CHAPTER VII 



GENERAL ACCOUNT OF THE SOUTH SEA ISLANDS 



Description of the people Tattowing Cleanliness Clothing Ornaments 

 and head-dress Houses 'Food Produce of the sea Fruits Animals 

 Cooking Mahai- making Drinking salt-water Meals Women eat 

 apart from the men Pastimes Music Attachment to old customs 

 Making of cloth from bark Dyes and dyeing Mats Manufacture of 

 fishing-nets Fish-hooks Carpentry, etc. Boats and boat-building 

 Fighting, fishing, and travelling ivahahs Instability of the boats 

 Paddles, sails, and ornaments Pahies Predicting the weather 

 Astronomy Measurement of time and space Language Its resemblance 

 to other languages Diseases Medicine and surgery Funeral ceremonies 

 Disposal of the dead Religion Origin of mankind Gods Priests 

 Marriage Mara/is Bird-gods Government Ranks Army and battles 

 Justice. 



ALL the islands I have seen are very populous along the 

 whole length of the coast, where are generally large flats 

 covered with a great many bread-fruit and cocoanut trees. 

 There are houses scarcely fifty yards apart, with their little 

 plantations of plantains, the trees from which they make 

 their cloth, etc. But the inland parts are totally uninhabited, 

 except in the valleys, where there are rivers, and even there 

 there are but a small proportion of people in comparison with 

 the numbers who live upon the flats. 



These people are of the larger size of Europeans, all very 

 well made, and some handsome, both men and women ; the 

 only bad feature they have is their noses, which are in 

 general flat, but to balance this their teeth are almost with- 

 out exception even and white to perfection, and the eyes of 

 the women especially are full of expression and fire. In 

 colour they differ very much ; those of inferior rank who 



