50 Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria. 



for four or five. This man has acquired ])rinfc and tobacco 

 for his cocoanuts, or his labour, and now comes here to turn 

 them into money — the former for half its length in " tabu," 

 and the latter for its full length in "tabu." 



Next, let us follow the trading expedition to a more 

 distant locality. The party numbers about thirty men in 

 five canoes, and are armed with spears and slings, and 

 possibly a rif]e or two. The object of their trip is to turn 

 larger articles into money. One buys a canoe for ten 

 fathoms, to sell at home for twenty or more ; another buys 

 opossums' teeth for European trade, or at the rate of fifty or 

 sixty shells per hundred, to sell at the rate of one and a 

 half fathoms per hundred ; another buj^s tortoise-shell with 

 a little trade or " tabu," with which to buy a supply of 

 trade for his next expedition. Another buys a slave for 

 four or five fathoms, and sells him, or her, for double the 

 amount, or more ; or perhaps the party has been successful 

 in pouncing upon a few unsuspecting men, women, or 

 children shell-fishing on the reef, whom they carry off as 

 slaves. When we have added that a large pig is worth ten 

 fathoms, a woman (for all wives are bought) from ten to 

 thirty fathoms, and that whites readily buy the "tabu" at 

 two shillings per fathom, we shall have a fair notion of its 

 value. 



When compared with other mediums of exchange, or of 

 exchanging produce for produce, how convenient the "tabu" 

 is ! Compare a New Briton going to buy a wife with 

 twenty fathoms doubled up in a basket under his arm, with 

 the Banyai (Africa) mustering a little herd of cattle or goats, 

 and driving them off to the home of his father-in-law elect. 

 Or compare him with the Marshall Islander, whose money 

 is a large rock with a hole through it, weighing upwards of 

 half a ton, and which is put down near his house, and 

 perhaps never removed, however often it may change 

 owners. How conveniently and accurately divisible is the 

 " tabu!" You may break it off at any length by holding it 

 short and twisting it. It is capable of being lent and 

 returned in exact quantities. It is neither liable to diminu- 

 tion by use, nor admits of counterfeit. It keeps its value 

 because the supply is limited. It is a universal equivalent 

 for all commodities, and everything that is capable of being 

 transferred in commerce has a known money value, even the 

 recently introduced European trade. 



