Love and Marriage in Polynesia. 267 
chiefs’ example, abandoned their heathen practices 
for Christianity, the most terrible mortality re¬ 
sulted from the ill-advised action of the mis¬ 
sionaries inducing their converts to clothe 
themselves en masse as a practical proof of their 
spiritual change, and an outward and visible 
sign of grace. Precisely the same result has 
attended the introduction of Christianity in the 
Marshall and Caroline Groups by the American 
missionaries. Nowadays, however, in this respect 
a more liberal conception of the laws of nature 
and health is possessed by missionaries in general 
all over the world than was the case in the earlier 
years of the present century. Then—and were 
it not for the pathetic side of the question, one 
might be inclined to laugh at such inconceivable 
folly and ignorance being displayed by educated 
men—it was thought essential for a convert, 
who, perhaps, had for fifty years worn nothing 
more than a waist-girdle of pandanus leaf or of 
thin calico, to be garmented in a suit of heavy 
black cloth or woollen material, and adopt as 
well the habits and manners of civilised life. 
That many thousands of people died from 
pulmonary complaints engendered by this 
sudden change, the natives themselves assert; 
