28 INDEX TO THE PACIEIC ISLANDS. 



Kapu System. — The early voyagers found almost everywhere on the islands 

 at which they touched a system of which the name has become a common English 

 word. They recognized it as a method of prohibition against which they were con- 

 stantly striking, but to the present day no one has fully treated of the wonderful politi- 

 cal and religious engine by which the Polynesian first, the IVIelanesian in imitation 

 controlled the wishes and aAs of the common people. It was a mighty power in the 

 hands of the ruler, whether priest or chief, and it might be exemplified in the strip of 

 white kapa that, bound around a coconut tree, preserved the fruit from all marauders ; 

 or the tuft of the same fragile material at the end of a slender wand which placed in 

 the path would turn an army aside into the jungle. It might be temporary, as the 

 order of silence which at stated times fell on all the laud and not even a dog might 

 bark or a cock crow while the kapu lasted, or it might be the lasting prohibition which 

 denied to woman certain choice articles of food which man was free to eat. 



The origin of kapu is unknown but it must have been remote, so elaborate had 

 tlie svstem become. It had grown until it became so complicated that the understand- 

 ing of the common people could not compass it, and even to the chiefs its restri(?tions 

 grew unbearable until in the Hawaiian Islands, where it reached its most perfect 

 development, a great uprising swept it away and left a clear field for tlie iutrodudion 

 of Christianity. 



Mv knowledge is not sufficient to permit me to decide which was the greatest 

 achievement of the Polynesian mind, the Kapu or the system of water rights. Both 

 are admirable and should sometime receive the attention they deserve in the thought 

 of scholars. For information on these subjedls consult : Greys Polynesian Mythology, 

 London, 1S55; Codrington, R. H., The Melancsians; Sfiidies in their Anthropology 

 and Folk-lore, Oxford, 1891 ; Gill, W., Myths and Songs of the Sonth Paeifie, Loudon, 

 1876; Stair, J. B., Old Samoa, Loudon, 1897; Ellis, W., Polynesian Researehes, Lon- 

 don, 1830, 2 vols.; Bastian, A., Z/ir Kenntniss Hazvaii's, Berlin, 1883; Fornander, A., 

 The Polynesian Raee, 3 vols., London, 1S78-85; Remy, J., AVr/Av d'nn vien.v sanvage 

 pour servir a riiistoire aneienne de Havaii, Chalons-sur-lNIarue, 1859. 



The Partition of the Pacific. — Unlike the partition of the African conti- 

 nent, the appropriation of the islands of the Pacific has led to no important wars or 

 diplomatic difficulties, and the division is now nearly complete. Foreign nations have 

 not quarrelled over the spoil and the natives have generally acquiesced in a cliange of 

 sovereignty which they could not well prevent. In New Zealand the Maoris made a 

 fierce resistance to the invaders, but this did not last long. France found some fight- 

 ing before she could control all the south-eastern portion of the Paciiic, and Spain 

 found some energetic protests to her work in the Marianas. Elsewhere it was "Good 

 God, good devil" to the natives so long as the}- had their accustomed food and were 



not compelled to work. 



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