170 THE POLYNESIAN WANDERINGS. 



Such movements we denominate ethnic swarms; a convenient 

 designation ! no hesitation has been felt in employing it in the fore- 

 going chapters. But in denomination do we really describe? In 

 calling the movement of the Sawaiori an ethnic swarm do we get 

 sight of the nature of the movement? 



In the hydraulic physics of geography Niagaras are rare; few 

 streams go tumbling over cliffs in a mass ; the course of the greatest 

 rivers is marked by many an eddy, many a backwater, many a pool 

 where motion scarcely appears. It is only in the errant fancy of 

 the runaway child that tired feet on a weary way will at last bring 

 him to a real jumping-off place. A stream of human migration can 

 only flow in succeeding waves; many an eddy current will bear on 

 a new destination. 



Particularly must such have been the case with the expulsion of 

 the Sawaiori before the Malay. In bulk and in the end it did indeed 

 become a great ethnic swarm. In detail and in the performance it 

 could have been no more than affairs of outposts. 



The genius of Polynesian culture has nowhere as yet touched the 

 idea of a national life. Samoa is almost singular in the possession 

 of a collective name for its archipelago; the Samoan, the Viti, the 

 Marquesan, and the Maori are alone in the possession of national 

 names. Civic righteousness goes not beyond the village; village 

 does not go to the relief of village in distress; there is even now 

 nowhere a nation to arise in unity to set a bold and united front 

 against an invader. Each tiny village makes its own defense. Vic- 

 torious it holds its ground until the next attack; defeated it is a 

 sufficiently mobile unit to set forth in search of a new home. We 

 must remember that such were the conditions of the Sawaiori in 

 the archipelago when the Malay in a similar wise were advancing 

 upon them. 



Under such conditions there are three main possibilities. A Sawai- 

 ori village resists attack after attack, maintains its good defense, 

 retains the little islet or the pleasant bay of some larger island which 

 is its home, is surrounded by settlements of the alien race, in time 

 peaceful relations arise. A Sawaiori village realizes that resistance 

 is futile, puts out to sea, seeks a new home. A Sawaiori village, 

 debellated in some sudden onfall or by the crush of overwhelming 

 force, goes down in defeat, and the sole survivors, the noncombatant 

 women and children, are incorporated with the conquerors. 



The second event accounts for our wanderers over sea, those whose 

 voyages we have traced through Melanesia and into their present 

 Polynesian homes. The first and third events are to account for 

 such speech community as may be found in Indonesia and Polynesia. 



It is not a great community. There are very few items which 

 are not included in the data here assembled. See what a small basis 



