404 MYSTIC ISLES 



exempt from the epidemics and endemics of Europe and 

 Asia, unacquainted with the contraceptives known until 

 recently only by our rich, but now preached by organ- 

 ized societies to the humblest, the Tahitian, Marquesan, 

 and Hawaiian came to consider the blotting out of lives 

 just begun worthy deeds. 



"The only good Indian is a dead Indian," was our 

 own cynical Western maxim when life and opportunity 

 to lay by for the future meant ceaseless struggle with 

 the dispossessed. 



We, in situations of dire necessity, eat our own fel- 

 low^s. We have done it at sea and on land. We eat 

 their flesh when shipwreck or isolation urges survival. 

 We let children die by the myriad for lack of proper 

 care and sustenance, and kill them in factories and ten- 

 ements to gain luxuries for ourselves. One justification 

 for slavery was that it gave leisure for culture to the 

 slave-owners, and that Southern chivalry and the charm 

 of Southern womanhood outweighed the fettered black 

 bodies and souls in the scale of achievement. 



The Tahitian did the best he could, and the Arioi set 

 the example in a total observance not to be demanded or 

 expected of the mass. It is related that if the child 

 cried before destruction, it was spared, for they had not 

 the heart to kill it. If Arioi, the parents must have 

 given it away or otherwise avoided the opprobrium. 



Another explanation of the bloody oath of the Arioi 

 might be found in an effort of the princes of Tahiti to 

 prevent in this manner the excessive growth of the Arii, 

 or noble caste. The Arioi society was founded by 

 princes and led by them, but that they sought to break 

 down the power of the nobles is evidenced by their ad- 



