268 
Wild Life in Southern Seas. 
and, indeed, only a few years ago the people of 
one of the North-Western Pacific Islands almost 
entirely succumbed to pulmonary disease 
caused by their wearing heavy clothing during 
the rainy season. Previously, when they wore 
nothing more than a simple waist cloth or girdle 
of grass, such diseases were absolutely unknown, 
but their desire to resemble white men as much 
as possible, and the earnest supplications of the 
resident Hawaiian teacher who implored them 
to dress as he did, in cloth, proved fatal to 
these simple-minded people. 
Among other customs that have undergone a 
rapid change, or have been altogether discon¬ 
tinued, is that of marriage according to the old 
rites and ceremonies, with its many interesting 
and often pleasing details. In all those islands 
—except Samoa, perhaps—that have been the 
scene of missionary labours, the ceremony of 
marriage is now performed by either a white 
missionary or native teacher, and is a very 
prosaic affair, divested as it is of all the old 
attendant feastings and merrymakings. But 
among the Micronesian race inhabiting many 
of the scattered islands of the Western Caroline 
Group, the old native customs have as yet scarcely 
