20 



THE LIVING RACES OF MANKIND 



goods is arranged by the parents or brothers on both sides. It has already ,been stated that 

 Samoan girls usually are compelled to submit to the arrangements made by their parents, 

 but elopements are not unknown. Should a chief be refused by the parents, he sometimes 

 abducts their daughter or persuades her to run away with him. Then his companions 

 gather together in the evening, and walk through the settlement singing his praises and 

 coupling his name with that of the young woman. After that the parents generally become 

 reconciled to the marriage, and gi^e their consent. 



HERVEY ISLANDS. 



THE people of the Hervey or Cook Islands have a remarkable custom. Here they are not 

 always content to make a pathway with mats for the bride to walk along. Should she be the 

 eldest girl, the members of her husband's tribe lie down flat on the ground, while she walks 

 lightly over their backs! This street of human bodies, called in the native tongue ara 

 tangata, extends from the bride's house to that of the bridegroom; and should the distance 

 be so great that enough people cannot be found to make the pathway, then those on whom 

 the bride has already stepped get up and quickly run on ahead, so as to lie down again and 

 fill up the rest of the path. The ceremony takes place a few days after the wedding. The 

 husband, on the day of the marriage, goes through a similar ceremony, walking on the backs 

 of the people of the tribe to which his wife belongs. On that occasion the bridegroom's 

 friends walk on each side of the human pathway, clapping their hands, and singing songs 

 in his praise, not omitting to mention his ancestors. 



THE SOCIETY ISLANDS. 



THE Society Islands, eleven in number, of which Tahiti is one, form the chief possession of 

 France in the South Seas. The French have also acquired the Paumota or Low Archipelago, 

 the Marquesas, the Tubuai or Austral Islands, and others. New Caledonia and the Loyalty 

 Islands are also French (see map, pages vi and vii). Discovered in 1606, Captain Cook gave 

 the islands their present name, and he observed the transit of Venus in 1769 from Tahiti. 

 This island (the Otaheite of Cook) is 35 miles long, and contains about 11,000 people. It 

 presents one of the most striking examples in the world of denuded volcanic rocks. " This 

 terrestrial Eden," says Dr. W. H. Guillemard, " is peopled by one of the finest races in the 

 world, whose slightly veiled, or even fully displayed, symmetrical proportions did not fail to 



excite the admiration of the first European discoverers. 

 ^ H Recent opinions, however, are less enthusiastic on the subject, 

 and Von Popp, amongst others, remarks that if we now look 

 in vain for the gigantic race described by Captain Cook, 

 their deterioration is due partly, at least, to civilisation and 

 brandy; notwithstanding which, the natives of Tahiti are 

 still a fine, well-proportioned people, tall and robust, with 

 dark-brown complexions, broad noses, slightly protruding lips, 

 beautiful teeth, black and mostly curling hair, but with 

 slightly developed beards. With Christianity some restraint 

 has been introduced amongst the islanders, who formerly 

 indulged in unbridled licentiousness. At present we must 

 visit the remoter villages to see, in their original forms, the 

 seductive dances of the native women, gaily decked with 

 flowers. But all this will soon vanish with the people 

 themselves, who, like the Sandwich Islanders, are decreasing 



piu>u>byii.w.HeMhau!,iiuo,ii<ni.,i, w jth alarming rapidity. The idyllic scenes of former days 

 A YOUNG GIRL, HAWAII. have already mostly disappeared under the influence of the 



