88 CLUB TYPES OF NUCLEAR POLYNESIA. 
multiples as they have arisen out of our convenience. Yet we may 
feel perfectly well assured that the clubwrights have not wholly for- 
tuitously come into agreement upon 14 handbreadths as the standard 
of length for their lipped clubs and upon 15 for the billets, the root- 
stocks, the pandanus, the lapalapa, and the paddles. It is now incum- 
bent upon us to establish the system of such measure as has been found 
within the power of these primitives. 
Every man is his own tape-measure before the establishment of a 
bureau of standards. Our own speech is filled with reminders of such 
a primitive stage as we are to find uncorrected in the South Sea; we 
have the foot, the span, the handbreadth, the fathom; the French give 
us in pouce the thumb measurement of the inch, which we obtain 
by duodecimal division of the foot. Less need has arisen in Poly- 
nesian life for units of measurement; no need at all has arisen for corre- 
lation of such units as have come into being. From the Samoan we 
derive the following list of vocables which designate measurements: 
aga the span. ngafa fathom. 
laui‘a finger tip to wrist. fatulogonoa fingertip to opposite elbow. 
vaefatafata half fathom (literally space ‘umi ten fathoms. 
to breastbone), yard. 
From a group of American collegians between 5 feet 9 inches and 
6 feet 2 inches, which corresponds fairly well with the Polynesian 
stature, I have equated these and a few other practical measurements 
in table 38. In the first column I have set down the mean of the 
measurements; the second column gives the same measurements when 
functioned by a constant condition which will later be explained. 
TABLE 38. 
Full Handing 
(inches). (inches). 
sternum 
axilla opposite 
elbow opposite . 

The measurements in the second column are respectively shorter 
than the maximum measurements by 5, 8, 6, 5, and 7 inches. The 
function is in itself constant, but its value is subject to position varia- 
tion. This column presents the effective measurements. The islander 
has not hit upon the idea of taking off his working measurements on a 
cord and of employing that as a gage. He takes in his hand a stick 
