A VANISHING PEOPLE OF THE SOUTH SEAS 



287 



Photograph by John W. Church 

 SAILORS OE A TRADING SCHOONER WEIGHING COPRA 



The trader makes 1,000 per cent or more on the goods given in exchange for this dried 



coconut meat. 



sion to keep them from being captured 

 by enemies lurking outside the bay 



And a tapu savoring of Solomon in its 

 wisdom, women could not weep ! 



The food prohibitions, with the excep- 

 tion of the ones relating to long and 

 brown pig, were subject to change during 

 periods of plenty. It is obvious that the 

 intention was to reserve for the warriors 

 the best of the season's delicacies in times 

 when food conservation became neces- 

 sary. 



DROUGHTS MADE ROTTEN BREADERUIT A 

 NATIONAL DISH 



And while there were no profiteers nor 

 cornerings of the market in the Mar- 

 quesas, it often happened that famine did 

 threaten on one or all of the islands. Al- 

 though their geographical situation indi- 

 cates well-defined wet and dry seasons, 

 and the encyclopedias kindly give them a 

 "hot and moist" climate, the group is sub- 

 ject to prolonged droughts, in one re- 



corded instance scarcely any rain having 

 fallen in nearly three years. Just prior 

 to my arrival one spring it rained for the 

 first time in thirteen months. 



These long droughts were responsible 

 for a practice which eventually established 

 rotten breadfruit as the national food of 

 the Marquesas. When boiled or baked 

 fresh, it is a very pleasant food, some- 

 what like a well-baked, mealy potato, but 

 with more flavor ; and it has always been 

 the staple food of the islands. P>ut while 

 there were many trees, and they bore 

 prolifically for three or four months dur- 

 ing the year, there ensued a period of 

 eight months between the ripening of the 

 fruit and the next crop, and in times of 

 extreme drought the trees often tailed to 

 bear at all. 



From this sprang the rule against 

 fresh breadfruit for women at certain 

 times and the custom of gathering the 

 fruit when green and burying it by the 

 thousands and tens of thousands in huge 



