PACIFIC ISLANDS UNDER JAPANESE MANDATE 



623 



efficient than those on any other of the 

 islands. 



Though they are anchored rather low, 

 the skirts of the Yap women are longer 

 than those of any other wearers of the 

 garments of palm fiber and hibiscus bark. 

 They reach to the ankles and are so full 

 and fluffy that they look like small hay- 

 stacks. The more fancy ones are dyed 

 variegated colors (see page 612). 



In Palao the women wear a double 

 short skirt. The men of Yap wear a 

 short shirt of the inner bark of the hibis- 

 cus over their loin-cloth, while those in 

 Palao usually dispense with it. In a part 

 of the world where the mother's hip 

 serves as a baby carriage, the full skirt 

 of Yap makes a convenient seat for the 

 youngster. Even the smallest girls wear 

 skirts. 



Possibly the most important part of a 

 Yap woman's apparel is a neck-string of 

 thin native cord. This she puts on as 

 soon as she is of marriageable age. Noth- 

 ing else is worn above the waist, and it 

 is considered brazenly immodest for a 

 woman to appear without the cord 

 around her neck. A long, thin comb of 

 wood, which the men wear in their hair, 

 shows similar distinction. A man's rank 

 or standing in the community is indicated 

 by the length of his comb. Some meas- 

 ure 18 inches. 



Many learned pages have been written 

 on whether the Yap natives, with their 

 ingenuous ways, sufficient for their simple 

 needs, or the Marshall islanders, with a 

 semblance of Western customs imposed 

 on their old habits and tropical atmos- 

 phere, are the more civilized. They are 

 extremes geographically as well as ex- 

 tremes between the old and the new. 

 The missionaries say that the Marshall 

 islanders are both civilized and Chris- 

 tians. 



TWENTY YEARS WITHOUT A MURDER IN 

 THE MARSHALL ISLANDS 



The Marshalls are proud of their rec- 

 ord of twenty years without a murder 

 and very few cases of theft. That is 

 more than any American city of equal 

 population and farther removed from 

 days when head-hunting was popular can 

 boast. The missionaries have taught the 

 natives that they must not smoke, dance, 



play cards, cook on Sundays, drink 

 liquor, or indulge in various other relax- 

 ations which are not considered an eter- 

 nal bar to godliness in other lands. Cal- 

 isthenics were abolished in the mission 

 schools because the movements suggested 

 the dances of their forefathers to the 

 young people. As all these restrictions 

 economize physical effort, the natives 

 willingly accept them. 



On the other hand, the population is 

 said to have diminished 50 per cent in as 

 many years, and the medical officers at 

 the free hospital say that 90 per cent of 

 their patients have venereal diseases and 

 60 per ^ cent are also suffering with 

 frambesia tropica, otherwise known as 

 "yaws," which might be avoided if the 

 rudiments of hygienic cleanliness were 

 observed. 



THE ANCIENT DANCE IS NO MORE 



Though there is little to disturb their 

 lassitude, the Marshall islanders are 

 happy and contented. Most of them sit 

 around their houses all day, have a song 

 service in the evening, and then go to 

 sleep. 



Walk past a native house almost any 

 hour of the day and two or three men or 

 women can be seen lying on their backs 

 in the cool interior. They will lazily roll 

 their heads to look through the windows, 

 opening on a level with the ground, to see 

 who is passing, but more than mere curi- 

 osity is needed to dislodge them from 

 their braided mats. It has been so long 

 since there has been anything much to do 

 that they have gotten out of the habit. 



They do not have the vigor of their 

 forefathers, when the men, working 

 themselves into a frenzy in the war 

 dance, dashed to their canoes to battle 

 with the people of a neighboring island. 

 Those were the days when the women 

 danced the wild ril-ong, whose sinuous 

 gyrations were the sensation of the South 

 Seas. Four years of training, until her 

 backbone was as flexible as a snake's, 

 were required before a girl was permitted 

 to join in this dance. In those days, to 

 avoid argument, children traced their 

 name and ancestry to their mother. 



The chiefs and most of the men who 

 have been educated in the mission schools 

 have added a familiarity with foreigners 



