284 AUSTEALASIA. 



in their physical appearance. The western islanders with their fair complexion 

 resemble the Yisayas and Tagals of the Philippines ; those of the central islands 

 have a red coppery colour, while farther east the natives of the Seniaviu group 

 are almost black and like the Papuans. In Ualan they are still darker, with 

 slightly crisp hair. The people of Nukunor and Satoan are descendants of 

 Samoan immigrants, as is evident from their physique, language and usages. 

 Lastly, in some of the islands the European element is already so strong that most 

 of the children present a type approaching that of the whites. 



The population has certainly decreased since the arrival of the Europeans, but 

 not, as has often been asserted, in virtue of some mysterious and inevitable law 

 affecting inferior races. Epidemics little dreaded in the West doubtless become 

 terrible scourges in Oceania, and such is the terror caused by measles, for instance, 

 that in Yap and elsewhere the people combine to attack the infected villages, 

 and stamp out the plague by killing the victims and compelling the others to 

 withdraw for some weeks to the interior. Nevertheless the maladies introduced 

 by foreign sailors do not suffice to explain the disappearance of the race, which 

 has suffered still more from the raids of these foreigners, who carry off the natives 

 to work on the plantations in Fiji and other archipelagoes. After the Caroline 

 Islanders have thus been swept away, philosophic travellers indulge in meditations 

 on the fatality which dooms the so-called inferior races to perish at contact with 

 the civilised whites. Nevertheless there are certain favoured spots such as Lukunor, 

 "pearl of the Carolines," in the Mortlock group, where the population is even 

 rapidly increasing by the natural excess of births over the mortality, and where 

 every inch of the land is carefully cultivated. 



Taken as a whole, the Caroline natives are a mild, hospitable, industrious, and 

 peaceful race. They allow their women much freedom, treat their children with 

 great tenderness and faithfully observe the laws of friendship, comrades becoming- 

 brothers by an interchange of names. In certain places, notably Ualan, the 

 people had no weapons of any sort, no strife or warfare. They even still lead 

 simple, peaceful lives, except in the neighbourhood of the factories and missions, 

 where their habits have been modified by contact with Europeans. Tattooing is 

 extensively practised, the systems varying greatly according to the localities, 

 tribes, and social position. Some of the chiefs and nobles are further distinguished 

 by badges such as the white shell worn on the hand by the aristocratic families in 

 Yap, where combs of orange-wood and ebony are reserved for the free men. 



Their food consists chiefly of the rima or bread fruit, the taro {arum esculentum), 

 the sweet potato introduced from the Philippines, fish and other marine fauna. 

 They cultivate no rice, which the jDlanters are said to have vainly attempted to 

 introduce into the archipelago. The dwellings, in general much smaller and far less 

 commodious than those of Melanesia and Papuasia, are in many places mere roofs 

 of foliage resting on the ground and entered on all fours through openings at 

 both ends. But every village possesses one spacious and more carefully con- 

 structed building, which serves at once as a boat-house, a hostelry for strangers, a 

 refuge during rainy weather, and a playroom for the children. Although they 



