64 General Conclusions. 



neighbors. Of the latter the Hawaiians made the greatest variety 

 of articles, the Maoris the best can-ings, although the Herv^ey 

 Islanders pressed the Maoris close in quality- of work, but by no 

 means in variety. 



A curious observation was made that the cannibals did better 

 work than those who did not love their fellow men in that way. The 

 cannibal theory is one of absorption of the qualities and faculties of 

 the eaten by the eater: hence the natural desire to eat the bravest 

 of one's enemies even if the musculature be very tough, and a gen- 

 uine cannibal will not eat a woman or child unless pressed by 

 hunger. The Maoris, Fijians, Solomon Islanders, New Hebri- 

 deans and Marquesans were the most thorough-going cannibals, 

 and they were the best workmen in the Pacific, and their producfts 

 are the most sought as curiosities. 



With the exception of the Maori heads there is no colledlion 

 of tatued skins shown in an}- museum, although in a German medi- 

 cal museum was seen an album of tatued patterns found on the white 

 subjedls in the dissecfting room, and in the Warren Medical Museum 

 in Boston was a fine specimen of a complete Marquesan(?) tatued 

 skin. Yet the art is dj'ing out with the compulsory adoption of 

 clothes and the significance of the elaborate patterns used by the 

 Marquesans, Hervey Islanders, Samoans* and others will soon be 

 lo.st. When the unfortunate Samoan governed by a very "mixed" 

 commission is fined 7/6 every time he is caught bathing without a 

 lavalava or waist cloth, he must abandon the elaborate skin deco- 

 ration he can no longer exhibit. 



Again what do the museums show of the cookery of the 

 Pacific Islanders? It was not the simple matter often supposed, 

 and a cannibal feast was a most elaborate affair. The imii or 

 earth oven of the Hawaiians and others was a most capital thing, 

 and the ovens for baking "long pig" were both ingenious and 



* F. von Luschan. Beitrai>: ziir Keiininiss der Tatowirung in Samoa. Berlin, 1897. This 

 verj- interesting treatise on Samoan tatumg should be followed by a similar investigation of 

 the more elaborate work of the Marquesan and Aitutakian tatuer. The Samoan men that I 

 have observed in four visits to Samoa were quite as well decorated as in Dr. von Lushan's 

 plates, but the contrast of colors is not so harsh as when reduced to black and white. 



