A VANISHING PEOPLE OF THE SOUTH SEAS 



295 



of a mountain goat — or a Marquesan — 

 but they were rarely improved. If a 

 ravine was narrow enough for a fallen 

 tree to span and the tree at hand, it was 

 dropped across the ravine. Otherwise 

 there would be no bridge. 



Agriculture in any form was unknown. 

 The natives took the bountiful variety of 

 flora the islands provided, but to assist 

 nature in any way by tilling or replanting 

 never occurred to them. Content with 

 their gratification of the desires of the 

 day, the Marquesans took literally no 

 thought for the morrow. 



The ownership of land was a sort of 

 community affair prior to the coming of 

 the white man, and probably, like all 

 things else, subject to the tribal regula- 

 tion. Thievery or crime of any sort was 

 unknown. Implicit obedience of the tapu 

 was the only law. Within its pale their 

 lives were regulated by customs evolved 

 from their own desires, obviating any oc- 

 casion for the envy, discontent, or ambi- 

 tion from which crime arises. 



THE CURIOUS MARRIAGE CUSTOM 



In the Marquesan language there were 

 no words to express our conception of 

 either love or jealousy, nor had these 

 emotions any place in their lives. Their 

 domestic relations have always been a 

 very loosely defined system of polyandry. 

 Each woman or girl — they bore children 

 at the age of twelve — usually had two or 

 more accepted "husbands," but there was 

 an amiable custom of a temporary ex- 

 change of wives at any time without pre- 

 vious notice. 



The marriage of the Marquesan 

 maiden to the youth of her choice, how- 

 ever, was an interesting ceremony. A 

 home for their occupation was built by 

 their friends, and the various necessities 

 for connubial happiness placed therein. 



The maiden was taken in charge by 

 several young matrons, to be massaged 

 with perfumed oils and her hair and body 

 decorated with wreaths and garlands of 

 flowers. The youth was consigned to the 

 ministrations of two older women, who 

 rendered him a similar service, besides 

 smoking him thoroughly with the fumes 

 of sandalwood. At the appointed time 

 the scented and garlanded pair were es- 

 corted by the village to their fae, or hut, 



where the king with much ceremony de- 

 clared them tapu for two weeks. 



For the period of the tapu none might 

 speak to them or in any way disturb their 

 honeymoon. Food was left each morn- 

 ing on their terrace, together with baskets 

 of flowers to be woven into wreaths and 

 garlands by the happy couple. 



NO QUARRELS AND NO JEALOUSIES IN 

 MARQUESAN HOMES 



This was the single touch of romance 

 in the life of the Marquesanne. Soon 

 another husband, usually an older man. 

 would take up his residence with the 

 young people, in accordance with the 

 tribal custom. Quarrels and strife among 

 families thus constituted were unknown, 

 and, to revert again to the present, where 

 the same custom still exists, there are no 

 records of any bickerings or killings over 

 their women by the present-day Mar- 

 quesans. Spiritual love, or even the de- 

 sire for the exclusive possession of any 

 woman, seems to have had no place in 

 the philosophy of the Marquesan, nor 

 was there any evidence of such a desire 

 on the part of the woman. 



As at all times the men far outnum- 

 bered the women, it is probable there ex- 

 isted a custom of killing a certain pro- 

 portion of female infants in order to 

 keep the population within bounds, as 

 was done in Tahiti for many years. 



Among a people who looked upon hu- 

 man flesh as the last word in gastronomic 

 pleasure, it would seem reasonable that 

 they should have employed any overpro- 

 duction of women for their sacrifices and 

 feasts ; but, although they had no scruples 

 about eating women and children of other 

 tribes, their own were rigidly tapu. 



THE LOT OE THE MARQUESAN CHILD 



The attitude of the Marquesan toward 

 children was one of impersonal but af- 

 fectionate indulgence. Their loose polv- 

 androus system precluded any certainty 

 as to the father, and, in place of individ- 

 ual paternal affection, the savages looked 

 upon all children as their own. The fact 

 that a youngster happened to be born in 

 the hut of Tehia, down by the bay, 

 meant nothing in his young life. At the 

 age of three he would probably have 

 spent months at a time in huts up the 



