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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



THE DAYS OE THEIR TRIBE ARE 



Marquesan girls with love flowers, or flowers 



the ears. 



valley, while Tehia would be mothering 

 one or more belonging to some one else. 



Children were welcome everywhere. 

 There were few, if any, "don'ts" for 

 them in home or village, and the valley 

 provided an ideal playground for their 

 active bodies. 



This genial attitude was not confined 

 to the children. Though fierce and un- 

 relenting in warfare with other tribes, in 

 their own villages the Marquesans were 

 a mild and easy-going lot. Lacking the 

 ambitions and desires which constitute 

 such a large part of the mental make-up 

 of civilized man, and free from any com- 

 mercial or competitive strife, they simply 

 failed to develop many unpleasant traits 

 common to civilization, and remained to 



a great degree good- 

 natured, impulsive 

 children in their tem- 

 per and conduct. 



The peculiar con- 

 trast of their utter 

 disregard for human 

 life and lively sym- 

 pathy for the living- 

 was clearly shown 

 when victims were to 

 be chosen from their 

 own tribe. In times 

 of stress, when unsuc- 

 cessful in capturing 

 enemies to satisfy the 

 demands of their god 

 or their own craving 

 for human flesh, the 

 king would decree the 

 sacrifice of a number 

 of his own men. The 

 priest thereupon re- 

 tired to his hut in the 

 sacred grove, and 

 after several days of 

 fasting and prayer 

 announced secretly to 

 the king the names of 

 the victims. These 

 would be told to a 

 like number of war- 

 riors, each of whom 

 always awaited an op- 

 portunity to kill his 

 man with a blow from 

 behind, so that he died 

 without knowing his selection as a prin- 

 cipal- in the ceremony. 



AN EXPURGATED ACCOUNT OE THE 

 MARQUESAN DANCE 



No story of the early customs of the 

 Marquesas would be complete without a 

 brief — and expurgated — description of 

 their one dance, the famous South Sea 

 hula-hula. From Hawaii to Asia this re- 

 markable exhibition of muscular and vo- 

 luptuous endurance varies only in degree, 

 and among them all the Marquesan was 

 admittedly the past master of the art. 



The hula usually took place at the 

 mouth of the valley, where the level 

 ground near the beach gave an oppor- 

 tunity for a greater number of partici- 



© L. Gauthier 

 NUMBERED 

 of friendship, behind 



