CUSTOMS AND SOCIAL HABITS OF THE RACES OF POLYNESIA. 489 



South African custom. Some will rememljer that ]\Irs. Moflat 

 was called by the Bechuanas " Ma-Rol)ert " after the birth of her 

 eldest SOU Roltert. Among the iMalays, the birth of a child is 

 celebrated by feasting and rejoicing, and presents aie interchanged 

 in the families of fatiier and mother. Only in the case of a son's 

 birth is anytliing like pleasure shown by the Papuan parents. 

 Children are much neglected by the parents, and are left without 

 control or discipliiie, to congregate together or roam at large in 

 company. The girls are early initiated in daily labour, while the 

 boys grow up in idleness and mischief. The Malayan mother 

 carries her infant on her hip — a custom observed by Marsden 

 among the natives of Sumatra. The Papuan woman bears her child 

 in a bandage on her back, often in conjunction with a bundle 

 of sticks, basket of vegetables, or other burden. In New Guinea 

 we saw children carried in a similar manner by the women, a net 

 being employed for the purpose, suspended from the woman's 

 shoulders. 



A kind of circumcision was practised among the Malay-Poly- 

 nesians, and is still in existence among the Papuans. The 

 rite is not treated as a religious ceremony, nor is it accom- 

 panied with any formality. At the age of eight, or nine years, a 

 few lads will unite and go to the operator, a native doctor, who 

 simply makes an incion in the pra^putium. 



Tatooing (or tatauing) is practised to a large or smaller extent 

 by the various tribes of the Malays. Among the New Zealanders, 

 Marquesans, and Hervey Islanders, the whole body was tatooed. 

 The Sanioans tatoo the lower part of the body from the waist to 

 the knees. In some islands the face and body are slightly marked, 

 and in others the marks are confined to the breast and arms. 

 Generally the males only are tatooed, but in some of the tribes 

 the women ai'e so adorned, and the men are exempt. In New 

 Guinea, the women mostly are thus distinguished, though this 

 adornment is not confined to them. In Fiji the women alone 

 were tatooed. Among some of the Papuan tribes, a different 

 mode of tatooing is performed on the women : raised marks made 

 on the flesh by scarring or cicatrizing the skin, by cutting or 

 burning with rough shells, or pointed wood heated. 



Marriage takes place at an early age. With the Malayans the 

 event is celebrated with a great deal of ceremony, which space 

 will not permit me to particularize. The Papuans, with rare 

 exceptions, enter on the conjugal relation with very little thought 

 or ceremony. This may arise from the betrothals having been 

 made in early childhood, and such a thing as courtship is unknown, 

 the match had long since been settled for them by their parents. 

 Polygamy exists among both races, but to a limited extent with 

 the Malayans. As in the Papuan tribes wives are little more than 

 slaves, to provide for the wants of the " lords of creation," the 

 larger number, therefore, a man possesses, the more help he receives 



