PACIFIC ISLANDS UNDER JAPANESE MANDATE 



625 



and business methods to their native 

 shrewdness. Many of them speak Eng- 

 lish, and, with their innate love of poli- 

 tics, deluge the visitor with questions on 

 the outside world and international af- 

 fairs, some of which are too complex for 

 the ordinary traveler. 



The years of missionary teaching in the 

 islands have made the natives a peaceful, 

 friendly, and hospitable people, and their 

 even longer association with American 

 and later Australian, German, and Jap- 

 anese traders has given them a knowl- 

 edge of values. It has been many years 

 since a pink comb could be traded for a 

 cask of coconut oil' in the Marshalls. 



''Yak we ytik" is the invariable greet- 

 ing from man or woman. The salutation, 

 "Love to you," may be taken to symbolize 

 their daily spirit. They have seen much 

 of Americans — rough sailors with pirate 

 instincts, fighting and robbing; others 

 who married their daughters and settled 

 in the islands, and, finally, the gentle mis- 

 sionaries, who built schools and churches. 

 America has taught them much, and they 

 dream of America, far across the Pacific, 

 as their adopted country. 



"WHAT IS HAPPENING IN AMERICA?" 



Possibly it is a chief, or a native 

 preacher, or a man or woman who has 

 studied in one of the mission schools, who 

 always calls when an American visits one 

 of the islands. A present of a gaily 

 bordered mat, an assortment of artistically 

 woven fans, a fish-hook made from shells, 

 or some other native handicraft is al- 

 ways brought. And when the visitor 

 leaves the baskets of fresh coconuts which 

 are sent aboard his ship will quench his 

 thirst for many days. 



As clothes have become popular, tattoo- 

 ing has disappeared. Once a chief was 

 tattooed from ears to waist, in fine lines 

 of many designs, entirely different from 

 the broad stripes of the Carolines. "Chief 

 Moses" is the only survivor of that age, 

 and though he now wears a high collar, 

 his cheeks are lined as if they had been 

 branded with an electric toaster. 



Lebario, with nine atolls under his con- 

 trol, is another of the old chiefs, a grim, 

 serious-minded man, whose life has 

 registered all the changes in the Mar- 

 snails. My first sight of him was at 

 Wotje. He was busily dictating a con- 



tract to his stenographer, a fat, middle- 

 aged man with an ancient but effective 

 typewriter. The captain of the Australian 

 trading schooner was waiting to sign it. 

 and Lebario was in a hurry, as the bi- 

 monthly ship sailed for Jaluit in a few 

 hours and he must catch it. However, he 

 had time to stop all work and ask the in- 

 variable question, "What is happening in 

 America ?" 



EVENINGS AT THE "CLUB" IN THE 

 MARSHALL GROUP 



Dramatic stories are told of the early 

 days, only half a century ago, before the 

 Marshall islanders became pupils of the 

 Western World. Then these low-lying 

 islands — more than 300, grouped into 32 

 circular atolls, with a total land area of 

 only 156 square miles — were a world of 

 their own, each atoll having its chief and 

 usually at war with all its neighbors. 



More than one night, when the moon- 

 light was silvering the beach and the rest 

 of the settlers slept, we sat until morning 

 in the cabin of Joachim De Brum while 

 old men reminisced of their boyhood. 



Legends which their fathers handed 

 down to them, love romances of island 

 Cleopatras, and daring deeds of bold 

 chiefs, stories of the rough characters 

 who had come in later days, whispered 

 locations of still buried treasures of tor- 

 toise-shell and gold, arguments of crops 

 and prices of today — all were mixed in 

 an incongruous medley. And, much like 

 clubdom the world over, a sleepy boy 

 would appear with an armful of coconuts, 

 the "eyes" deftly extracted, for story- 

 tellers and audiences always are thirsty. 



De Brum is a remarkable character. 

 Born on the islands, son of a Portuguese 

 trader and native mother, subscriber to 

 an American daily newspaper and several 

 magazines, he keeps in touch with the 

 greater world thousands of miles away, 

 though the mail steamer never comes 

 oftener than once in two months. 



VALUABLE COPRA CROP PRODUCED BY THE 

 MARSHALL ISLANDS 



Life in the Marshalls today is de- 

 naturized and commercialized. The trans- 

 formation came quickly, once it started. 

 Though they were discovered by de 

 Saavedra in 1529 and explored by Captain 

 Marshall in 1788, it was not until 1886 



