INTRODUCTION. xi 



The average height of the Sawaiori races is five feet ten 

 inches, and they are proportionately well developed. Their 

 colour is brown, lighter or darker according to the amount of 

 exposure to the sun. The hair is black and generally straight, 

 but sometimes wavy, with a tendency to curl. The features 

 are fairly regular, and the eyes dark; the jaws do not project, 

 except in a few instances ; the lips are of medium thickness, 

 thicker than those of Englishmen ; the nose is short, but some- 

 what wide at the base, and the forehead is moderately high, 

 but rather narrow. Politeness is one of their marked charac- 

 teristics, and women occupy a position hardly inferior to men. 

 Eank and hereditary titles exist, and a different language is used 

 in addressing chiefs from that employed to common people. 



If a chief possesses a dog, the animal must be spoken of by 

 a different name from that given to a common man's dog. In 

 Samoa, for instance, there are four different words for ' to 

 come,' appropriated to four grades of people sail, for a 

 common man; malm mat, for a person of respectability; sv^u 

 /i/.i(i, for a titled chief ; and afio mai, for a member of the royal 

 family. When addressing a person in respectful language, 

 the Samoans never use the personal pronoun in the singular 

 number, but always in the dual the dual of dignity. 



The way in which landed property is held and transmitted, 

 resembles its tenure by the Israelites under the Mosaic laws. 

 The land in the islands is divided among families, each of the 

 members having an equal right to its vise. The patriarch, or 

 recognised head of the family, however, alone properly exer- 

 cises the right to dispose of, or to assign it temporarily to 

 persons outside the family or clan. I expressly use the word 

 'clan,' as the family among the Sawaiori people consists of all 

 the connections by blood or marriage. Elaborate traditions, 

 both in prose and poetry, exist among them, and have been 

 retained with the greatest accuracy for centuries. 



The Sawaiori people have always been great navigators, 

 and are skilled in boat-building. They think highly of them- 

 selves, and some are decidedly conceited. As a heathen race, 



b 2 



