12 



THE LIVING RACES OF MANKIND 



duties of the healer is to obtain information about the patient's illness from some god. He 

 puts questions to the deity, and is supposed to receive answers. 



It is perhaps hardly necessary to explain that all over the world with primitive people 

 death, sickness, and disease are believed to be the work of evil spirits, or of human beings 

 who have cast a spell by some magical art. So the priest endeavours to discover the criminal, 

 and "ordeals" are held. In Hawaii the suspected person must hold his hands over water, 

 and if the water trembles in the vessel while the priest looks at him his guilt is supposed 

 to be proved. 



Having thus indicated 

 the general characteristics of 

 the Polynesian, we will pro- 

 ceed to visit some of the 

 islands in which he is to be 

 found, beginning with the 



TONGA OR FRIENDLY 

 ISLANDS. 



LORD GEORGE CAMPBELL says 

 in his description of the 

 voyage of II. M.S. Challenger: 

 "There are no people iu the 

 world who strike one at first 

 so much as these Friendly 

 Islanders (or people of 

 Tonga). Their clear, light, 

 copper-brown coloured skins, 

 yellow and curly hair, good- 

 humoured, handsome faces, 

 their tout ensemble, form a 

 novel and splendid picture 

 of the (jenus homo ; and as 

 far as physique and appear- 

 ance go, they give one 

 certainly the impression of 

 being a superior race to 

 ours." Captain Erskine, 

 speaking of the same people, 

 says: "The men were a re- 

 markably fine-looking set of 

 people, and among them 

 were several six feet high, 

 and of herculean proportions. 

 One stout fellow attracted 

 attention as soon as he 

 crossed the gangway, and I 

 found that his arm measured 

 above the elbow 15J inches, 

 whilst that of one of our 

 forecastle men, probably the 

 stoutest man in the ship, 



r by ,/</*i'it< Martin} 



[Auckland, Sew Zealand. 



TANU, A SAMOAN CHIEF, WITH HEAD-DRESS AND NECKLACE OF 

 CACHALOT TEETH. 



