq., 144 sq.; A. Baessler, op. cit. pp. 208-211. As to the preparation and drinking of kava among the Marquesans, see also M. Radiguet, op. cit. pp. 64-66.
[24] Krusenstern, op. cit. i. 164; Porter, op. cit. ii. 53; C. S. Stewart, op. cit. i. 213 sq.; F. D. Bennett, op. cit. i. 345 (who says that the only root the natives cultivate for food is the sweet potato); Mathias G——, op. cit. pp. 148, 149; Clavel, op. cit. p. 18.
[25] Fleurieu, op. cit. i. 122 sq.; Porter, op. cit. ii. 116; Bennett, op. cit. i. 337 sq.; Melville, Typee, pp. 158-160, 210; Mathias G——, op. cit. pp. 137 sq.; Radiguet, op. cit. pp. 53 sq.; Eyriaud des Vergnes, op. cit. 55 sq.; Clavel, op. cit. 19.
[26] Krusenstern, op. cit. i. 164.
[27] Fleurieu, op. cit. i. 118 sq.; Krusenstern, op. cit. i. 162; Lisiansky, op. cit. p. 88; Langsdorff, op. cit. i. 152 (bows and arrows unknown); Vincendon-Dumoulin et C. Desgraz, op. cit. pp. 282 sq.
[28] Fleurieu, op. cit. i. 121; Krusenstern, op. cit. i. 162.
[29] H. Melville, Typee, pp. 118 sq.; Clavel, Les Marquisiens, pp. 11 sq. Compare G. Forster, op. cit. ii. 20; D. Porter, op. cit. ii. 116; Mathias G——, op. cit. p. 143.
[30] J. Cook, Voyages, iii. 285 sq.; G. Forster, op. cit. pp. 21, 24; J. Wilson, op. cit. pp. 131, 134 sq.; Lisiansky, op. cit. p. 84; Krusenstern, op. cit. i. 159; Langsdorff, op. cit. i. 109-111; Porter, op. cit. ii. 39 sq.; C. S. Stewart, op. cit. i. 209-211, 212, 267 sq.; Bennett, op. cit. i. 302 sq.; Melville, Typee, pp. 81-83; Vincendon-Dumoulin et C. Desgraz, op. cit. pp. 274-276; Mathias G——, op. cit. pp. 122-129; Radiguet, op. cit. pp. 36-38; Eyriaud des Vergnes, op. cit. pp. 44 sq.; Clavel, op. cit. pp. 15 sq.; Baessler, op. cit. pp. 200-208.
[31] Langsdorff, op. cit. i. 109 sq.
[32] Mathias G——, op. cit. p. 129.
[33] Langsdorff, l.c.
[34] Clavel, op. cit. p. 15.
[35] F. D. Bennett, op. cit. i. 303 sq.; Baessler, op. cit. pp. 207 sq.
[36] J. Cook, Voyages, iii. 287; Krusenstern, op. cit. i. 163 sq.; Langsdorff, op. cit. i. 150; Porter, op. cit., ii. 12-14; Bennett, op. cit. i. 338; Vincendon-Dumoulin et C. Desgraz, op. cit. pp. 280-282.
[37] Krusenstern, op. cit. i. 163.
[38] C. S. Stewart, op. cit. i. 317.
[39] Melville, Typee, pp. 203 sq.
[40] Clavel, op. cit. p. 60.
[41] Radiguet, op. cit. 173.
[42] Mathias G——, op. cit. p. 111.
[43] Lisiansky, op. cit. p. 83. As to polyandry in the Marquesas, see further E. Westermarck, History of Human Marriage, Fifth Edition (London, 1921), iii. 146 sqq.
[44] Eyriaud des Vergnes, op. cit. pp. 19 sq.; Clavel, op. cit. pp. 56, 61 sq.
[45] Radiguet, op. cit. pp. 16 sq., 158 sq.; Clavel, op. cit. pp. 61 sq.
[46] Fleurieu, op. cit. i. 119 sq., 124; Langsdorff, op. cit. i. 146; Porter, op. cit. ii. 124-126; Vincendon-Dumoulin et C. Desgraz, op. cit. p. 284; Mathias G——, op. cit. p. 96. As for the ability of the natives to swim in the sea for hours without fatigue, compare J. Wilson, Missionary Voyage to the Southern Pacific Ocean, p. 129.
[47] C. S. Stewart, op. cit. i. 214 sq.
[48] C. S. Stewart, op. cit. i. 233 sq. Compare Vincendon-Dumoulin et C. Desgraz, op. cit. pp. 265 sq.
[49] Langsdorff, op. cit. i. 138.
[50] Radiguet, op. cit. p. 195.
[51] C. S. Stewart, op. cit. i. 236 sq.; F. D. Bennett, op. cit. i. 318; Vincendon-Dumoulin et C. Desgraz, op. cit. pp. 264 sq.; Mathias G——, op. cit. pp. 69 sqq.; Radiguet, op. cit. pp. 192 sq.
[52] Langsdorff, op. cit. i. 138.
[53] Vincendon-Dumoulin et C. Desgraz, op. cit. p. 231. Compare C. S. Stewart, op. cit. i. 237, who calls the performers Kaioi.
[55] C. S. Stewart, op. cit. i. 234, 236, 237.
[56] Porter, op. cit. ii. 38 sq.; F. D. Bennett, op. cit. i. 317 sq.; Mathias G——, op. cit. pp. 54-56; Melville, Typee pp. 93-95. Of these writers it is Porter who gives the dimensions of some of the blocks of stone composing the platforms and expresses his amazement at the labour involved in their construction. He concludes his description as follows (ii. 39): "When we count the immense numbers of such places, which are everywhere to be met with, our astonishment is raised to the highest, that a people in a state of nature, unassisted by any of those artificial means, which so much assist and facilitate the labour of the civilized man, could have conceived and executed a work, which, to every beholder, must appear stupendous. These piles are raised with views to magnificence alone; there does not appear to be the slightest utility attending them: the houses situated on them are unoccupied, except during the period of feasting, and they appear to belong to a public, without the whole efforts of which they could not have been raised, and with every exertion that could possibly have been made, years must have been requisite for the completion of them." Of one of these structures seen by him in the anterior of Nukahiva, Stewart observes, "The stones, bearing marks of antiquity that threw the air of an old family mansion around the whole, were regularly hewn and joined with the greatest nicety, many which I measured being from four to six feet in length, nearly as wide, and two or more deep" (Visit to the South Seas, i. 267 sq.).
[57] Krusenstern, op. cit. i. 165; Langsdorff, i. 112 sq.; Fleurieu, op. cit. i. 132-134; Porter, op. cit. ii. 64; Melville, Typee, p. 199; Vincendon-Dumoulin et C. Desgraz, op. cit. p. 225; Eyriaud des Vergnes, op. cit. pp. 24 sq.
[58] Mathias G——, op. cit. 101 sq.
[59] Lisiansky, op. cit. p. 80.
[60] Lisiansky, op. cit. pp. 79 sq.; Clavel, op. cit. p. 62.
[61] Mathias G——, op. cit. pp. 47 sq.; Vincendon-Dumoulin et C. Desgraz, op. cit. p. 259.
[62] Radiguet, op. cit. p. 153.
[63] Vincendon-Dumoulin et C. Desgraz, op. cit. pp. 258 sq.; Clavel, op. cit. pp. 65 sq.
[64] Eyriaud des Vergnes, op. cit. pp. 35 sq. Compare Radiguet, op. cit. p. 155.
[65] Langsdorff, op. cit. i. 118.
[66] Krusenstern, op. cit. i. 172. In this quotation I have altered the spelling tahbu into taboo.
[67] Langsdorff, op. cit. i. 116.
[68] Radiguet, op. cit. p. 157; Melville, Typee, p. 230; Vincendon-Dumoulin et C. Desgraz, op. cit. p. 264.
[69] Clavel, op. cit. p. 68.
[70] Clavel, op. cit. pp. 67 sq.
[71] Vincendon-Dumoulin et C. Desgraz, op. cit. p. 258; Mathias G——, op. cit. p. 48; Radiguet, op. cit. p. 153; Clavel, op. cit. p. 65.
[72] Krusenstern, op. cit. i. 171.
[73] C. S. Stewart, op. cit. i. 243 sq. Compare Vincendon-Dumoulin et C. Desgraz, op. cit. p. 240; Radiguet, op. cit. pp. 218 sq.
[74] The principal harbour of Nukahiva.
[75] C. S. Stewart, op cit. i. 244 sq. Compare Vincendon-Dumoulin et C. Desgraz, op. cit. pp. 226, 240 sq. The missionary William Crook was landed in the Marquesas from the missionary ship Duff in 1797. See J. Wilson, Missionary Voyage to the Southern Pacific Ocean, pp. 131 sqq.
[76] Mathias G——, op. cit. p. 45.
[77] Porter, op. cit. ii. 114.
[78] Radiguet, op. cit. pp. 223 sq. For the names of the Marquesan deities, among whom Tiki appears to have been the most famous, and for some myths concerning them, see Mathias G——, op. cit. pp. 40 sqq.; Radiguet, op. cit. pp. 221 sqq.; Amable, in Annales de la Propagation de la Foi, xix. (1847) pp. 23 sq.; Eyriaud des Vergnes, op. cit. pp. 27 sqq.
[79] C. S. Stewart, op. cit. i. 245 sq.; Vincendon-Dumoulin et C. Desgraz, op. cit. pp. 227 sq.
[80] Langsdorff, op. cit. i. 136. The writer's language seems to imply that the spirit whom the priestly physician caught in his hands and interrogated was the patient's own soul.
[81] Mathias G——, op. cit. p. 45; C. S. Stewart, op. cit. i. 247; Vincendon-Dumoulin et C. Desgraz, op. cit. pp. 228 sq.
[82] Radiguet, op. cit. pp. 238 sq.
[83] Radiguet, op. cit. p. 245; Clavel, op. cit. p. 44, note1. Compare Mathias G——, op. cit. p. 115.
[84] Mathias G——, op. cit. pp. 114. sq.; Eyriaud des Vergnes, op. cit. p. 58. Compare Radiguet, op. cit. pp. 260 sqq.
[85] C. S. Stewart, op. cit. i. 263; Vincendon-Dumoulin et C. Desgraz, op. cit. pp. 249 sq.
[86] Radiguet, op. cit. p. 284; Clavel, op. cit. p. 39.
[87] Porter, op. cit. ii. 121.
[88] Radiguet, op. cit. pp. 283 sq. Another writer mentions that at the moment of death it was customary for a number of matrons to strip themselves naked and execute obscene dances at the door of the house, crying out at the pitch of their voices, "Father! father!" See Mathias G——, op. cit. p. 116.
[89] Melville, Typee, pp. 180, 201.
[90] Clavel, op. cit. pp. 43 sq.
[91] Clavel, op. cit. p. 46.
[92] Radiguet, op. cit. pp. 284 sq.
[93] C. S. Stewart, op. cit. i. 265; Vincendon-Dumoulin et C. Desgraz, op. cit. p. 251.
[94] Langsdorff, op. cit. i. 133.
[95] Radiguet, op. cit. p. 285.
[96] Krusenstern, op. cit. i. 173. Compare Langsdorff, op. cit. i. 133; C. S. Stewart, op. cit. i. 265; Vincendon-Dumoulin et C. Desgraz, op. cit. p. 251.
[97] Krusenstern, op. cit. i. 172 sq.; Langsdorff, op. cit. i. 133; Lisiansky, op. cit. p. 81; C. S. Stewart, op. cit. i. 264.
[98] Mathias G——, op. cit. pp. 116 sq. As to the decoration of the corpse, see Clavel, op. cit. pp. 43 sq. As to the temporary house or shed in which the body was kept for some time after death, compare C. S. Stewart, op. cit. i. 264, 266; Vincendon-Dumoulin et C. Desgraz, op. cit. p. 250. As for the custom of keeping the body for months in the ordinary house, surrounded by the family, see Radiguet, op. cit. p. 286. As to the practice of hanging food beside the body, even after its removal to its last place of rest, see J. Dumont d'Urville, Voyage au Pole Sud et dans l'Océanie, Histoire du Voyage, iv. (Paris, 1842), p. 33; Clavel, op. cit. p. 46.
[99] Krusenstern, op. cit. i. 173; Langsdorff, op. cit. i. 133 sq.; Melville, Typee, p. 206; Radiguet, op. cit. pp. 286 sq.; Clavel, op. cit. pp. 44 sq. In a house in Nukahiva the missionary Stewart saw a canoe-shaped coffin containing the remains of a man who had died many years before. It was raised on a bier of framework, at a height of two or three feet above the ground. Stewart adds, "The dead bodies of all persons of high distinction are preserved in their houses for a long period in this way." See C. S. Stewart, op. cit. i. 259.
[100] Clavel, op. cit. pp. 45 sq.; Baessler, op. cit. pp. 233 sq.
[101] Krusenstern, op. cit. i. 127, 173; Langsdorff, op. cit. i. 115, 134. Other writers on the Marquesas in like manner speak of a morai simply as a place of burial. See Porter, op. cit. ii. 114 ("the gods at the burying-place, or morai, for so it is called by them"); Radiguet, op. cit. p. 52 ("un morai (sépulchre) en ruine"); Melville, Typee, p. 168 ("the 'morais' or burying-grounds"). So, too, the term was understood by the French navigator, J. Dumont d'Urville. See his Voyage au Pole Sud, Histoire du Voyage, iv. (Paris, 1842), pp. 27, 33.
[102] Vincendon-Dumoulin et C. Desgraz, op. cit. p. 253.
[103] Langsdorff, op. cit. i. 115. According to Krusenstern (op. cit. i. 127), the morais in general "lie a good way inland upon hills."
[104] F. D. Bennett, Narrative of a Whaling Voyage, i. 329.
[105] Langsdorff, op. cit. i. 115.
[106] Vincendon-Dumoulin et C. Desgraz, op. cit. p. 253.
[107] Radiguet, op. cit. p. 92. One of these stones was said to have been erected by the French navigator, Captain Marchand, and to have formerly borne an inscription recording his taking possession of the island. Hence it would be unsafe to draw any conclusion from the supposed antiquity of these two tall upright stones.
[108] C. S. Stewart, op. cit. i. 260.
[109] F. D. Bennett, op. cit. i. 329.
[110] Compare J. Dumont d'Urville, Voyage au Pole Sud, Histoire du Voyage, iv. 33, "Sous un hangar se trouvent quelques supports formant, à 2 mètres au-dessus du sol, une estrade sur laquelle est déposé le toui-papao. C'est le nom que les naturels donnent au cadavre enveloppé d'herbes et de tapa (étoffes de papyrus faites dans le pays). On n'aperçoit du corps ainsi habillé que les extremités des doigts des pièds et des mains."
[111] F. D. Bennett, op. cit. i. 331.
[112] F. D. Bennett, op. cit. i. 322.
[113] Melville, Typee, pp. 166 sq.
[114] Melville, Typee, p. 167.
[115] Quoted by J. Wilson, Missionary Voyage to the Southern Pacific Ocean, p. 144.
[116] Melville, Typee, p. 205.
[117] Porter, op. cit. ii. 123.
[118] Krusenstern, op. cit. i. 173.
[119] Langsdorff, op. cit. i. 134.
[120] Melville, Typee, p. 206.
[121] Clavel, op. cit. p. 47.
[122] Mathias G——, op. cit. pp. 117 sq.
[123] Krusenstern, op. cit. i. 173.
[124] Mathias G——, op. cit. p. 44.
[125] Radiguet, op. cit. p. 220; Melville, Typee, p. 185. Compare Mathias G——, op. cit. p. 40.
[126] Radiguet, op. cit. pp. 220 sq.
[127] Porter, op. cit. ii. 51 sq.; Radiguet, op. cit. pp. 238 note, 239, 269, 270; Vincendon-Dumoulin et C. Desgraz, op. cit. pp. 238 sq.; Mathias G——, op. cit. pp. 234 sq.
[128] Porter, op. cit. ii. 113.
[129] Porter, op. cit. ii. 109-111. A similar, or the same, effigy of a dead chief seated in his canoe was seen by Melville in the same valley (Typee, pp. 183 sq.). He says that "the canoe was about seven feet in length; of a rich, dark-coloured wood, handsomely carved, and adorned in many places with variegated bindings of stained sinnate [cinnet], into which were ingeniously wrought a number of sparkling sea-shells, and a belt of the same shells ran all round it. The body of the figure—of whatever material it might have been made—was effectually concealed in a heavy robe of brown tappa [bark-cloth], revealing only the hands and head; the latter skilfully carved in wood, and surmounted by a superb arch of plumes."
[130] Radiguet, op. cit. p. 163.
[131] Vincendon-Dumoulin et C. Desgraz, op. cit. p. 228.
[132] Krusenstern, op. cit. i, 170.
[133] U. Lisiansky, Voyage round the World, pp. 81 sq.
[134] Mathias G——, op. cit. p. 116.
[135] Lettre du R. P. Amable, in Annales de la Propagation de la Foi, xix. (1847) pp. 22 sq., 24.
[136] Lettre du R. P. Amable, op. cit. p. 24.
[137] Lettre du R. P. Amable, op. cit. pp. 23 sq.
[138] Lettre du R. P. Amable, op. cit. p. 24.
[139] Lisiansky, op. cit. p. 89.
[140] Radiguet, op. cit. pp. 161 sq.
[141] Mathias G——, op. cit. p. 40.
[142] Mathias G——, op. cit. p. 210.
[143] Radiguet, op. cit. pp. 224 sq.
[144] Radiguet, op. cit. pp. 227, 240.
[145] Eyriaud des Vergnes, op. cit. pp. 31 sq.
[146] Baessler, op. cit. p. 234.
[147] Baessler, op. cit. pp. 193 sq.
[148] Radiguet, op. cit. pp. 227-238.
[149] J. Cook, Voyages, iii. 274-281; compare G. Forster, Voyage round the World (London, 1777), ii. 5 sqq.
[150] C. P. Claret Fleurieu, Voyage round the World performed during the years 1790, 1791, and 1792 by Étienne Marchand (London, 1801), i. 31, 51. Marchand's brief account is supplemented from other sources by his editor Fleurieu (op. cit. i. 55 sqq.).
[151] A. J. von Krusenstern, Voyage round the World in the years 1803, 1804, 1805, and 1806 (London, 1813), i. 108 sq., 133 sqq.; U. Lisiansky, Voyage round the World (London, 1814), pp. 62, 95; G. H. von Langsdorff, Bemerkungen auf einer Reise um die Welt in den Jahren 1803 bis 1807 (Frankfurt am Main, 1812), i. 75, 161.
[152] Krusenstern, op. cit. i. 110-112; Lisiansky, op. cit. p. 79; Langsdorff, op. cit. i. 77, 83-85. As to the subsequent history of Roberts and Cabri, see Vincendon-Dumoulin et C. Desgraz, Iles Marquises ou Nouka-hiva (Paris, 1843), pp. 356-359.
[153] Captain David Porter, Journal of a Cruise made to the Pacific Ocean in the United States frigate Essex in the years 1812, 1813, and 1814, Second Edition (New York, 1822), ii. 5, 141.
[154] D. Porter, op. cit. ii. 17 sq.
[155] C. S. Stewart, Visit to the South Seas (London, 1832), i. pp. x sq., 193, 331. The writer speaks (p. 331) of his stay of "a fortnight at the Washington Islands." Mr. Crook first landed in the island of Santa Christina (Tau-ata) on June 6th, 1797. See James Wilson, Missionary Voyage to the Southern Pacific Ocean (London, 1799), pp. 129 sqq. As to his subsequent history in the islands, see Vincendon-Dumoulin et C. Desgraz, Iles Marquises ou Nouka-hiva, pp. 35-40.
[156] F. D. Bennett, Narrative of a Whaling Voyage round the Globe from the year 1833 to 1836 (London, 1840), i 296, 346.
[157] Le P. Mathias G——, Lettres sur les Iles Marquises (Paris, 1843). The writer is not explicit as to the dates of his residence in the Marquesas; but he tells us that he spent two years in habitual intercourse with the natives (p. 49), and from other allusions which he makes in his narrative (pp. 28 sq.) it would seem that the years were 1839 and 1840. The first Catholic missionaries landed in 1838 (ib. p. 22), and others in 1839 (ib. pp. 23 sq.). Among the latter were Fathers Garcia and Guilmard (ib. p. 24). Father G—— may have been one of them.
[158] H. Melville, Typee (London, Everyman's Library), p. 254.
[159] Vincendon-Dumoulin et C. Desgraz, op. cit. pp. 119 sqq.
[160] Vincendon-Dumoulin et C. Desgraz, Iles Marquises ou Nouka-hiva (Paris, 1843).
[161] J. Dumont d'Urville, Voyage au Pole Sud et dans l'Océanie, Histoire du Voyage, iv. (Paris, 1842), pp. 5, 49.
[162] Max Radiguet, Les Derniers Sauvages, Nouvelle Édition (Paris, 1882). The author does not inform us as to the exact length of his stay in the islands.
[163] M. Radiguet, op. cit. p. 221 note.
[164] P. E. Eyriaud des Vergnes, L'Archipel des Iles Marquises (Paris, 1877).
[165] Some years previously a naval lieutenant, M. Jouan, who had been in command of the French military post at Nukahiva, published in the Revue Coloniale (1857-1858) some notes on the Marquesas, which are said to contain some useful information on the archipelago. See M. Radiguet, op. cit. p. 310 note. I have not seen the work of M. Jouan; but according to Radiguet it shows that in the twelve years and more which had elapsed since the French occupation of the islands the presence of French missionaries and of a French garrison had done little to civilise the natives.
[166] Les Marquisiens, par M. le Docteur Clavel (Paris, 1885).
[167] Clavel, op. cit. pp. 68-71.
[168] Arthur Baessler, Neue Südsee-Bilder (Berlin, 1900), pp. 189-242. The writer omits to mention the date of his visit to the islands, and the length of his stay in them.
CHAPTER VII
THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY AMONG THE HAWAIIANS
§ 1. The Sandwich or Hawaiian Islands
The Sandwich or Hawaiian Islands form an archipelago lying in the North Pacific Ocean just within the northern tropic. They stretch in a direction from north-west to south-east for more than four hundred miles and include eight inhabited islands, of which the most important are Hawaii, Maui, Oahu, and Kauai. Of these Hawaii is by far the largest; indeed it is the largest island in Polynesia with the exception of New Zealand. The islands are all mountainous and of volcanic formation. In Hawaii two of the mountains are between 13,000 and 14,000 feet in height, and two of them are active volcanoes; one of them, named Kilauea, possesses the greatest active crater in the world, a huge cauldron of seething lava, which presents a spectacle of awe-inspiring grandeur when seen on a moonless night. The other and much loftier volcano, Mauna Loa, was the scene of a terrific eruption in 1877 and of another in 1881. Craters, large and small, hot springs, and other evidences of volcanic activity, abound throughout the archipelago. One of the craters on the island of Maui is said to be no less than fifteen miles in circumference and about two thousand feet deep. The islands appear to have been known to the Spaniards as early as the sixteenth century; but they were rediscovered in 1778 by Captain Cook, who was afterwards killed in a fight with the natives in Hawaii.[1]
Viewed from the sea the islands are apt to present an appearance of barrenness and desolation. The mountains descend into the sea in precipices often hundreds of feet high: their summits are capped with snow or lost in mist and clouds; and their sides, green and studded with clumps of trees in some places, but black, scorched and bare in others, are rent into ravines, down which in the rainy seasons cataracts rush roaring to the sea. With the changes of sunshine and shadow the landscape as a whole strikes the beholder now as in the highest degree horrid, dismal, and dreary, now as wildly beautiful and romantic with a sort of stern and sombre magnificence.[2] Inland, however, in many places the summits of the ridges crowned with forests of perpetual verdure, the slopes covered with flowering shrubs or lofty trees, the rocks mantled in creepers, the waterfalls dropping from stupendous cliffs, and the distant prospects of snowy peaks, bold romantic headlands, and blue seas, all arched by a summer sky of the deepest azure, combine to make up pictures of fairy-like and enchanting loveliness.[3]
The climate naturally varies with the height above the sea. On the coasts, though warm, it is remarkably equable, and perhaps no country in the world enjoys a finer or healthier climate than some parts of Hawaii and Maui. On the mountains all varieties of climate are to be found, from the tropical heat of the lowlands to the arctic cold of the two great peaks of Hawaii, Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa with their perpetual snows, which are not, however, always visible from the sea or from the foot of these giants. In the lowlands frost is unknown. The fresh breezes, which blow from the sea during the day and from the mountains at night, temper the heat of the sun, and render the evenings delicious; nothing can surpass the splendour and clearness of the moonlight. Rain falls more abundantly on the windward or eastern side of the islands than on the leeward or western side. Thus at Hilo, on the eastern side of Hawaii, it rains almost every day, whereas in Kena, on the western side, rain hardly ever falls, and along the coast not a single water-course is to be seen for many miles. In general it may be said that the archipelago suffers from drought and hence occasionally from dearth.[4]
§ 2. The Natives and their Mode of Life
The natives of the Sandwich Islands are typical Polynesians. In general they are rather above the middle stature, well formed, with fine muscular limbs, open countenances, and features frequently resembling those of Europeans. The forehead is usually well developed, the lips thick, and the nostrils full, without any flatness or spreading of the nose. The complexion is tawny or olive in hue, but sometimes reddish brown. The hair is black or brown and occasionally fair or rather ruddy in colour, in texture it is strong, smooth, and sometimes curly. The gait is graceful and even stately. But in these islands, as in other parts of Polynesia, there is a conspicuous difference between the chiefs and the commoners, the superiority being altogether on the side of the chiefs. "The nobles of the land," says Stewart, "are so strongly marked by their external appearance, as at all times to be easily distinguishable from the common people. They seem, indeed, in size and stature to be almost a distinct race. They are all large in their frame, and often excessively corpulent, while the common people are scarce of the ordinary height of Europeans, and of a thin rather than full habit."[5] And the difference between the two ranks is as obvious in their walk and general deportment as in their stature and size, the nobles bearing themselves with a natural dignity and grace which are wanting in their social inferiors. Yet there seems to be no reason to suppose that they belong to a different race from the commoners; the greater care taken of them in childhood, their better living, sexual selection, and the influence of heredity appear sufficient to account for their physical superiority. The women are well built and "beautiful as ancient statues" with a sweet and engaging expression of countenance. Yet on the whole the Hawaiians are judged to be physically inferior both to the Tahitians and to the Marquesans; according to Captain King, they are rather darker than the Tahitians, and not altogether so handsome a people. On the other hand they are said to be more intelligent than either the Tahitians or the Marquesans. Captain King describes them as of a mild and affectionate disposition, equally remote from the extreme levity and fickleness of the Tahitians, and from the distant gravity and reserve of the Tongans.[6] They practised tattooing much less than many other Polynesians, but their faces, hands, arms, and the forepart of their bodies were often tattooed with a variety of patterns.[7]
The staple food of the Hawaiians consists of taro (kalo), sweet potatoes, and fish, but above all of taro. That root (Arum or Caladium esculentum) is to the Hawaiians what bread-fruit is to the Tahitians, and its cultivation is their most important agricultural industry. It is grown wherever there is water or a marsh, and it is even planted on some arid heights in the island of Hawaii, where it yields excellent crops. Artificial irrigation was practised and even regulated by law or custom in the old days; for it was a rule that water should be conducted over every plantation twice a week in general, and once a week during the dry season. The bread-fruit tree is not so common, and its fruit not so much prized, as in the Marquesas and Tahiti. The natives grew sweet potatoes even before the arrival of Europeans. Yams are found wild, but are hardly eaten except in times of scarcity. There are several sorts of bananas; the fruit for the most part is better cooked than raw. In the old days the cooking was done in the ordinary native ovens, consisting of holes in the ground lined with stones which were heated with fire. After being baked in an oven the roots of the taro are mashed and diluted with water so as to form a paste or pudding called poe or poi, which is sometimes eaten sweet but is more generally put aside till it has fermented, in which condition it is preferred by the natives. It is a highly nutritious substance, and though some Europeans complain of the sourness of taro pudding, others find it not unpalatable. Fish used to be generally eaten raw, seasoned with brine or sea-water. But they also commonly salt their fish, not for the sake of preserving it for a season of scarcity, but because they prefer the taste. They construct artificial fish-ponds, into which they let young fish from the sea, principally the fry of the grey mullet, of which the chiefs are particularly fond. Every chief has, or used to have, his own fish-pond. The natives are very skilful fishermen. In the old days they made a great variety of fish-hooks out of mother-of-pearl and tortoise shell as well as out of bone, and these they dragged by means of lines behind their canoes, and so caught bonettas, dolphins, and albicores. They took prodigious numbers of flying fish in nets. At the time when the islands were discovered by Captain Cook, the natives possessed pigs and dogs. The flesh of both of these animals was eaten, but only by persons of higher rank. Fowls were also bred and eaten, but they were not very common, and their flesh was not very much esteemed. The sugar-cane was indigenous in the islands, and the people ate it as a fruit; along with bananas and plantains it occupied a considerable portion of every plantation. Captain Cook found the natives skilful husbandmen, but thought that with a more extensive system of agriculture, the islands could have supported three times the number of the existing inhabitants.[8] He remarked that the chiefs were much addicted to the drinking of kava, and he attributed some of the cutaneous and other diseases from which they suffered to an immoderate use of what he calls the pernicious drug.[9]
§ 3. Houses, Mechanical Arts
Captain King observed that in some respects the natives of the Sandwich Islands approached nearer in their manners and customs to the Maoris of New Zealand than to their less distant neighbours of the Society and Friendly Islands, the Tahitians and the Tongans. In nothing, he says, is this more observable than in their method of living together in small towns or villages, containing from about one hundred to two hundred houses, built pretty close together, without any order, and with a winding path leading through them. They were generally flanked towards the sea with loose detached walls, intended for shelter and defence.[10] The shape of the houses was very simple. They were oblong with very high thatched roofs, so that externally they resembled the top of hay-stacks or rather barns with the thatched roof sloping down steeply to two very low sides, and with gable ends to match. The entrance, placed indifferently in one of the sides or ends, was an oblong hole, so low that one had rather to creep than walk in, and often shut by a board of planks fastened together, which served as a door. No light entered the house but by this opening, for there were no windows. Internally every house consisted of a single room without partitions. In spite of the extreme simplicity of their structure, the houses were kept very clean; the floors were covered with a large quantity of dried grass, over which they spread mats to sit and sleep upon. At one end stood a kind of bench about three feet high, on which were kept the household utensils. These consisted merely of a few wooden bowls and trenchers, together with gourd-shells, serving either as bottles or baskets. The houses varied in size with the wealth or rank of the owners. Those of the poor were mere hovels, which resembled the sties and kennels of pigs and dogs rather than the abodes of men. The houses of the chiefs were generally large and commodious by comparison, some forty to sixty feet long by twenty or thirty feet broad, and eighteen or twenty feet high at the peak of the roof. Chiefs had always a separate eating-house, and even people of the lower ranks had one such house to every six or seven families for the men. The women were forbidden to eat in company with the men and even to enter the eating-house during the meals; they ate in the same houses in which they slept. The houses of the chiefs were enclosed in large yards, and sometimes stood on stone platforms, which rendered them more comfortable.[11]
In the mechanical arts the Hawaiians displayed a considerable degree of ingenuity and skill. While the men built the houses and canoes and fashioned wooden dishes and bowls, the women undertook the manufacture of bark-cloth (kapa) and mats. Bark-cloth was made in the usual way from the bark of the paper-mulberry, which was beaten out with grooved mallets. The cloth was dyed a variety of colours, and patterns at once intricate and elegant were stamped on it and stained in different tints. The mats were woven or braided by hand without the use of any frame or instrument. The materials were rushes or palm-leaves; the mats made of palm-leaves were much the more durable and therefore the more valuable. The coarser and plainer were spread on the floor to sleep on; the finer were of white colour with red stripes, rhombuses, and other figures interwoven on one side. Among the most curious specimens of native carving were the wooden bowls in which the chiefs drank kava. They were perfectly round, beautifully polished, and supported on three or four small human figures in various attitudes. These figures were accurately proportioned and neatly finished; even the anatomy of the muscles strained to support the weight were well expressed. The fishing-hooks made by the men, especially the large hooks made to catch shark, are described by Captain Cook as really astonishing for their strength and neatness; he found them on trial much superior to his own.[12]
The mechanical skill of these people was all the more remarkable because of the extreme rudeness and simplicity of the tools with which they worked. Their chief implement was an adze made of a black or clay-coloured volcanic stone and polished by constant friction with pumice-stone in water. They had also small instruments made each of a single shark's tooth, some of which were fixed to the forepart of a dog's jawbone and others to a thin wooden handle of the same shape. These served as knives, and pieces of coral were used as files. Captain Cook found the natives in possession of two iron tools, one of them a piece of iron hoop, and the other an edge-tool, perhaps the point of a broadsword. These they could only have procured from a European vessel or from a wreck drifted on their coast. No mines of any kind are known to exist in the islands.[13]
Their weapons of war included spears, javelins, daggers, and clubs, all of them made of wood. They also slung stones with deadly effect. But they had no defensive armour; for the war-cloaks and wicker-work helmets, surmounted with lofty crests and decked with the tail feathers of the tropic bird, while they heightened the imposing and martial appearance of the wearers, must have proved rather encumbrances than protections. Captain Cook found the natives in possession of bows and arrows, but from their scarcity and the slenderness of their make he inferred that the Hawaiians, like other Polynesians, never used them in battle.[14]
§ 4. Government, Social Ranks, Taboo
The government of the Hawaiian Islands was an absolute monarchy or despotism; all rights of power and property vested in the king, whose will and power alone were law, though in important matters he was to a certain extent guided by the opinion of the chiefs in council. The rank of the king and the chiefs was hereditary, descending from father to son; but the appointment to all offices of authority and dignity was made by the king alone. Nevertheless posts of honour, influence, and emolument often continued in the same family for many generations. Nor were hereditary rank and authority confined to men; they were inherited also by women. According to tradition, several of the islands had been once or twice under the government of a queen. The king was supported by an annual tribute paid by all the islands at different periods according to his directions. It comprised both the natural produce of the country and manufactured articles. But besides the regular tribute the king was at liberty to levy any additional tax he might please, and even to seize and appropriate any personal possessions of a chief or other subject. Not infrequently the whole crop of a plantation was thus carried off by his retainers without the least apology or compensation.[15] However, the government of the whole Hawaiian archipelago by a single monarch was a comparatively modern innovation. Down to nearly the end of the eighteenth century the different islands were independent of each other and governed by separate kings, who were often at war one with the other; indeed there were sometimes several independent kingdoms within the same island. But towards the close of the eighteenth century an energetic and able king of Hawaii, by name Kamehameha (Tamehameha), succeeded in extending his sway by conquest over the whole archipelago, and at his death in 1819 he bequeathed the undivided monarchy to his successors.[16]