Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 19.djvu/444

Rh 424 POLYNESIA race has greatly deteriorated. Some indications of their former condition will appear in the following account of the people. The Sawaioris are, physically, a very fine race. On some islands they average 5 feet 10 inches in height. De Quatrefages, in a table giving the stature of different races of men, 1 puts the natives of Samoa and Tonga as the largest people in the world. He gives the average height of this race as being 5 feet 9 92 inches. They are well developed in proportion to their height. Their colour is a brown, lighter or darker generally according to the amount of their exposure to the sun, being darker on some of the atolls where the people spend much time in fishing, and among fisher men on the volcanic islands, and lighter among women, chiefs, and others less exposed than the bulk of the people. Their hair is black and straight ; but in individual examples it is sometimes instances ; lips of medium thickness ; noses generally short, but rather wide at the bases. Their foreheads are fairly high, but rather narrow. When they are young many of the people of both sexes are good-looking. The men often have more regular features than the women. In former times more attention was paid to personal appearance and adornment among men than among the women. As a race the Sawaioris are somewhat apathetic, They differ, however, in different islands, according to their surroundings. Most of them live in an enervating climate where nature is very lavish of her gifts. Hence they lead easy lives. On the more barren islands, and on those more distant from the equator, the natives have much more energy. Under certain circumstances they become excitable, and manifest a kind of care-for-nothing spirit. This is only occasionally seen, and chiefly in time of war, in a family dispute, or on some other occasion when they are deeply moved. In the time of their heathenism they were strict in their religious observances, and religion came into almost every action of life. They were, in most instances, with comparative ease led to accept Christianity, and this characteristic has remained under the new condition of things. They are a shrewd people, with quick intelligence, and they possess naturally a large amount of common sense. Where they have from early years enjoyed the advantages of a good education, Sawaiori youths have proved them selves to possess intellectual powers of no mean order. They are almost invariably fluent speakers; with many of them oratory seems to be a natural gift ; it is also carefully cultivated. A Sawaiori orator will hold the interest of his hearers for hours together at a political gathering, and in his speech he will bring in historical allusions and precedents, and will make apt quota tions from ancient legends in a manner which would do credit to the best parliamentary orators. Many of them are very brave, and think little of self-sacrifice for others where duty or family honour is concerned. 2 The terms for family among this race are used in two senses (1) of a household, and (2) of all blood relations on both the male and the female side, including the wife or the husband, as the case may be, brought in by marriage, also those who have been adopted by members of the clan. In the following remarks the word family is used with the first meaning, and clan with the second. Each clan has a name which is usually borne by one of the oldest members, who is the chief or head for the time being. This clan system no doubt generally prevailed in early times, and was the origin of the principal chieftainships. But changes have been made in most of the islands. In some the head of one clan has become king over several. In many cases large clans have been divided into sections under secondary heads, and have even been subdivided. The different classes of chieftainships may probably be thus accounted for. As a rule, near relations do not intermarry. In some islands this rule is rigidly adhered to. There, have been exceptions, however, especially in the case of high chiefs ; but usually great care is taken to prevent the union of those within the prescribed limits of consanguinity. Children generally dsvell with their kin on the father s side, but they have equal rights on the mother s side, and sometimes they take up their abode with their mother s family. The only names used to express particular relation ships are father and mother, son and daughter, brother and sister. 1 The Human Species (International Scientific Series), pp. 57-CO. z Of various acts by Sawaioris which indicate the possession of bravery and elf-possession under trying circumstances the following may serve as a sample. Some lads belonging to two villages in Samoa fell out, and began stone-throwing. One of them, who was the son of a chief, was struck and, it was feared, was killed As soon as this was known to the young men of the village they armed them selves in order to go to the other village to seek reparation, according to a custom of former times, by killing some one belonging to the family of the boy who had thrown the stone. A report preceded them that they were going, and a young man, a cousin of the boy, in order to prevent a fight, quietly walked out of the rillage to meet the avengers of blood. When he met them he calmly said, &quot;You are coming to avenge your brother. I am brother to the boy who killed him. Do not go further; kill me and be avenged, so that our villages may remain His conduct somewhat disconcerted the party, and by the timely arrival of a Christian teacher matters were settled without bloodshed. There is usually no distinction between brothers (or sisters) and cousins, all the children of brothers and sisters speak of each other as brothers and sisters, and they call uncles and aunts fathers and mothers. Above the relationship- of parents all are simply ancestors, no term being used for grandfather which would not equally apply to any more remote male ancestor. In the same way there is no distinctive term for grandchild. A man speaks of his grandchild as his son or daughter, or simply as his child. 3 Polygamy was often practised, especially by chiefs, and also con cubinage. In some places a widow was taken by the brother of her deceased husband, or, failing the brother, by some other relative of the deceased, as an additional wife. Divorce was an easy matter, and of frequent occurrence ; but, as a rule, a divorced wife would not marry again without the consent of her former husband. An adulterer was always liable to be killed by the aggrieved husband, or by some member of his clan. If the culprit himself could not be reached, any member of the clan was liable to suffer in his stead. In some islands female virtue was highly re garded. Perhaps of all the groups Samoa stood highest in this respect. There was a special ordeal through which a bride passed to prove her virginity, and a proof of her immorality brought dis grace upon all her relatives. But in other islands there was much freedom in the relations of the sexes. Owing to the almost promiscuous intercourse which prevailed among a portion of the race, in some groups titles descended through the mother and not through the father. In Hawaii there was a peculiar system of marriage relationship, &quot;brothers with their wives, and sisters with their husbands, possessing each other in common.&quot; There also, especially in the case of chiefs and chieftainesscs, brothers and sisters sometimes intermarried. But these customs did not pre vail in other groups. It is almost certain that they did not prevail in Hawaii in early times, but. that they were the result of that deterioration in the race which their traditions and many of their customs indicate. 4 Women have always occupied a relatively high position among the Sawaioris. In most groups they have great influence and are treated with much respect. In some cases they take hereditary titles and hold high offices. As among their congeners in Mada gascar, so also in parts of Polynesia, there may be a queen or a chieftainess in her own right ; and a woman in high position will command as much respect, and will exercise as great authority, as a man would in the same position. Everywhere infanticide prevailed ; in some of the smaller islands it was regulated by law in order to prevent over-population. It was also a very common practice to destroy the fcetus, yet, even before the reception of Christianity, parents were affectionate towards the children who were spared. The practice of adopting children was, and still is, common. Often there is an exchange made between members of the same clan ; but sometimes there is adoption from without. Tattooing generally prevailed among the men, different patterns being followed in different groups of islands. In some a larger portion of the body is tattooed than in others. A youth was con sidered to be in his minority until he was tattooed, and in former times he would have no chance of marrying until he had, by sub mitting to this process, proved himself to be a man. Puberty in the other sex was generally marked by feasting, or some other demonstration, among the female friends. Old age is generally honoured. Often an inferior chief will give up his title to a younger man, yet he himself will lose but little by so doing. The neglect of aged persons is extremely rare. Property belonging to a clan is held in common. Each clan usually possesses land, and over this no one member has an exclusive right, but all have an equal right to use it. The chief or recog nized head of the clan or section alone can properly dispose of it or assign its use for a time to an outsider ; and even he is expected to obtain the consent of the heads of families before he alienates the property. Thus laud is handed down through successive generations 3 Dr Lewis II. Morgan in Ancient Society, pp. 419-423, makes the Sawaioris to have distinctive terms for grandfather, grandmother, grandson, and grand daughter. In this he is entirely mistaken. It is evident from his own lists that the Hawaiian kupuna means simply an ancestor. In like manner moopuna simply means a descendent of any generation after the first. 4 Morgan has founded one of his forms of family the consanguine on the supposed existence in former times among the Malays and Polynesians of the custom of &quot;intermarriage of brothers and sisters, own and collateral, in a group.&quot; All the evidence he finds in support of this is (1) the existence of the custom above mentioned in Hawaii, and (2) the absence of special terms for the relatii n- ship of uncle, aunt, and cousin, this indicating, he thinks, that these were regarded as fathers, mothers, brothers, and sisters. He admits that &quot; the usages with respect to marriage which prevailed when the system was formed may not prevail at the present time.&quot; But he adds, &quot; To sustain the deduction it is not necessary that they should &quot; (Ancient Society, p. 408). Morgan has given special terms for grandfather and grandmother, because it would prove too much to show that the people had no grandfathers, itc. But these terms are used for ancestors of any generation. The terms used for grandchildren, in like manner, are used for any generation of descendants. He says (p. 406) the terms of husband and wife are used in common by a group of sisters or brothers, but tl e fact is that the words used for husband and wife in Hawaii simply mean male and female. In some islands there are terms used for wife in the most strict sense. The word wife is not used more exclusively among us than among some Sawaiori people.