Polynesian Dog — LUOMALA 
205 
Pennant considers ( 1793, 1: 143) that "New 
Guinea must have originally supplied with dogs 
those south sea islands which . . . ( have them ) 
New Guinea, he continues, was probably the 
"Mother of Lands,” the homeland, as native 
priests also claim, of men, dogs, hogs, poultry, 
and rats; here, Pennant states, is found the "same 
species of hog, and the currish fox-like dog” as 
in Polynesia. If Forrest is his direct source, 
rather than inspiration, for this conclusion I do 
not find the reference anywhere in Forrest’s ac- 
count of his voyage. Pennant’s puzzling intro- 
ductory statement given earlier seems to mean 
that both Polynesian and Australian dogs came 
from New Guinea. 
Pennant gives a description of the "New 
Holland dog” (1793,1: 247). 
Pennant’s undesignated authorities for his 
other statements about the Polynesian dog are 
undoubtedly members of Cook’s expeditions, 
especially the Forsters, and occasionally Cook 
himself. Cook, on his first visit to the Society 
Islands, describes ( Hawkesworth, 1773, II: 152- 
153) how delicious a young fat dog is and how 
to cook a dog in native fashion after it has been 
strangled and its blood caught in a coconut shell. 
Others on that expedition, Sydney Parkinson 
for example, also write, not always favorably, 
about their first experience in eating dog meat. 
Contrary to Pennant, George Forster states that 
the Maoris ate dogs, and that Society islanders 
forcibly fed baby pigs, not dogs. That they 
similarly fed puppies is likely but Forster does 
not say so. Also contrary to Pennant, dogs were 
not common food in the Society Islands (J. R. 
Forster, 1778: 372). 
I have not located Pennant’s source about the 
long-haired New Zealand dog being protected 
against getting its feet wet. The statement may 
be a misinterpretation or extension of the mean- 
ing of Forster’s reference to the Maoris having 
their dogs with them in their canoes. Pennant’s 
description of the Maori dog’s hair as silky, a 
detail that Walther quotes from Pennant, is un- 
supported by the Forsters; the younger Forster 
says the opposite. However, the latter in a state- 
ment (1777, II: 40), that classifies apparently 
overlook, mentions that the dogs at Tiookea 
(Takaroa), Tuamotus, had "fine long hair of a 
white colour.” That the Polynesian dog was 
"fox-like” may echo Cook’s journal (1784, I: 
153) in which the New Zealand dog is called 
"a sort of fox-dog.” Crozet makes the same point 
but his description was overlooked. Pennant’s 
list of islands that at the time of European dis- 
covery lacked dogs comes from J. R. Forster 
(1778: 188); Captain Cook introduced dogs 
into some of these islands. 
Bechstein’s German translation of Pennant’s 
work inserts the adjective "Australische” to 
describe the barbet. The adjective, absent from 
Pennant’s English edition, is puzzling because 
it is not clear whether Bechstein uses the term 
to mean "Australian” or "southern.” Early 
writers usually call Australia New Holland so 
that an adjective referring to the country would 
not be "Australische.” It is not derived from the 
classification of the Polynesian dog as Cams 
australis because, so far as I can determine, that 
does not appear until later. 
Adding to the confusion, F. L. Walther 
(1817: 23 ) , who depends largely on Bechstein’s 
translation and a little directly on George For- 
ster, applies the name "Australische Hund” to 
his Canis familiaris villaticus, meridionalis. This 
is not the dog Pennant likens to the barbet but 
the variety he compares with the shepherd’s cur. 
Perhaps Walther purposely reverses Pennant’s 
two varieties to get back closer to Forster, the 
original source. Referring to Bechstein ( 1799, 
I: 258) and George Forster (1778, I: 286) as 
his sources, Walther states that his subvariety 
meridionalis is found in the Society and the 
Sandwich islands, also in New Zealand, and a 
Fig. 10. Detail of the scrawny dog in Figure 9- 
