540 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1889. 



them, traditions have always been preserved with care, and it is won- 

 derful to find how the history of a people can be followed in this way 

 for hundreds of years. The Samoans claim a complete chronicle dating 

 through twenty-two generations of the reigning family of Malietoa, and 

 extending over a period of eight hundred years, while the Tongans can 

 chronicle a fairly accurate history of their priesthood through twelve 

 centuries.* 



The priests have usually been the custodians of the national tradi- 

 tions, and there is sufficient evidence to show that every precaution was 

 taken to have them handed down from one generation to another, pure 

 and unchanged, for oral record was their only means of committing to 

 posterity the deeds of their ancestors. 



To be intrusted with the traditions, constituted of itself an office of 

 high dignity, and the holder was afforded the protection of a taboo of 

 the most rigorous character. 



Family records were perpetuated with the national history, but as 

 might be expected, there was a tendency to embellish them when ex- 

 tended back beyond a reasonable limit, with mythological personages 

 and improbable occurrences. Still the extraordinary power of these 

 keepers to preserve unimpaired for centuries, events and facts or even 

 the geueaology of important families, would astonish those who are fa- 

 miliar only with written history, and whose memories depend upon arti- 

 ficial aids. Except in a few cases, the traditions of the natives do not 

 extend back far enough to throw much light upon the ancient monu- 

 ments found upon the islands. This is due in a measure to the fact, that 

 in only isolated localities have the people lived unmolested for any 

 great length of time. The tribes were continually at war with one an- 

 other. From love of conquest, and jealousy, no tribe was safe from the 

 depredations of its neighbor, although living upon terms of supposed 

 friendship. The love of war induced frequent expeditions planned for 

 the destruction of the tribes of adjacent islands, while occasionally a 

 combination was made for more extensive operations against the unsus- 

 pecting natives of a different group. The visitors usually put to death 

 the fighting men of the conquered tribes and absorbed the others. The 

 traditions of both parties were preserved separately for a time, but they 

 naturally tended to merge together, and in this state, a combination of 

 the glories of both tribes were handed down never to be unraveled to 

 their succeeding generations. The monuments of antiquity scattered 

 throughout Polynesia, with the exception of Easter Island, increase in 

 importance as we advance to the westward, commencing with the cir- 

 cles of uncut stones, and advancing by regular steps until we arrive 

 at the more elaborate sculptures. This fact indicates the decline that 



* These genealogies, although widely known and generally admitted to be true, 

 have received the special investigation of some of the missionaries. The Rev. Shir- 

 ley Baker, now premier of Tonga, assures us that there is no reason to doubt them, 

 and that on the other hand there are many reasons for accepting them as absolute 

 truth. 



