A VANISHING PEOPLE OF THE SOUTH SEAS 



283 



drink — both hard and soft — oil, fiber for 

 mats, baskets, and ropes, its fronds for 

 thatching the huts and a score of minor 

 services. And in whatever particulars of 

 pliable usefulness the coco palm failed, 

 the pandanus, with its soft, satiny leaf of 

 great strength and durability, came to the 

 rescue. Then, too, they possessed the 

 mci, the famous breadfruit, which, fresh 

 and "rotten," has been the staple food of 

 the South Sea islands for centuries, and 

 from whose bark much of the native 

 tappa cloth was made. From the trunks 

 of the massive, stately ti, or Marquesan 

 mango, swift, graceful canoes were fash- 

 ioned, each from a single hollowed log. 



War clubs and tappa sticks were fash- 

 ioned from the ton, a bastard ebony, 

 heavy as iron and almost as unbreakable. 

 From the mio, a rosewood, many of their 

 bowls and paddles were made ; also from 

 the kokoo, one of the few trees which 

 brave the tempest-swept coast between 

 the bays. 



| From the pua the maidens gathered the 

 white, gardenia-like blossoms with which 

 to scent the coco oil ; and the nuts of the 

 ama, strung on oil-soaked fiber, gave the 

 Marquesan his dim and fitful light o' 

 nights. 



Though rarely used by the savages. 

 Nature supplied them with two poisons. 

 The hutu, a magnificent tree, with gor- 

 geous crimson tasseled flowers, produces 

 a fruit resembling a large mango in ap- 

 pearance, which is a strong narcotic. 

 This they sometimes used to stupefy fish 

 by crushing the fruit and throwing it into 

 the bay. From the root of the eva they 

 could extract a deadly poison. 



There grew also the beautiful hibiscus, 

 the bamboo, the noni, the ena, a pungent 

 native ginger, and many wonderful tropic 

 flowers with which I am familiar only by 

 sight and their native name and not 

 enough of a botanist to classify. 



DISEASE UNKNOWN WHEN THE ISLANDS 

 WERE DISCOVERED 



Several varieties of bananas, mammee 

 apples, and yams belong to this period, 

 but I believe the uma, or native sweet 

 potato, was of later introduction. 



The above incomplete list indicates how 

 bountifully Nature provided for the 

 needs of the Marquesan, save only in that 



Photograph by John W. Church 



VAEIIEIIU, QUEEN OE NUKUHIVA, PRIN- 

 CIPAL ISLAND OF THE MARQUESAS 

 GROUP 



She lives in state on the shores of the Bay of 

 Pusa, with a number of men who work her 

 copra, but are not royal consorts. The wrap- 

 per was donned for the photographer. This is 

 the queen's bay, and no one can live there ex- 

 cept her men and herself. 



his capacity for propagation at times out- 

 stripped her unaided ability to supply his 

 demands. 



The omission from this list of any 

 herbs, roots, or barks for medicinal pur- 

 poses brings out a striking feature in the 

 life of these savages, the more so as it is 

 contrasted with their pitiable condition 

 today. At the time of their discovery 

 disease was unknown in the islands, so 

 naturally no provision was made against 

 it. Lacking poisonous reptiles, dangerous 

 beasts, or insects to carry infection from 

 some far-away land, the Marquesan lived 

 in a state of physical health rarely found 

 among other races. 



While in all essentials the flora as well 



