Polynesian Dog — Luomala 
203 
for information, secondary in origin though it 
is, about Oceanic dogs. J. M. Bechstein, who 
translated this edition into German in 1799, 
adds a little interpretation which scholars using 
his translation quote. Neither Pennant nor Bech- 
stein gives a binomial classification of the Poly- 
nesian dog. 
Pennant is probably the first to make fairly 
explicit two problems which still recur and are 
still unsolved. The first centers about whether 
or not there was more than one variety, or 
breed, of Polynesian dog, and if so what the 
distinctive characters of each were. Pennant dis- 
tinguishes two varieties on the basis of the 
length and quality of the hair. The second prob- 
lem concerns the relationship, if any, of the 
native dogs in the entire Pacific area to each 
other and to the Eurasiatic dogs, and the de- 
termination of the center of their geographical 
distribution to the islands. Pennant, discussing 
Polynesian, Australian, and New Guinea dogs, 
regards them (if I interpret his often ambiguous 
statements correctly) as derived from New 
Guinea, and separable into three, perhaps four, 
varieties. They are the New Holland (Aus- 
tralian) dingo, the Polynesian dog resembling 
the shepherd’s cur, the Polynesian dog resem- 
bling the barbet, and the New Guinea dog 
which he regards as ancestral to at least the 
Polynesian "currish fox-like dog” and perhaps 
to others. Pennant’s statements are so ambiguous, 
however, that each reader interprets them dif- 
ferently. 
Pennant (1793,1: 243-244; Bechstein, 1799, 
I: 258-160) writes as follows: 
Dogs (brought originally from New Guinea), 
are found in the Society Islands , New Z eland, 
and the Low Islands: there are also a few in 
New Holland. Of these are two varieties. 
1. Resembling the sharp-nosed pricked-ear 
shepherd’s cur. Those of New Z eland are of 
the largest sort. In the Society Islands, they are 
the common food, and are fattened with veg- 
etables, which the natives cram down their 
throats, as we serve turkies, when they will 
voluntarily eat no more. They are killed by 
strangling, and the extravasated blood is pre- 
served in Coconut shells, and baked for the table. 
They grow very fat, and are allowed, even by 
Europeans who have got over their prejudices, 
to be very sweet and palatable. 
But the taste for the flesh of these animals 
was not confined to the islanders of the Pacific 
Ocean. . . . 
2. The Barbet, whose hair being long and 
silky, is greatly admired by the New Zelanders 
for trimming their ornamental dress. This vari- 
ety is not eaten. The islanders never use their 
dogs for any purposes but what we mention; 
and take such care of them as not to suffer them 
even to wet their feet. They are excessively 
stupid, have a very bad nose for smelling, and 
seldom or never bark, only now and then howl. 
The New Zelanders feed their dogs entirely 
with fish. 
The Marquesas, Friendly Islands, New Heb- 
rides, New Caledonia, and Easter Isle, have not 
yet received those animals. 
For New Guinea, Pennant cites as his source 
Captain Thomas Forrest ( 1779: 97, "table” 11). 
What Pennant calls a table is given as a plate 
by Forrest. Forrest, a visitor on the New Guinea 
coast in the early part of 1775, twice (1779: 
97 and 103) remarks on the native dogs around 
"Dorry” ( Daru ) . He observed natives setting 
out in boats with two or three "fox-looking 
dogs ... a dog they call Naf.” The dogs were 
used to hunt wild pigs that in swimming from 
islet to islet sometimes held on to the tail of 
the preceding pig. Forrest writes on seeing men 
on another occasion setting out in their boats to 
go pig-hunting, "In each boat was generally a 
small fox looking dog,” and then in his plate 11 
(Figs. 19, 20) he depicts such a scene. Forrest 
gives no further data about the appearance of 
the dog. 
Fig. 8. Detail of Figure 7 showing boy clutching an 
animal that looks like a dog. Or is it a pig? 
