Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 30.djvu/220

206 of late to a great extent replaced the old weapons, and the armor has been generally laid aside. It is odd that the custom of the duel should be common among the Gilbert natives. Duels are rarely to the death, but a wooden sword bristling with shark's teeth can, to judge from the tremendous scars on many of the men's bodies, inflict very severe wounds.

The Marshall Islands are less known than the Ellice or Gilbert groups. The Archipelago is divided into two chains; the Ralick, or western, and the Radack, or eastern. The Marshall Island men are tall, the women singularly short. Some of the latter sex, who are of high birth, are very good-looking, and extremely graceful. The men are tattooed on the body and right up to the temples. Those of chiefly family cover the whole body; commoners leave an unmarked patch from the armpit nearly to the waist. The lobe of the ear is perforated, and often greatly distended with an unclosed hoop of wood. When this ornament is not carried, the vacant loop of flesh is hung over the point of the ear. The women tattoo the back of the hand and the foreann nearly to the elbow in tasteful patterns, so that they appear to have on open-worked silk mitts. The male costume is decidedly picturesque. It consists of two enormous tassels of shreds of vau bark joined by a plaited strap and disposed round the body so as to form a kilt. It is kept in place by a cord covered with plaiting of pretty pattern, which cord, being often over a hundred feet long, is wound round the waist till it forms a large coil. Chiefs particularly affect great length of cord, which does not improve the wearer's appearance, as it makes the kilt too bunchy. With a coil of moderate size the kilt is very becoming, and recalls the Albanian fustanella. The women's dress is composed of two mats worked with devices of great taste. The so-called "Greek key" is common as an ornament at the edges. These mats are bound round with a cord, similar to that of the men, above the hips, leaving a few inches of mat above, while the rest reaches nearly to the ankle. The costume is thus very like a low-necked European gown without sleeves, and, though a little stiff for sitting down in, has an attractive appearance when the wearer stands.

The Marshall Island canoes are like those of the Gilbert Islands; but they are larger, and on the sloping platforms built out on each side there are frequently little houses in which three or four of the crew can sleep. The natives are great navigators. They actually make curious charts of thin strips of wood tied together with fibers. Some of these charts indicate the position of the different islands with a surprising approach to accuracy. Others give the directions of the prevailing winds and currents. These are used as instruments to determine the course to be steered, so as to take advantage of the wind and to allow for current-drift rather than as charts are used by us.

The low atolls of the three groups just spoken of are called by