24 INDEX TO THE PACIFIC ISLANDS. 



very prognathous; fairly large stature; light-colored; very large dark eyes; practise 

 circumcision; are not cannibals (except Marquesans and Maoris); caste institutions 

 with kings and chiefs ; are very religious ; kapu system in full force ; use awa, never 

 betel ; no looms, no earthen vessels ; cook in earth ovens and with hot stones ; make 

 kapa or bark cloth (as do also the Solomon Islanders and some tribes of New Guinea); 

 have a strong sentiment of dress ; have a common language from Hawaii to New Zeal- 

 and; are good seamen and fishermen. In ancient times were good navigators journey- 

 ing in their canoes to almost incredible distances as seen in the ancient voyages of the 

 Hawaiians to Tahiti. 



In ever}- generalization there must be many exceptions, but the characters here 

 given are very general. The hybrids are very numerous and most difficult to place 

 when met casually. The Papuan -f- Polynesian hybrid is much more homogeneous, 

 that is, more difficult to pick out traits of either parent, than is the mixture of 

 Chinese -|- Polynesian, where the Mongolian predominates but the Polynesian is still 

 in evidence. Otherwise half-breeds in the Pacific are much as half-breeds are every- 

 where else. 



Cannibalism. — This custom which arouses a curious horror in most civilized 

 people, although man is a carnivorous animal and human flesh is not unwholesome, 

 was once prevalent in the Marquesas, Fiji and New Zealand, and is now in full force 

 in the Solomon Islands, New Hebrides, Bismarck archipelago and parts of New 

 Guinea. Elsewhere in the Pacific it has never existed or has yielded to the pressure 

 of civilization. The origin of this curious habit has been ascribed to various causes, 

 as for instance, piety — the nearest relative devouring the remains of a dear corpse to 

 place them nearest the seat of the affections and to protect them from outrage by the 

 enemy. Such disposal has occurred on groups not otherwise anthropophagic. To 

 absorb the qualities of another is, I believe, the most orthodox application of cannibalism. 

 Brave and tried warriors were eaten, never women or children, and the true cannibal 

 never allowed a woman to eat a man! Certainly the portions in which the desired 

 qualities were supposed to reside were most sought, the hand, the heart, the testes. 

 This effect of food is, perhaps unconsciously, recognized in the navy of a great nation 

 where mutton is never eaten lest the marines become sheepish. It is worthy of note 

 that the worst cannibals in the Pacific were also the most skilled producers. Maori 

 and Marquesan carvings, Solomon Island canoes, New Hebridean mats are all in evi- 

 dence. Revenge ; that sweet passion in the savage thought, — to cook an enemy like a 

 dog or pig, to drink his blood, is world-wide in desire if not in full execution, and Kali 

 the bloodthirsty wife of Shiva in the Hindu pantheon is not the only primitive deity 

 in which this passion is personified. Needed food: man, although carnivorous, did not 

 suffer from famine on the Pacific Islands, at least on those where anthropophagy pre- 

 vailed, but it has been suggested that in the long voyages food may have failed as it 



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