106 USEFUL PLANTS OF GUAM. 



enraged father, told him to calm himself, that he would not be a loser 

 in consequence of the marriage as the padre would give him as much 

 as he could have gotten for his daughter if he had sold her to an urri- 

 tao. This only made matters worse and finally led to the burning of 

 the entire mission and the assassination of the padre and all of his com- 

 panions. 



Property. — The nobles owned entailed estates of coconut groves, 

 banana plantations, and other choice lands. These were not inherited 

 by a man's son at his death, but by his brother or nephew (probably 

 by the son of his sister, as in many other islands of the Pacific), w T ho 

 on coming into possession of the property changed his name and took 

 that of the founder or most illustrious ancestor of the family. The 

 children belonged essentially to the mother. The}' inherited the 

 property of their mother's brothers. A man did not dare to dispose 

 of any property of his family, except, perhaps, a canoe, knife, spear, 

 or fishing tackle made by himself or land reclaimed by him from the 

 bush. Tortoise shell was used for money. 



Government. — They had no king nor defined code of laws, nor was 

 there a ruler for the island in general nor for any village. The nobles 

 of each village formed a kind of council or assembly, which, however, 

 had no real authority over the rest; but everybody did pretty much 

 what he pleased, unless prevented from doing so by some one stronger 

 than himself. The head of each family was the father or eldest rela- 

 tive, but his authority was so limited as to call for little respect on the 

 part of the sons, who obeyed it only when forced to do so. Children 

 were seldom chastised by their parents. Offenses were punished by 

 war if they were against a community, or by private revenge if they 

 were against an individual. Owing to this lack of organization no 

 community felt itself responsible for the misconduct of one of its 

 members. When hostages were taken by the Spaniards to insure 

 good treatment of their people ashore, or to exact certain promises 

 from the natives, the immediate family of the hostage alone seemed 

 to feel responsibility or concern for him. The rest continued as 

 before; nor could they understand the justice of the Spaniards' 1 burn- 

 ing whole villages and many boats for the act of a single individual, 

 who might or might not belong to the village or be allied to the 

 owners of the boats. 



Warfare. — Their weapons were slings and spears. Bows and 

 arrows were unknown to them, nor had the} 7 swords, war clubs, or 

 shields. They relied upon their quickness and agility to protect them 

 from the blows of their adversaries. Their spears were of wood with 

 points either of wood hardened by fire, or made of the shin bones of 

 men or of the bones of fishes. They had no throwing sticks. The 

 bone spearheads were barbed and had three or four blades or points 



