Chapter VI: The Belief in Immortality Among the Marquesans (1)

Sec. 1. _The Marquesas Islands_

The Marquesas are an archipelago of eleven or twelve chief islands in the South Pacific, situated about nine hundred miles to the north-east of Tahiti. They fall into two groups, which together stretch in a direction from north-west to south-east, from 8 deg. to 11 deg. of South latitude. The south-eastern group, of which Hivaoa (Dominica) is the largest island, was discovered by the Spanish Admiral Alvaro Mendana de Neyra in 1595, but, so far as appears, it was not again visited by Europeans until 1774, when Captain Cook touched at the islands on his second voyage. Curiously enough, the north-westerly group, of which Nukahiva is the largest and most important island, remained unknown until 1791, when it was discovered by the American Captain Ingraham, who named the group the Washington Islands. About a month later, in June 1791, the French navigator Marchand visited the same islands, and in 1797 the first missionary, William Crook, was landed from the missionary ship _Duff_. The whole archipelago is now known as the Marquesas, a name which the Spanish Admiral Mendana bestowed on the islands discovered by him in honour of the Marquess de Canete, Viceroy of Peru, by whose order the voyage had been undertaken.[1]

[1] Captain J. Cook, _Voyages_, iii. 274 _sqq._; G. Forster,
_Voyage round the World_, ii. 5 _sqq._; C. P. Claret Fleurieu,
_Voyage round the World performed by E. Marchand_ (London,
1801), i. 27 _sqq._, 55 _sqq._; J. Wilson, _Missionary Voyage to
the Southern Pacific Ocean_, pp. lxxiii. _sqq._, 127 _sqq._; A.
J. von Krusenstern, _Voyage round the World_ (London, 1813), i.
136; Vincendon-Dumoulin et C. Desgraz, _Iles Marquises ou
Nouka-hiva_ (Paris, 1843), pp. 1 _sqq._, 12 _sq._; Le P. Mathias
G----, _Lettres sur les Iles Marquises_ (Paris, 1843), pp. 7
_sqq._; P. E. Eyriaud des Vergnes, _L'Archipel des Iles
Marquises_ (Paris, 1877), pp. 1 _sqq._; C. E. Meinicke, _Die
Inseln des Stillen Oceans_, ii. 235 _sq._; F. H. H. Guillemard,
_Australasia_, ii. 522.

The islands are of volcanic formation, lofty and mountainous. The interior consists generally of a range of mountains some three thousand feet high, from which a series of spurs descend steeply to the coast, terminating for the most part in tremendous cliffs, at the foot of which the great rollers break in foam; for with a single exception there are no coral reefs, and a ship can sail in deep water within a cable's length of the rocks. Viewed at a distance from the sea, the aspect of the islands is somewhat stern and forbidding. Bare mountains, jagged peaks, sometimes lost in the clouds, and an iron-bound coast of black and beetling crags, buffeted eternally by the surf, make up a gloomy picture; but a nearer view discloses verdant valleys nestling between the ridges which radiate from the central mountains. These valleys are watered by mountain streams and clothed with dense tropical vegetation, their luxuriant green offering an agreeable contrast to the bareness and aridity of the frowning precipices and sharp peaks which soar above them. Cascades tumbling from high cliffs into the depths of the glens add to the beauty and charm of the scenery. So steep and precipitous are the ridges which divide these smiling vales from each other that the ascent and descent are in many places both difficult and dangerous even for the natives; European mountaineers need to have stout limbs and steady heads to accomplish them in safety. Hence in former days each valley contained a separate tribe, which was commonly in a state of permanent hostility towards its neighbours across the mountain barriers.[2] Of these tribes the most famous were the warlike and dreaded Taipiis or Typees, who occupied a beautiful valley at the eastern end of Nukahiva, and in their mountain fastness deemed themselves inaccessible to their enemies. However, in the early part of the nineteenth century an American naval officer, Captain David Porter, succeeded, not without great difficulty, in carrying havoc and devastation into these sylvan scenes.[3] Later in the century a runaway American sailor, Hermann Melville, spent more than four months as a captive in the tribe, and published an agreeable narrative of his captivity; but never having mastered the language, he was not able to give much exact information concerning the customs and beliefs of the natives.[4] As there is no maritime plain interposed between the mountains and the shore, the only way of passing from one valley to another is either to go by sea or to clamber over the intervening ridges. It would be materially impossible, we are told, unless at enormous and ruinous cost, to make a road or even a mule-path round any of the Marquesas Islands, as has been done in Tahiti.[5]

[2] As to the formation and scenery of the islands, see
Krusenstern, _op. cit._ i. 110; C. S. Stewart, _Visit to the
South Seas_ (London, 1832), i. 193 _sqq._; F. D. Bennett,
_Narrative of a Whaling Voyage round the Globe_ (London, 1840),
i. 299 _sqq._; H. Melville, _Typee_, pp. 8 _sq._, 17 _sq._, and
_passim_ (_Everyman's Library_); Vincendon-Dumoulin et C.
Desgraz, _op. cit._ pp. 138 _sq._; P. E. Eyriaud des Vergnes,
_op. cit._ pp. 84 _sq._; Clavel, _Les Marquisiens_ (Paris, 1885)
pp. 1 _sq._; C. E. Meinicke, _op. cit._ ii. 236 _sq._; F. H. H.
Guillemard, _op. cit._ pp. 522 _sq._; A. Baessler, _Neue
Suedsee-Bilder_ (Berlin, 1900), pp. 192 _sq._, 220 _sqq._ As to
the extreme difficulty of scaling the mountains and precipices
to pass from one valley to another, see particularly M.
Radiguet, _Les Derniers Sauvages_ (Paris, 1882), pp. 101 _sq._,
note.

[3] Captain David Porter, _Journal of a Cruise made to the
Pacific Ocean_, Second Edition (New York, 1822), ii. 86 _sqq._

[4] H. Melville, _Typee_ (London, _Everyman's Library_, no
date). The first edition of this book was published in 1846.
Melville's residence among the Taipiis (Typees) fell in the year
1841.

[5] P. E. Eyriaud des Vergnes, _op. cit._ p. 85.

Despite their situation in the heart of the tropics, the Marquesas enjoy an extremely healthy climate subject to none of the inconveniences usually incidental to countries in the same latitude; endemic and epidemic diseases are alike unknown. European soldiers can work in the sun without accident and without exhaustion.[6] The climate has been described as an eternal spring, without winter or even autumn; though a perpetual succession of ripe fruits may seem to lend an autumnal air to the landscape, which yet is never chilled by hoar frosts or saddened by the sight of bare boughs and fallen leaves.[7] Even in the hottest days a cool wind blows from the sea, and at night there is a breeze from the land. Rain falls during some months of the year, especially from May or June to August or September; but on the whole there is little variation in the seasons;[8] the Marquesan year has been described as one long tropical month of June just melting into July.[9] Yet we are told that the northern islands sometimes suffer from droughts which may last for years; at such times vegetation languishes, till a fresh cloud-burst restores the verdure of the trees and grass as by magic.[10] It is then, too, that the cascades everywhere enliven the landscape by the glitter and roar of their tumbling waters, which, after dropping from the height, flow rapidly down their steep beds into the sea.[11]

[6] M. Radiguet, _Les Derniers Sauvages_ (Paris, 1882), pp. 304
_sq._; P. E. Eyriaud des Vergnes, _op. cit._ p. 57.

[7] Mathias G----, _op. cit._ p. 94.

[8] P. E. Eyriaud des Vergnes, _op. cit._ p. 57. Compare M.
Radiguet, _Les Derniers Sauvages_, pp. 304 _sq._

[9] H. Melville, _Typee_, p. 220.

[10] A. Baessler, _op. cit._ pp. 222 _sq._

[11] M. Radiguet, _op. cit._ p. 304.

Sec. 2. _Physical Appearance of the Natives_

Observers are generally agreed that from the purely physical point of view the Marquesan islanders are, or used to be, the noblest specimens of the Polynesian race. Captain Cook remarked that "the inhabitants of these islands collectively are, without exception, the finest race of people in this sea. For fine shape and regular features, they perhaps surpass all other nations."[12] To the same effect the naturalist George Forster, who accompanied Captain Cook, gives his impression of a crowd of Marquesan men, among whom were no women. He says: "They were tall, and extremely well limbed; not one of them unwieldy or corpulent like a Taheitian, nor meagre and shrivelled like a native of Easter Island. The punctuation" (by which he meant the tattooing) "which almost entirely covered the men of a middle age, made it difficult to distinguish their elegance of form; but among the youths, who were not yet marked or tattooed, it was easy to discover beauties singularly striking, and often without a blemish, such as demanded the admiration of all beholders. Many of them might be placed near the famous models of antiquity, and would not suffer in the comparison:

"_Qualis aut Nireus fuit, aut aquosa
Raptus ab Ida."_
HOR.

"The natural colour of these youths was not quite so dark as that of the common people in the Society Isles; but the men appeared to be infinitely blacker, on account of the punctures which covered their whole body, from head to foot. These punctures were disposed with the utmost regularity; so that the marks on each leg, arm, and cheek, and on the corresponding muscles, were exactly similar. They never assumed the determinate form of an animal or plant, but consisted of a variety of blotches, spirals, bars, chequers, and lines, which had a most motley appearance."[13]

[12] J. Cook, _Voyages_, iii. 284.

[13] G. Forster, _Voyage round the World_, ii. 14 _sq._ Compare
Krusenstern, _op. cit._ i. 152 _sq._; U. Lisiansky, _Voyage
round the World_ (London, 1814), p. 85; G. H. von Langsdorff,
_Reise um die Welt_ (Frankfurt am Mayn, 1812), i. 92 _sqq._;
Fleurieu, _op. cit._ i. 96 _sqq._; Vincendon-Dumoulin et C.
Desgraz, _op. cit._ pp. 216 _sqq._; Eyriaud des Vergnes, _op.
cit._ p. 39.

Similarly, speaking of the Taipiis or Typees, Melville observes, "In beauty of form they surpassed anything I had ever seen. Not a single instance of natural deformity was observable in all the throng attending the revels. Occasionally I noticed among the men the scars of wounds they had received in battle; and sometimes, though very seldom, the loss of a finger, an eye, or an arm, attributable to the same cause. With these exceptions, every individual appeared free from those blemishes which sometimes mar the effect of an otherwise perfect form. But their physical excellence did not merely consist in an exemption from these evils; nearly every individual of their number might have been taken for a sculptor's model."[14] As to their stature, the same writer affirms that "the men, in almost every instance, are of lofty stature, scarcely ever less than six feet."[15] Similarly Captain Porter tell us that "they are far above the common stature of the human race, seldom less than five feet eleven inches, but most commonly six feet two or three inches, and every way proportioned. Their faces are remarkably handsome, with keen, piercing eyes; teeth white, and more beautiful than ivory; countenances open and expressive, which reflect every emotion of their souls; limbs which might serve as models for a statuary, and strength and activity proportioned to their appearance."[16] Another observer remarks of them that "the natives bear the palm for personal beauty from most other of the Polynesian tribes. The men are tall and muscular, though rather slightly framed; their deportment is graceful and independent; their features are handsome, and partake more of the European regularity of profile than is usual with Polynesian islanders."[17] The nose is straight or aquiline, sometimes short or slightly flattened, but never ill-shaped: the mouth is never large nor the lips thick: the forehead is rather low and somewhat retreating.[18] The hair is almost always straight or wavy; men or women with frizzly hair are very seldom seen, especially in the north-western group. The colour of the skin, where it is not darkened by tattooing, is a clear brown, resembling the bronzed appearance acquired by Europeans through exposure to a tropical sun.[19] The women are both absolutely and relatively shorter than the men; indeed Melville describes them as "uncommonly diminutive." Their complexion is lighter; in the parts of the body which are seldom exposed to the sun they are even said to appear as white as European women. Their features are good, but rather pretty than beautiful; their hands and feet are very shapely. Unlike the men, who are, or used to be, tattooed from head to foot, the women were tattooed very little, and that chiefly on the lips.[20] They took pains to whiten their skin by avoiding exposure to the sun and by washing themselves with the juice of a small native vine,[21] or by smearing themselves with a cosmetic in which the yellow of the turmeric root predominated.[22]

[14] H. Melville, _Typee_, p. 194.

[15] H. Melville, _Typee_, p. 195.

[16] David Porter, _op. cit._ ii. 58 _sq._

[17] F. D. Bennett, _op. cit._ i. 304.

[18] M. Radiguet, _op. cit._ p. 169.

[19] Eyriaud des Vergnes, _op. cit._ p. 39.

[20] Eyriaud des Vergnes, _op. cit._ pp. 39 _sq._; H. Melville,
_Typee_, p. 195.

[21] C. S. Stewart, _Visit to the South Seas_, i. 231 _sq._, who
speaks highly of the beauty of the women. But the general
opinion appears to be that the Marquesan women are much less
handsome than the men. See Langsdorff, _op. cit._ i. 94-96;
Porter, _op. cit._ ii. 59.

[22] F. D. Bennett, _op. cit._ i. 308 _sq._

Sec. 3. _Food, Weapons, Tools, Houses, Canoes, Fishing_

The Marquesans subsist chiefly on a vegetable diet. Their staple food is the bread-fruit, and their national dish is a paste called _popoi_, which is prepared from bread-fruit after it has been subjected to a process of fermentation. Fish is also a common article of diet; the natives usually eat it raw, even when it is rotten and stinking. They keep pigs, but seldom kill them except for a festival or at the reception of a stranger. Hence pork is not a regular or common article of diet with them; and apart from it they hardly taste flesh. Other sorts of food, such as bananas, taro, and sugar-cane, are entirely subsidiary to the great staples, bread-fruit and fish. The natives do not readily accustom themselves to a European diet; indeed when the experiment has been made of feeding them exclusively in our manner, they have wasted away and only recovered their health when they were allowed to return to their usual nourishment. Their ordinary beverage was water, but they were also addicted to the drinking of kava, which was extracted from the root of the _Piper methysticum_ in the usual fashion.[23] Drawing their sustenance chiefly from the bread-fruit tree, the Marquesans paid little attention to the cultivation of the soil; however, they grew a certain amount of taro, sweet potatoes, and sugar-cane; and they had plantations of the paper-mulberry,[24] the bark of which was manufactured by the women into cloth in the ordinary way. But the bark of other trees was also employed for the same purpose. Since the natives were able to procure European stuffs, the indigenous manufacture of bark-cloth has much declined.[25] Hence agriculture engaged the men very little; fishing, though it was part of their business, they are said to have neglected; the only work of consequence they did was to build their houses and manufacture their arms, but these employments occupied them only occasionally.[26]

[23] Eyriaud des Vergnes, _op. cit._ pp. 42-44; Clavel, _Les
Marquisiens_, pp. 3 _sqq._ Compare G. Forster, _op. cit._ ii. 27
_sq._; Langsdorff, _op. cit._ i. 106-108; Fleurieu, _op. cit._
i. 115 _sq._; Porter, _op. cit._ ii. 50-55; F. D. Bennett, _op.
cit._ i. 316 _sq._; H. Melville, _Typee_, pp. 120-124, 179;
Vincendon-Dumoulin et C. Desgraz, _op. cit._ pp. 277 _sq._;
Mathias G----, _op. cit._ pp. 138 _sq._, 144 _sq._; A. Baessler,
_op. cit._ pp. 208-211. As to the preparation and drinking of
kava among the Marquesans, see also M. Radiguet, _op. cit._ pp.
64-66.

[24] Krusenstern, _op. cit._ i. 164; Porter, _op. cit._ ii. 53;
C. S. Stewart, _op. cit._ i. 213 _sq._; F. D. Bennett, _op.
cit._ i. 345 (who says that the only root the natives cultivate
for food is the sweet potato); Mathias G----, _op. cit._ pp.
148, 149; Clavel, _op. cit._ p. 18.

[25] Fleurieu, _op. cit._ i. 122 _sq._; Porter, _op. cit._ ii.
116; Bennett, _op. cit._ i. 337 _sq._; Melville, _Typee_, pp.
158-160, 210; Mathias G----, _op. cit._ pp. 137 _sq._; Radiguet,
_op. cit._ pp. 53 _sq._; Eyriaud des Vergnes, _op. cit._ 55
_sq._; Clavel, _op. cit._ 19.

[26] Krusenstern, _op. cit._ i. 164.

The weapons of the warriors were clubs, spears, and slings. The slings were made of coco-nut fibre, and the natives were very expert in the use of them. Bows and arrows were unknown.[27] Like the rest of the Polynesians, the Marquesans were totally ignorant of the metals until they acquired them from Europeans. Their tools were made of stone, bone, and shell. Thus they employed a pointed stone to bore holes with, and an axe of black, hard stone for cutting. The axe-head was shaped like an elongated wedge or mortise-chisel, and was fastened to the haft by coco-nut fibre. Some of these axes weighed as much as twenty-five pounds. The natives also used sharp-edged or toothed shells as cutting implements, and borers made of pointed bones; while rough fish-skins served them as polishers.[28] Like the rest of the Polynesians, they kindled fire by the method known as the stick-and-groove, that is, by rubbing the sharp point of one stick against the flat surface of another, so as to form a groove in it and, by continued friction, to elicit smoke and a glow, which, with the help of dry leaves, is nursed into a flame. Contrary to the usage of some peoples, the Marquesans employed the same kind of wood for both the fire-sticks, either a species of hibiscus (_Hibiscus tiliaceus_) or a species of poplar (_Thespesia populnea_); for this purpose they split a branch in two, lengthwise, and used the two pieces as the fire-sticks. In former days these fire-sticks were regularly kept in every native house.[29]

[27] Fleurieu, _op. cit._ i. 118 _sq._; Krusenstern, _op. cit._
i. 162; Lisiansky, _op. cit._ p. 88; Langsdorff, _op. cit._ i.
152 (bows and arrows unknown); Vincendon-Dumoulin et C. Desgraz,
_op. cit._ pp. 282 _sq._

[28] Fleurieu, _op. cit._ i. 121; Krusenstern, _op. cit._ i.
162.

[29] H. Melville, _Typee_, pp. 118 _sq._; Clavel, _Les
Marquisiens_, pp. 11 _sq._ Compare G. Forster, _op. cit._ ii.
20; D. Porter, _op. cit._ ii. 116; Mathias G----, _op. cit._ p.
143.

The Marquesan houses are regularly built on stone platforms, oblong or square in shape, and raised above the ground to heights varying from one to four, eight, or even ten feet. The higher platforms are approached from the ground by ladders or notched poles. The houses, constructed of timber and bamboo, are oblong in shape, and comprise a high back wall, generally inclined forward at an angle, from which the thatched roof slopes down steeply to a low front wall, while two short walls close the house at either end. The door is in the middle of the front wall, and is so low that it is necessary to stoop in entering. Sometimes the fronts of the houses are entirely open except for the low pillars which support the roof. The interior of the house forms a single chamber undivided by partitions. Two trunks of coco-nut palms extend parallel to each other along the whole length of the floor at an interval of four or five feet; the innermost log, a foot or two distant from the back wall, forms a pillow on which the heads of the sleepers rest, while the other supports their feet or legs. The space between the two logs is paved with stone, and spread with mats. In the single apartment the whole family live and sleep. Such at least were the domestic arrangements in the old days. The size of the houses naturally varies. Some of them measure eighty feet by forty, others only twenty-five feet by ten, or even less.[30]

[30] J. Cook, _Voyages_, iii. 285 _sq._; G. Forster, _op. cit._
pp. 21, 24; J. Wilson, _op. cit._ pp. 131, 134 _sq._; Lisiansky,
_op. cit._ p. 84; Krusenstern, _op. cit._ i. 159; Langsdorff,
_op. cit._ i. 109-111; Porter, _op. cit._ ii. 39 _sq._; C. S.
Stewart, _op. cit._ i. 209-211, 212, 267 _sq._; Bennett, _op.
cit._ i. 302 _sq._; Melville, _Typee_, pp. 81-83;
Vincendon-Dumoulin et C. Desgraz, _op. cit._ pp. 274-276;
Mathias G----, _op. cit._ pp. 122-129; Radiguet, _op. cit._ pp.
36-38; Eyriaud des Vergnes, _op. cit._ pp. 44 _sq._; Clavel,
_op. cit._ pp. 15 _sq._; Baessler, _op. cit._ pp. 200-208.

The platforms on which the houses are built consist often of large blocks of stone neatly and regularly laid without mortar or cement, in a style which would do no discredit to European masons.[31] Sometimes the stones are described as enormous blocks of rock,[32] some of which would require ten or twelve men to carry or roll them.[33] Water-worn boulders, washed down from the mountains in the bed of torrents, were especially chosen for the purpose.[34]

[31] Langsdorff, _op. cit._ i. 109 _sq._

[32] Mathias G----, _op. cit._ p. 129.

[33] Langsdorff, _l.c._

[34] Clavel, _op. cit._ p. 15.

Sometimes, though far less commonly, Marquesan houses were raised above the ground on posts from eight or ten to sixteen feet high. Such houses were lightly built of wood and thatched; the floor was an open work of split bamboos. Sometimes these raised dwellings resembled the ordinary Marquesan house in structure; at other times they were quadrangular, with perpendicular walls and an ordinary roof. They were approached by ladders and resembled the habitations in use among the Malay tribes of the Indian Archipelago. No dwellings of this type have been noticed in Nukahiva, the principal island of the archipelago; but they have been seen and described in Tauata (Santa Christina) and Hivaoa (Dominica).[35]

[35] F. D. Bennett, _op. cit._ i. 303 _sq._; Baessler, _op.
cit._ pp. 207 _sq._

The Marquesans built canoes of various sizes, the smaller for fishing, the larger for war. These latter might be from forty to fifty feet long. They were fitted with outriggers. The prow had an ornamental projection rudely carved to represent the head of an animal. Sometimes the prows of war canoes were decorated with the skulls of slaughtered enemies. But in general the Marquesans appear to have been inferior to the other South Sea islanders in the arts of canoe-building and navigation.[36] This inferiority may perhaps have been partly due to the absence of those lagoons which, formed by coral reefs, elsewhere enabled the natives to acquire confidence and skill in sailing on smooth and sheltered waters. The same cause may also, perhaps, explain why fishing was comparatively little practised by the Marquesans. We are told that as an occupation it was despised by such as owned a piece of land of any extent, and that only the poorer class of people, who depended on the sea for a livelihood, addicted themselves to it. They caught fish by means both of nets and of lines with hooks neatly made of mother-of-pearl; also they stupefied the fish by a certain mashed root, which the fisherman distributed in the water by diving, and then caught the fish as they rose to the surface.[37]

[36] J. Cook, _Voyages_, iii. 287; Krusenstern, _op. cit._ i.
163 _sq._; Langsdorff, _op. cit._ i. 150; Porter, _op. cit._,
ii. 12-14; Bennett, _op. cit._ i. 338; Vincendon-Dumoulin et C.
Desgraz, _op. cit._ pp. 280-282.

[37] Krusenstern, _op. cit._ i. 163.

Sec. 4. _Polyandry, Adoption, Exchange of Names_

The social life of the Marquesan islanders presented some peculiar features. Thus they are said to have practised the rare custom of polyandry. On this subject Stewart observes: "We have yet met with no instance, in any rank of society, of a male with two wives, but are informed that for one woman to have two husbands is a universal habit. Some favourite in the father's household or retinue at an early period becomes the husband of the daughter, who still remains under the paternal roof till contracted in marriage to a second individual, on which she removes with her first husband to his habitation, and both herself and original companion are supported by him."[38] Melville describes the custom in substantially the same way, and adds, "No man has more than one wife, and no wife of mature years has less than two husbands,--sometimes she has three, but such instances are not frequent." He seems to have attributed the practice to a scarcity of women; for he tells us that "the males considerably outnumber the females."[39] The same view was taken at a later date by Dr. Clavel, who observes: "In the islands where the women are in a minority we may to this day observe tolerably numerous cases of polyandry. Thus at Ua-Una I met some women who had each two husbands, almost always one of them young and the other old. Such households of three are not worse than the rest and never give rise to intestine dissensions."[40] According to Radiguet, the right of having more husbands than one was not general and hardly belonged to any but chieftainesses,[41] but this limitation is denied by a good authority.[42] The Russian navigator Lisiansky, who visited the Marquesas in 1804, seems to have supposed that the custom was restricted to wealthy families. He says: "In rich families, every woman has two husbands; of whom one may be called the assistant husband. This last, when the other is at home, is nothing more than the head servant of the house; but, in case of absence, exercises all the rights of matrimony, and is also obliged to attend his lady wherever she goes. It happens sometimes, that the subordinate partner is chosen after marriage; but in general two men present themselves to the same woman, who, if she approves their addresses, appoints one for the real husband, and the other as his auxiliary: the auxiliary is generally poor, but handsome and well-made."[43]

[38] C. S. Stewart, _op. cit._ i. 317.

[39] Melville, _Typee_, pp. 203 _sq._

[40] Clavel, _op. cit._ p. 60.

[41] Radiguet, _op. cit._ 173.

[42] Mathias G----, _op. cit._ p. 111.

[43] Lisiansky, _op. cit._ p. 83. As to polyandry in the
Marquesas, see further E. Westermarck, _History of Human
Marriage_, Fifth Edition (London, 1921), iii. 146 _sqq._

Another peculiar habit of the Marquesans was to give away their children to be adopted by other people soon after their birth. When a woman was pregnant, she and her husband would discuss to whom they should give the child that was about to be born. They received offers from neighbours, and often knocked down the infant to the highest bidder; for the adopting parents regularly made presents to the child's family, consisting of cloth, tools, and pigs, according to the fortune of the contracting parties. After birth the child remained with its mother for some months till it was weaned, upon which it was sent away to its parents by adoption, who might inhabit a different district and even a different island. It is said to have been exceptional for parents to bring up their own offspring.[44]

[44] Eyriaud des Vergnes, _op. cit._ pp. 19 _sq._; Clavel, _op.
cit._ pp. 56, 61 _sq._

Another mode by which the Marquesans created artificial relationships was the exchange of names. Such an exchange was equivalent to a ratification of amity and good-will between the persons, who thereby acquired a claim to mutual protection and the enjoyment of each other's property and even of their wives, if they happened to be married men. The custom was not limited to the natives; they readily exchanged names with Europeans and granted them the privileges which flowed from the pact. It is even said that some natives gave their own names to animals, which thenceforth became sacred for them and for the rest of the tribe. This led to so many inconveniences that the priests had to forbid the practice of exchanging names with animals.[45]

[45] Radiguet, _op. cit._ pp. 16 _sq._, 158 _sq._; Clavel, _op.
cit._ pp. 61 _sq._

Sec. 5. _Amusements, Dancing-places, Banqueting-halls_

A favourite amusement of the islanders was racing or combating on stilts. A stilt was composed of two pieces, a pole of light wood which the runner held in his hand, and a step or foot-rest of hard wood, on which he planted one of his feet. The step or foot-rest was often adorned with human figures curiously carved, which are said to have represented gods. The races or combats took place on the paved areas which were to be seen in most villages, and which formed the scene of public entertainments. In these contests each runner or combatant tried to get in the way of his adversary, and, balancing himself on one stilt, to strike his rival with the other, so as to bring him to the ground amid the laughter and jeers of the spectators. It has sometimes been supposed that the use of stilts in the Marquesas originated in the practical purpose of enabling people to cross a stream without wetting their feet. But the supposition is highly improbable. For, on the one hand, the streams in the islands are mere rivulets, which dry up for the greater part of the year; and, on the other hand, the natives are almost amphibious, often spending whole days in the water, and swimming for hours without fatigue. Hence it is absurd to imagine that they invented stilts simply to keep their feet dry at crossing a shallow stream.[46]

[46] Fleurieu, _op. cit._ i. 119 _sq._, 124; Langsdorff, _op.
cit._ i. 146; Porter, _op. cit._ ii. 124-126; Vincendon-Dumoulin
et C. Desgraz, _op. cit._ p. 284; Mathias G----, _op. cit._ p.
96. As for the ability of the natives to swim in the sea for
hours without fatigue, compare J. Wilson, _Missionary Voyage to
the Southern Pacific Ocean_, p. 129.

But perhaps the most popular recreation of the Marquesans was dancing and singing, which formed a leading feature of their festivals. Every inhabited district had its dancing-place, a sort of public square, where places were set apart for the use of the performers, the musicians, and the spectators. These have been described by the missionary, C. S. Stewart, from personal observation. He says, "Our walk terminated at what may be called the _theatre_ or _opera house_ of the settlement, a large rectangular platform of stone pavement, surrounded by low terraces also laid with stone; the first designed for the public exhibitions of the song and the dance, and the last for the accommodation of the spectators who assemble to witness the performance. Entertainments of this kind are the most fashionable and favourite amusements at the Washington and the Marquesan groups. Every inhabited district has its _Tahua_, or public square of this kind; some of them so extensive, it is said, as to be capable of accommodating ten thousand people."[47] Again, speaking of another of these dancing-places, the same writer observes, "This _Tahua_, or theatre, is a structure altogether superior to that visited by us yesterday, and so massive and well built as to be capable of enduring for ages. It is a regular oblong square, about sixty feet in length and forty broad. The outer wall consists of immense stones, or slabs of rock, three feet high, and many of them four or six feet long, joined closely together and hewn with a regularity and neatness truly astonishing, in view of the rude implements by which it must have been accomplished. On a level with the top of this outer wall, a pavement of large flat stones, several feet in width, extends entirely round, forming seats for the chiefs, warriors, and other persons of distinction, and singers performing the recitatives and choruses accompanying the dance. Within this, and some inches lower, is another pavement still wider, having large flat-topped stones fixed in it at regular intervals of six or eight feet, used as seats by the beaters on the drums, and other rude instruments of music, and immediately within this again, an unpaved area, some twenty feet long by twelve broad, constituting the stage on which the dancers exhibit their skill."[48]

[47] C. S. Stewart, _op. cit._ i. 214 _sq._

[48] C. S. Stewart, _op. cit._ i. 233 _sq._ Compare
Vincendon-Dumoulin et C. Desgraz, _op. cit._ pp. 265 _sq._

Some of these dancing-places appear to have been much larger than those seen by Stewart. According to Langsdorff they were sometimes not less than a hundred fathoms in length, and the great smooth pavement consisted of blocks of stone, several feet broad, laid so neatly and so close together that you might have imagined it to be the work of European master-masons.[49] Radiguet describes one such dancing-place as a rectangular area eighty metres (about two hundred and sixty feet) long by thirty metres (about one hundred feet) broad, and surrounded by a terrace paved with stone, on which the spectators were seated.[50]

[49] Langsdorff, _op. cit._ i. 138.

[50] Radiguet, _op. cit._ p. 195.

The festivals (_koikas_) celebrated at these places were either periodical or occasional. Among the periodical perhaps the most important was that held at the ingathering of the bread-fruit harvest in February and March. Among the occasional were those held after a successful fishing, at the ratification of peace, and after the death of a priest or chief, who had been raised to the rank of a deity. A messenger decked in all the native finery repaired to the surrounding villages inviting the inhabitants to attend the festival. Immense numbers of hogs were killed and huge troughs filled with bread-fruit were provided by the hosts for the banquet. The festivals were attended not only by the people of the particular valley in which they were held, but by the inhabitants of other valleys and even of other islands; for so long as a festival lasted, a special taboo forbade the natives to harm the strangers in their midst. A general truce was observed; members of hostile tribes came to share the pleasures of the festival with the foes whom they had recently fought, and whom they would fight again in a few days.[51] Yet such visitors were careful to observe certain precautions: they never came unarmed, and they always kept together on one side of the festival ground, in order that they might rally the more easily for mutual defence, if they should be suddenly attacked.[52]

[51] C. S. Stewart, _op. cit._ i. 236 _sq._; F. D. Bennett, _op.
cit._ i. 318; Vincendon-Dumoulin et C. Desgraz, _op. cit._ pp.
264 _sq._; Mathias G----, _op. cit._ pp. 69 _sqq._; Radiguet,
_op. cit._ pp. 192 _sq._

[52] Langsdorff, _op. cit._ i. 138.

The performers who sang and danced at these festivals for the entertainment of the public were called _Hokis_ or _Kaioas_: they are described as a sort of wandering troubadours or minstrels, who went from tribe to tribe, seeking their fortune. They took great care of their persons, which they artificially whitened. At once poets, musicians, and dancers, they nevertheless did not enjoy the public esteem; on the contrary, their effeminate habits incurred the contempt of a people who had small taste for the fine arts.[53] Thus these wandering minstrels and mountebanks would seem to have corresponded to the Areois of the Society Islands.[54] The dances were accompanied by the beating of drums and the songs of a chorus, it might be of a hundred and fifty singers, who sat on the upper platform along with the chiefs and warriors. Sometimes in the intervals between the dances a choir of women, seated on an adjoining and elevated platform, would chant in dull monotonous tones, clapping their hands loudly in unison with their song. The subjects of the songs were various and were often furnished by some passing event, such as the arrival of a ship or any less novel incident. Not unfrequently, like ballads in our own country, the songs caught the popular fancy and became fashionable, being sung in private by all classes of society. So passionately addicted were the Marquesans to these entertainments that they undertook the longest and most fatiguing journeys from all parts of the island in order to be present at them, carrying their food and suffering great hardships by the way; they even came in their crazy canoes, at the hazard of their lives, from other islands, and accepted the risk of being knocked on the head at one of the brawls with which such gatherings usually ended.[55]

[53] Vincendon-Dumoulin et C. Desgraz, _op. cit._ p. 231.
Compare C. S. Stewart, _op. cit._ i. 237, who calls the
performers _Kaioi_.

[54] See above, pp. 259 _sqq._

[55] C. S. Stewart, _op. cit._ i. 234, 236, 237.

Closely connected with the festivals were the banqueting-halls, as they may be called. These were houses, or rather sheds, thatched with leaves and open in front, where the lower end of the sloping roof was supported on short wooden pillars, of which the upper parts were rudely carved in the likeness of the god Tiki, thus forming a sort of Caryatids. These sheds varied in length from thirty to sixty and even two hundred feet in length. They stood on quadrangular stone platforms of the usual type, ranging from three or four to six, eight, twelve, and even fifteen feet in height. The blocks of stone put together to form the platforms were sometimes enormous, many of them measuring eight feet long by four feet thick and wide; and they were hewn and polished into such perfect form as to excite the wonder of the European beholder, who reflected with astonishment on the vast labour requisite to bring these huge rocks from the sea and to chisel them into shape without the help of iron tools. Access to the platforms was afforded by sloping trunks of trees notched into steps. In these open sheds the men feasted and prayed. Before each repast it was customary to offer to the deity a small portion of food wrapt in leaves. Sometimes the priests would thrust the morsels into the mouths of Tiki's grotesque images. No woman might enter these banqueting-halls or mount the platforms on which they stood. The place was strictly tabooed to them, and the taboo was signified in the usual way by long pennants of white cloth attached to the posts of the house.[56]

[56] Porter, _op. cit._ ii. 38 _sq._; F. D. Bennett, _op. cit._
i. 317 _sq._; Mathias G----, _op. cit._ pp. 54-56; Melville,
_Typee_ pp. 93-95. Of these writers it is Porter who gives the
dimensions of some of the blocks of stone composing the
platforms and expresses his amazement at the labour involved in
their construction. He concludes his description as follows (ii.
39): "When we count the immense numbers of such places, which
are everywhere to be met with, our astonishment is raised to the
highest, that a people in a state of nature, unassisted by any
of those artificial means, which so much assist and facilitate
the labour of the civilized man, could have conceived and
executed a work, which, to every beholder, must appear
stupendous. These piles are raised with views to magnificence
alone; there does not appear to be the slightest utility
attending them: the houses situated on them are unoccupied,
except during the period of feasting, and they appear to belong
to a public, without the whole efforts of which they could not
have been raised, and with every exertion that could possibly
have been made, years must have been requisite for the
completion of them." Of one of these structures seen by him in
the anterior of Nukahiva, Stewart observes, "The stones, bearing
marks of antiquity that threw the air of an old family mansion
around the whole, were regularly hewn and joined with the
greatest nicety, many which I measured being from four to six
feet in length, nearly as wide, and two or more deep" (_Visit to
the South Seas_, i. 267 _sq._).

Sec. 6. _Social Ranks, Taboo_

Socially the Marquesans were divided into chiefs or nobles and commoners; but the chiefs seem to have possessed very little authority, and to have received few outward marks of deference and respect. A monarchical government in any proper sense of the word was unknown.[57] The power of the chiefs, such as it was, rested mainly on their superior wealth, particularly on their landed property; for the larger their estates, the greater the number of the tenants whose services they could command. Hence the government has been called aristocratic and compared to the feudal system.[58] In a fruitful season the chiefs had a right to a fourth part of the produce, and in other seasons a share according to circumstances. Their dignity was hereditary.[59] There was no general government of the archipelago as a whole. Each island was quite independent of all the rest; and in every island there were several independent tribes, which were generally at war with each other.[60]

[57] Krusenstern, _op. cit._ i. 165; Langsdorff, i. 112 _sq._;
Fleurieu, _op. cit._ i. 132-134; Porter, _op. cit._ ii. 64;
Melville, _Typee_, p. 199; Vincendon-Dumoulin et C. Desgraz,
_op. cit._ p. 225; Eyriaud des Vergnes, _op. cit._ pp. 24 _sq._

[58] Mathias G----, _op. cit._ 101 _sq._

[59] Lisiansky, _op. cit._ p. 80.

[60] Lisiansky, _op. cit._ pp. 79 _sq._; Clavel, _op. cit._ p.
62.

A powerful instrument in the hands of the nobles was the taboo or _tapu_, which, though it seems to have been originally a religious institution,[61] was turned to political and economic account by the chiefs and priests acting in conjunction. One of our best authorities on the Marquesans describes the institution as a tool of despotism for the gratification of the passions and caprices of such as could wield it.[62] But this is a somewhat one-sided and imperfect view to take of its scope. There is no doubt, as other good authorities on the Marquesans have pointed out, that in the absence of a strong government which could maintain order and protect life and property, the taboo to a great extent served the purposes which in more civilised society are fulfilled by laws.[63] The taboo was a sacred interdiction, a breach of which was believed of itself to entail disastrous consequences on the transgressor. The interdiction might be either public or private. To give examples of public interdictions, when the quantity of breadfruit, on which the people depended for their subsistence, was from any cause seriously diminished in a district, the chief had the right to impose a taboo on bread-fruit trees for twenty months, during which no one might gather the fruit. This close time allowed the trees to recover their strength and fertility. Similarly, if fish were scarce, the chief might pronounce a taboo on the neighbouring bay, or a part of it, in order to allow the fish to multiply undisturbed and replenish the sea in the neighbourhood of human habitations. Again, in the prospect of a great festival, a chief might lay an interdict on pigs for two or three years in advance, in order that, when the time came, there might be plenty of pork for the multitude at the banquet. Similarly, when the paper-mulberry, from which the Marquesans made their bark-cloth, threatened to give out, the chief might lay the trees under an interdict for five years, at the end of which the crop was sure to be magnificent.[64] In these and similar cases the taboo was of public utility by ensuring a proper supply of the necessaries of life. However, its imposition was not always guided by rational considerations, and hence it sometimes failed of its purpose. For example, so long as the bread-fruit was unripe, almost all kinds of fish were taboo and therefore might not be eaten, and this interdiction, instead of alleviating, tended naturally to aggravate the scarcity of food. The reason for the taboo was a curious superstition that if any one were to eat fish while the bread-fruit was unripe, the fruit would fall from the trees.[65]

[61] Mathias G----, _op. cit._ pp. 47 _sq._; Vincendon-Dumoulin
et C. Desgraz, _op. cit._ p. 259.

[62] Radiguet, _op. cit._ p. 153.

[63] Vincendon-Dumoulin et C. Desgraz, _op. cit._ pp. 258 _sq._;
Clavel, _op. cit._ pp. 65 _sq._

[64] Eyriaud des Vergnes, _op. cit._ pp. 35 _sq._ Compare
Radiguet, _op. cit._ p. 155.

[65] Langsdorff, _op. cit._ i. 118.

But the taboo also served a useful purpose by ensuring respect for private property, which is a fundamental condition of social prosperity. "The priests only," we are told, "can impose a general taboo, but every individual has a right to pronounce one upon his own property: this is done by declaring, if his wish be to preserve a breadfruit, or a cocoa tree, a house or a plantation, from robbery and destruction, that the spirit of his father or of some king, or indeed of any other person, reposes in this tree, or house, which then bears the name of the person, and nobody ventures to attack it. If any one is so irreligious as to break through a taboo, and should be convicted of it, he is called _kikino_; and the _kikinos_ are always the first to be devoured by the enemy, at least they believe it to be so, nor is it impossible that the priests should so arrange matters as that this really happens."[66] Again, if a man's pig had been stolen, and he suspected who had done the deed, he would lay a taboo on the swine or other property of the thief by giving his own name, or the name of somebody else, to the animals or the trees or whatever it might be. After that, in the opinion of the people, the property so named was bewitched or haunted by the spirit of the person, whether alive or dead, whose name it bore; and this belief sometimes sufficed to compel the thief to abandon his possessions and to settle elsewhere.[67] A wreath of leaves or a strip of white cloth attached to a house, a canoe, a fruit-tree, or other piece of property, was the symbol of taboo, and in ordinary circumstances was enough to protect it.[68]

[66] Krusenstern, _op. cit._ i. 172. In this quotation I have
altered the spelling _tahbu_ into _taboo_.

[67] Langsdorff, _op. cit._ i. 116.

[68] Radiguet, _op. cit._ p. 157; Melville, _Typee_, p. 230;
Vincendon-Dumoulin et C. Desgraz, _op. cit._ p. 264.

But the taboo was an instrument which could be used capriciously to thwart, as well as to further, the course of justice. Thus we read how, under the French government of the islands, a wife set out for the police-office to complain of the ill-treatment to which she had been subjected by her husband. But scarcely had she put her foot outside the door, when her husband, aware of her intention and determined to frustrate it, called out after her, "The road from here to the police-office is your father." On hearing that, the woman at once stopped short, for under no circumstances would she dare to trample on the author of her being. On the contrary, she immediately roasted two little pigs and carried them to the tomb of her father as an offering to appease his ghost, which might reasonably be supposed to fret at the mere thought of being trodden under foot by his own daughter.[69] This instructive example shows how closely the taboo was associated with the fear and worship of the dead; by bestowing the name of a dead person on a thing you rendered the thing inviolate, since thereby you placed it under the immediate protection of the ghost.

[69] Clavel, _op. cit._ p. 68.

Among the multitude of taboos which were religiously observed by the Marquesans it is perhaps possible to detect a trace of totemism. Thus the sting ray fish was taboo to the tribe of Houmis. Not only would they not eat the fish, but they fled in horror if it were even shown to them. Their horror was explained by a tradition that once on a time a great chief of the tribe had been out fishing with his people, when a gigantic sting ray upset their canoes and gobbled them all up.[70] This aversion to eating and even looking at a certain species of animal, together with a traditionary explanation based on an incident in the past history of the tribe, is very characteristic of totemism.

[70] Clavel, _op. cit._ pp. 67 _sq._

Sec. 7. _Religion and Mythology_

The consideration of taboo introduces us to the subject of religion; for, on the one hand, the foregoing evidence tends to establish a connexion between the institution of taboo and the doctrine of the human soul, and on the other hand some of our best authorities on the Marquesans have stated that the taboo was believed to be an expression of the will of the gods conveyed to the people through the mouth of a priest.[71] The definition may be accepted, if under gods we include the spirits of the dead, who were worshipped by the Marquesans and lent their sanction, as we have just seen, to the taboo.

[71] Vincendon-Dumoulin et C. Desgraz, _op. cit._ p. 258;
Mathias G----, _op. cit._ p. 48; Radiguet, _op. cit._ p. 153;
Clavel, _op. cit._ p. 65.

The Marquesan term for a god was the usual Polynesian word _atua_ or, as it is sometimes spelled, _etua_. But their notion of divinity, as commonly happens, was vague. One of the earliest writers on their religion, the Russian navigator Krusenstern, informs us that "a confused notion of a higher being, whom they call _Etua_, does indeed exist among them, but of these there are several kinds; the spirit of a priest, of a king, or of any of his relations, being an _etua_. They likewise consider all Europeans as such; for as their ideas do not extend beyond their own horizon, they are firmly convinced that their ships come from the clouds; and they imagine that thunder is occasioned by the cannonading of vessels which float in the atmosphere, on which account they entertain a great dread of artillery."[72] The _atuas_ or deities of the Marquesans, we are told by another writer, "are numerous and vary in their character and powers. Besides those having dominion respectively, as is supposed, over the different elements and their most striking phenomena, there are _atuas_ of the mountain and of the forest, of the sea-side and of the interior, _atuas_ of peace and of war, of the song and of the dance, and of all the occupations and amusements of life. It is supposed by them that many of the departed spirits of men also become _atuas_: and thus the multiplicity of their gods is such, that almost every sound in nature, from the roaring of the tempest in the mountains and the bursting of a thunderbolt in the clouds, to the sighing of a breeze through the cocoa-nut tops and the chirping of an insect in the grass or in the thatch of their huts, is interpreted into the movements of a god."[73]

[72] Krusenstern, _op. cit._ i. 171.

[73] C. S. Stewart, _op. cit._ i. 243 _sq._ Compare
Vincendon-Dumoulin et C. Desgraz, _op. cit._ p. 240; Radiguet,
_op. cit._ pp. 218 _sq._