28 
All the Tarapon people are navigators, and many of them 
build large boats, or proahs, not greatly unlike those found in 
the Indian Archipelago. Their houses are inferior to those of 
the Sawaioris. The arms of some are fairly well made, and 
in one group — the Gilbert Islands — they manufacture very 
elaborate armour to cover the entire body out of the fibre of 
the cocoa-nut husk. A corselet, which forms part of this, is 
a very ingenious and very good piece of workmanship, in shape 
not greatly unlike a piece of European medieval armour. 
Amongst them women appear to occupy a position not very 
different from that they hold among the Sawaioris, but some- 
what lower. This difference is not in the amount of work and 
drudgery that they are expected to do, but rather in the social 
and domestic influence they exert. Religiously they are 
rather strict in the observance of their rites, and the shrines of 
their gods are very numerous. I visited some of the Gilbert 
Islands before any Christian influences had been brought to 
bear upon the natives, and in every house I saw a domestic 
shrine at which offerings of food, &c., were presented. In 
addition to these there were numerous other shrines in all parts 
of the islands. 
Their gods were chiefly the spirits of their ancestors ; the 
priesthood and chieftainship were combined in the same per- 
sons; they embalmed some of their dead, especially the bodies 
of beloved children ; and women often carried about the skulls 
of deceased children hung by a cord around the neck as a 
token of affection. 
The traditions of the Tarapons appear to be numerous. In 
some respects they resemble those of the Sawaioris. These 
deal very largely with the origin of their islands and the 
people. From them we learn that part of the people came 
from the west, and that these were met by some from the east. 
Most of the descendants of those arriving from the east were, 
however, destroyed by the others, who were the more nume- 
rous. As far as we have materials for examination, cranio- 
metry also indicates that the natives of these islands are more 
mixed than either of the other Polynesian races. Professor 
Flower, in his Royal Institution Lecture already mentioned, 
expresses that opinion, thus confirming the opinion which I 
have formed from an examination of the physical characteristics 
of the people, and from their languages. 
In these languages consonants are used more freely than in 
the Sawaiori languages. They have some consonantal sounds 
which are not found in the latter, such as ch, dj and sh which 
may perhaps be regarded as intermediate between the Sawaiori 
and Papuan, although not nearly as strong as in the latter. 
