232 FUNAFUTI ATOLL. 



Funafuti is for many reasons an unfavourable centre for Ethno- 

 logical research. In weeding out the so-called immoral practices of 

 heathen days, the missionary agents seem, to a casual onlooker, to 

 crush out many innocent recreations, uprooting the wheat and the 

 tares together. The trader, another civilising influence, does his 

 part by substituting European wares for native products. But the 

 greatest shock the native civilisation suffered was when the South 

 American raiders almost depopulated the atoll thirty years ago.* 

 The place of the expatriated natives was largely taken by immi- 

 grants from other islands. 



On glancing over the ground covered by the following paper 

 my predominant impressions are : firstly, the poverty of our 

 knowledge of Polynesian Ethnology and the superficial way in 

 which it has been studied; and secondly, the rapidity with which the 

 knowledge of it that might yet be gathered is vanishing. Though 

 in a library catalogue the bulk of Polynesian literature appears 

 large, yet when consulted upon trivial points it rarely responds 

 satisfactorily. Travellers seem to have contented themselves with 

 observing and collecting only the most obvious incidents and 

 articles. " If investigators and students would seize upon those 

 features in social life form of etiquette, games, ceremonies, and 

 other manners and customs which are the first to change in any 

 contact with alien race, a very important work would be accom- 

 plished for the future sociologist."! 



Although I have constantly appealed to, and derived much 

 help from Edge-Partington's valuable Ethnographical Album, yet 

 I am compelled to say that, without confirmation, the use or locality 

 of any implement he figures, dependent as he often was on second- 

 hand information, cannot be trusted; indeed the long list of correc- 

 tions he supplies, are to a thoughtful reader a sufficient warning. 



The following remarks of Professor Haddon cannot but receive 

 the heartiest endorsement of all interested in this study. " Only 

 those who have a personal acquaintance with Oceana, or those 

 who have carefully followed the recent literature of the subject, 

 can have an idea of the pressing need there is for prompt action. 



* The blackest pages in the story of the South Sea Islands are those 

 describing the Peruvian piracies. Twenty-five vessels were fitted out in 

 Callao for the purpose of procuring ten thousand Polynesians for forced 

 labour in Peru. The densely peopled and more warlike islands of the 

 west were avoided, but the gentler people of the mid Pacific were deceived 

 and deported wholesale, one instance of which is related on p. 5. Early 

 in 1863 about 2000 Polynesians were captured, transferred to a depot on 

 Easter Island, and ultimately forwarded to South America. Unaccus- 

 tomed to hard and continuous labour these unhappy victims soon perished. 

 Among other groups the Tahitian was raided, but the French, in whose 

 dominion those islands were, not only captured six vessels and punished 

 the slavers, but took measures to prevent a repetition of the offence. An 

 account of the affair is given in the Sydney Morning Herald of June 20th, 1863. 



t Morse Japanese Homes, 1888, p. 8. 



