The Belief in Immortality and the Worship of the Dead, Volume 2 (of 3)

This deep-seated fear of the dead has survived the conversion, real or nominal, of the Marquesans to Christianity. No native would even now venture into a cave where the remains of the dead have been deposited, not though the greatest treasures were to be found there, for such spots are believed to be constantly haunted by the ghosts of the departed. Nobody, it is said, would live in a house in which somebody has died; every such dwelling is immediately burnt down. Hence, when a person is grievously sick, a little primitive hut is erected beside the house, and he is carried out to die in it, and when he is dead, the hut is in like manner destroyed with fire.1022 A woman will sometimes commit suicide in order that her ghost may haunt and torment her unfaithful husband.1023

On the other hand, ghosts in the olden time had also their utility, for they could be summoned up by a priest or priestess to give information on various subjects, such as the issue of an illness. On these occasions the wizard would hold a conversation with the spirit, whose voice could be heard by the listeners, though his or her shape, as usual, was invisible in the darkness. Sceptics thought that such communications were made by means of ventriloquism, and indeed a priestess, who had professed to evoke the soul of a dead chieftainess, solemnly maintained that she could make the voice of anybody, whether dead or alive, to speak from her stomach.1024

In such beliefs and customs are contained as in germ the whole theory and practice of the worship of the dead.

Note. – We possess no thorough account of the native Marquesan society and religion as these existed before they were transformed by European influence. Some of the writers who have described the islanders and their customs spent only a few days or at most a few weeks among them. Captain Cook was at the Marquesas only five days, from the 6th to the 11th of April 1774.1025 The French explorer Marchand spent eight days in the islands from the 13th to the 21st of June 1791.1026 The Russian explorers Krusenstern and Lisiansky were with their two ships, the Nadeshda and Neva, at Nukahiva for ten days, from the 7th to the 17th of May 1804; along with them was the naturalist Langsdorff, who wrote an independent account of the voyage.1027 But though their stay was short, they had the advantage of meeting with two Europeans, an Englishman named E. Roberts, and a Frenchman named Jean (or Joseph) Baptiste Cabri, who had lived long in the islands and spoke the native language. These men acted as interpreters to the Russians and supplied them with most of the information which they give in their books concerning the customs and beliefs of the Marquesans. Roberts told them that he had been seven years in Nukahiva and two years previously in Santa Christina (Tau-ata); that he had been put ashore on the latter island out of an English merchant ship, the crew of which had mutinied against their captain and could not prevail upon him to join their party; and that in Nukahiva he had lately married a relation of the king's, by which he acquired great consideration, so that it would be easy for him to be of assistance to them. At the same time he earnestly warned them against the Frenchman, who had also resided for some years in Nukahiva, but whose character he painted in very dark colours. The two Russian captains, Krusenstern and Lisiansky, accordingly put their trust in Roberts and drew most of their information concerning the natives from him. On the other hand their naturalist, Langsdorff, made most use of the Frenchman. He admitted, indeed, that the Englishman was a man of better character, greater natural intelligence, and much higher education; but on the other hand he tells us that the Frenchman had been longer in the island and possessed a more thorough mastery of the language and a greater intimacy with the natives, among whom he had lived as a savage among savages so long that he had almost forgotten his own native tongue. But Langsdorff took care to question both these men and only accepted as true statements in which they agreed with each other, and to this agreement he naturally attached the greater weight because his two informants were bitterly hostile to each other and therefore were unlikely to unite in deceiving him.1028 On the whole, then, the account which Langsdorff gives of Marquesan society and religion is perhaps more trustworthy as well as fuller than that of his two compatriots and companions, Krusenstern and Lisiansky.

Captain David Porter of the United States Navy was with his ship the Essex at Nukahiva from October 24th till December 9th, 1813.1029 A great part of his time was spent on shore and in close contact with the natives, and though he did not learn the language, he was able to employ as an interpreter an Englishman named Wilson, who had lived for many years in the islands, spoke the language of the natives with the same facility as his own, and had become a Marquesan in every respect except in colour. He proved indispensable to the American as an organ of communication with the people; and much of the information which Porter gives concerning the customs of the Marquesans was derived by him from this man.1030

The American naval chaplain, the Rev. C. S. Stewart, paid about a fortnight's visit to Nukahiva, from July 27th to August 13th, 1829, while his ship, the Vincennes, was anchored at the island. But he received much information from the Rev. W. P. Crook, who spent nearly two years (1797 and 1798) in the Marquesas, having been the first missionary landed in the islands by the missionary ship Duff. During his residence in the islands Mr. Crook kept a journal, which he allowed Mr. Stewart to consult. The contents of the journal corroborated Mr. Stewart's own observations as to the inhabitants, and the account which he gives of the religion of the islanders is based mainly on the information derived from Mr. Crook1031 and is therefore valuable; for at the time when Mr. Crook landed in the Marquesas the customs and beliefs of the islanders were still practically unaffected by contact with Europeans.

The surgeon F. D. Bennett, on a whaling voyage spent a few days in Santa Christina (Tau-ata), from February 28th to March 4th, 1835; and his descriptions of what he saw are good so far as they go; but naturally he could collect but little accurate information as to the habits and ideas of the people in so short a time.1032

One of the early Catholic missionaries to the Marquesas, Father Mathias G – , spent two years in the islands and has given us, in a series of letters, an account of the native customs and beliefs, which, though far from complete or systematic, is based on personal observation and is among the best that we possess.1033

Hermann Melville lived among the Taipiis (Typees) in Nukahiva for more than four months,1034 and wrote a lively narrative of his experiences. His personal observations are valuable, but as he did not master the native language, he was not able to throw much light on the inner life of the people, and in particular on their religious ideas.

On the 1st of May, 1842, the Marquesas Islands were taken possession of for France by the French Admiral, Du Petit-Thouars;1035 and next year, to satisfy the interest of the French public in their new possession, a comprehensive work on the islands and their inhabitants was published by MM. Vincendon-Dumoulin et C. Desgraz.1036 The authors had visited the islands with the expedition of the French navigator, J. Dumont d'Urville, in his ships the Astrolabe and the Zélée. But as the expedition stayed only about a week at Nukahiva, from August 26th to September 3rd, 1838,1037 the writers had little opportunity of making personal observations. Their work is mainly a careful compilation from earlier sources, and as such it is a useful and trustworthy summary of what was known about the archipelago and its inhabitants down to the date of publication.

Max Radiguet, one of the members of the expedition to the Marquesas under Admiral Du Petit-Thouars, passed a considerable time in the islands and wrote a graphic account of his experiences, which contains some valuable information as to the natives, their customs, religion, and mythology.1038 In the part which concerns the mythology he was assisted by an officer of artillery, M. Rohr, who had lived for several years in Nukahiva and was familiar with the language and customs of the people.1039

In 1877 a good general account of the archipelago and its inhabitants was published at Paris. The author was a naval lieutenant, P. E. Eyriaud des Vergnes, who having lived in the islands in the official capacity of Resident for about six years (from 1868 to 1874) had ample time and opportunity for obtaining accurate information on the subject.1040 His work, though somewhat slight, is valuable so far as it goes; but it does not tell us much about the native religion, which in his time had probably lost a good deal of its original character through the influence of the missionaries and of civilisation.1041

Some years later, in 1881 and 1882, a French naval doctor, Clavel by name, passed six months in the Marquesas. During his stay he made personal observations and collected information on the natives. These he subsequently published in a little work, which contains much of value;1042 but when he wrote almost all the natives had been nominally converted to Christianity and their ancient religion was practically extinct.1043

Towards the end of the nineteenth century the German traveller Arthur Baessler paid a short visit to the Marquesas. In his book of travel in the South Sea he has given us descriptions of the islands and the people as he saw them, including some account of the scanty remains of their stone monuments and images.1044

CHAPTER VII

THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY AMONG THE HAWAIIANS

§ 1. The Sandwich or Hawaiian Islands

The Sandwich or Hawaiian Islands form an archipelago lying in the North Pacific Ocean just within the northern tropic. They stretch in a direction from north-west to south-east for more than four hundred miles and include eight inhabited islands, of which the most important are Hawaii, Maui, Oahu, and Kauai. Of these Hawaii is by far the largest; indeed it is the largest island in Polynesia with the exception of New Zealand. The islands are all mountainous and of volcanic formation. In Hawaii two of the mountains are between 13,000 and 14,000 feet in height, and two of them are active volcanoes; one of them, named Kilauea, possesses the greatest active crater in the world, a huge cauldron of seething lava, which presents a spectacle of awe-inspiring grandeur when seen on a moonless night. The other and much loftier volcano, Mauna Loa, was the scene of a terrific eruption in 1877 and of another in 1881. Craters, large and small, hot springs, and other evidences of volcanic activity, abound throughout the archipelago. One of the craters on the island of Maui is said to be no less than fifteen miles in circumference and about two thousand feet deep. The islands appear to have been known to the Spaniards as early as the sixteenth century; but they were rediscovered in 1778 by Captain Cook, who was afterwards killed in a fight with the natives in Hawaii.1045

Viewed from the sea the islands are apt to present an appearance of barrenness and desolation. The mountains descend into the sea in precipices often hundreds of feet high: their summits are capped with snow or lost in mist and clouds; and their sides, green and studded with clumps of trees in some places, but black, scorched and bare in others, are rent into ravines, down which in the rainy seasons cataracts rush roaring to the sea. With the changes of sunshine and shadow the landscape as a whole strikes the beholder now as in the highest degree horrid, dismal, and dreary, now as wildly beautiful and romantic with a sort of stern and sombre magnificence.1046 Inland, however, in many places the summits of the ridges crowned with forests of perpetual verdure, the slopes covered with flowering shrubs or lofty trees, the rocks mantled in creepers, the waterfalls dropping from stupendous cliffs, and the distant prospects of snowy peaks, bold romantic headlands, and blue seas, all arched by a summer sky of the deepest azure, combine to make up pictures of fairy-like and enchanting loveliness.1047

The climate naturally varies with the height above the sea. On the coasts, though warm, it is remarkably equable, and perhaps no country in the world enjoys a finer or healthier climate than some parts of Hawaii and Maui. On the mountains all varieties of climate are to be found, from the tropical heat of the lowlands to the arctic cold of the two great peaks of Hawaii, Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa with their perpetual snows, which are not, however, always visible from the sea or from the foot of these giants. In the lowlands frost is unknown. The fresh breezes, which blow from the sea during the day and from the mountains at night, temper the heat of the sun, and render the evenings delicious; nothing can surpass the splendour and clearness of the moonlight. Rain falls more abundantly on the windward or eastern side of the islands than on the leeward or western side. Thus at Hilo, on the eastern side of Hawaii, it rains almost every day, whereas in Kena, on the western side, rain hardly ever falls, and along the coast not a single water-course is to be seen for many miles. In general it may be said that the archipelago suffers from drought and hence occasionally from dearth.1048

§ 2. The Natives and their Mode of Life

The natives of the Sandwich Islands are typical Polynesians. In general they are rather above the middle stature, well formed, with fine muscular limbs, open countenances, and features frequently resembling those of Europeans. The forehead is usually well developed, the lips thick, and the nostrils full, without any flatness or spreading of the nose. The complexion is tawny or olive in hue, but sometimes reddish brown. The hair is black or brown and occasionally fair or rather ruddy in colour, in texture it is strong, smooth, and sometimes curly. The gait is graceful and even stately. But in these islands, as in other parts of Polynesia, there is a conspicuous difference between the chiefs and the commoners, the superiority being altogether on the side of the chiefs. "The nobles of the land," says Stewart, "are so strongly marked by their external appearance, as at all times to be easily distinguishable from the common people. They seem, indeed, in size and stature to be almost a distinct race. They are all large in their frame, and often excessively corpulent, while the common people are scarce of the ordinary height of Europeans, and of a thin rather than full habit."1049 And the difference between the two ranks is as obvious in their walk and general deportment as in their stature and size, the nobles bearing themselves with a natural dignity and grace which are wanting in their social inferiors. Yet there seems to be no reason to suppose that they belong to a different race from the commoners; the greater care taken of them in childhood, their better living, sexual selection, and the influence of heredity appear sufficient to account for their physical superiority. The women are well built and "beautiful as ancient statues" with a sweet and engaging expression of countenance. Yet on the whole the Hawaiians are judged to be physically inferior both to the Tahitians and to the Marquesans; according to Captain King, they are rather darker than the Tahitians, and not altogether so handsome a people. On the other hand they are said to be more intelligent than either the Tahitians or the Marquesans. Captain King describes them as of a mild and affectionate disposition, equally remote from the extreme levity and fickleness of the Tahitians, and from the distant gravity and reserve of the Tongans.1050 They practised tattooing much less than many other Polynesians, but their faces, hands, arms, and the forepart of their bodies were often tattooed with a variety of patterns.1051

The staple food of the Hawaiians consists of taro (kalo), sweet potatoes, and fish, but above all of taro. That root (Arum or Caladium esculentum) is to the Hawaiians what bread-fruit is to the Tahitians, and its cultivation is their most important agricultural industry. It is grown wherever there is water or a marsh, and it is even planted on some arid heights in the island of Hawaii, where it yields excellent crops. Artificial irrigation was practised and even regulated by law or custom in the old days; for it was a rule that water should be conducted over every plantation twice a week in general, and once a week during the dry season. The bread-fruit tree is not so common, and its fruit not so much prized, as in the Marquesas and Tahiti. The natives grew sweet potatoes even before the arrival of Europeans. Yams are found wild, but are hardly eaten except in times of scarcity. There are several sorts of bananas; the fruit for the most part is better cooked than raw. In the old days the cooking was done in the ordinary native ovens, consisting of holes in the ground lined with stones which were heated with fire. After being baked in an oven the roots of the taro are mashed and diluted with water so as to form a paste or pudding called poe or poi, which is sometimes eaten sweet but is more generally put aside till it has fermented, in which condition it is preferred by the natives. It is a highly nutritious substance, and though some Europeans complain of the sourness of taro pudding, others find it not unpalatable. Fish used to be generally eaten raw, seasoned with brine or sea-water. But they also commonly salt their fish, not for the sake of preserving it for a season of scarcity, but because they prefer the taste. They construct artificial fish-ponds, into which they let young fish from the sea, principally the fry of the grey mullet, of which the chiefs are particularly fond. Every chief has, or used to have, his own fish-pond. The natives are very skilful fishermen. In the old days they made a great variety of fish-hooks out of mother-of-pearl and tortoise shell as well as out of bone, and these they dragged by means of lines behind their canoes, and so caught bonettas, dolphins, and albicores. They took prodigious numbers of flying fish in nets. At the time when the islands were discovered by Captain Cook, the natives possessed pigs and dogs. The flesh of both of these animals was eaten, but only by persons of higher rank. Fowls were also bred and eaten, but they were not very common, and their flesh was not very much esteemed. The sugar-cane was indigenous in the islands, and the people ate it as a fruit; along with bananas and plantains it occupied a considerable portion of every plantation. Captain Cook found the natives skilful husbandmen, but thought that with a more extensive system of agriculture, the islands could have supported three times the number of the existing inhabitants.1052 He remarked that the chiefs were much addicted to the drinking of kava, and he attributed some of the cutaneous and other diseases from which they suffered to an immoderate use of what he calls the pernicious drug.1053

§ 3. Houses, Mechanical Arts

Captain King observed that in some respects the natives of the Sandwich Islands approached nearer in their manners and customs to the Maoris of New Zealand than to their less distant neighbours of the Society and Friendly Islands, the Tahitians and the Tongans. In nothing, he says, is this more observable than in their method of living together in small towns or villages, containing from about one hundred to two hundred houses, built pretty close together, without any order, and with a winding path leading through them. They were generally flanked towards the sea with loose detached walls, intended for shelter and defence.1054 The shape of the houses was very simple. They were oblong with very high thatched roofs, so that externally they resembled the top of hay-stacks or rather barns with the thatched roof sloping down steeply to two very low sides, and with gable ends to match. The entrance, placed indifferently in one of the sides or ends, was an oblong hole, so low that one had rather to creep than walk in, and often shut by a board of planks fastened together, which served as a door. No light entered the house but by this opening, for there were no windows. Internally every house consisted of a single room without partitions. In spite of the extreme simplicity of their structure, the houses were kept very clean; the floors were covered with a large quantity of dried grass, over which they spread mats to sit and sleep upon. At one end stood a kind of bench about three feet high, on which were kept the household utensils. These consisted merely of a few wooden bowls and trenchers, together with gourd-shells, serving either as bottles or baskets. The houses varied in size with the wealth or rank of the owners. Those of the poor were mere hovels, which resembled the sties and kennels of pigs and dogs rather than the abodes of men. The houses of the chiefs were generally large and commodious by comparison, some forty to sixty feet long by twenty or thirty feet broad, and eighteen or twenty feet high at the peak of the roof. Chiefs had always a separate eating-house, and even people of the lower ranks had one such house to every six or seven families for the men. The women were forbidden to eat in company with the men and even to enter the eating-house during the meals; they ate in the same houses in which they slept. The houses of the chiefs were enclosed in large yards, and sometimes stood on stone platforms, which rendered them more comfortable.1055

In the mechanical arts the Hawaiians displayed a considerable degree of ingenuity and skill. While the men built the houses and canoes and fashioned wooden dishes and bowls, the women undertook the manufacture of bark-cloth (kapa) and mats. Bark-cloth was made in the usual way from the bark of the paper-mulberry, which was beaten out with grooved mallets. The cloth was dyed a variety of colours, and patterns at once intricate and elegant were stamped on it and stained in different tints. The mats were woven or braided by hand without the use of any frame or instrument. The materials were rushes or palm-leaves; the mats made of palm-leaves were much the more durable and therefore the more valuable. The coarser and plainer were spread on the floor to sleep on; the finer were of white colour with red stripes, rhombuses, and other figures interwoven on one side. Among the most curious specimens of native carving were the wooden bowls in which the chiefs drank kava. They were perfectly round, beautifully polished, and supported on three or four small human figures in various attitudes. These figures were accurately proportioned and neatly finished; even the anatomy of the muscles strained to support the weight were well expressed. The fishing-hooks made by the men, especially the large hooks made to catch shark, are described by Captain Cook as really astonishing for their strength and neatness; he found them on trial much superior to his own.1056

The mechanical skill of these people was all the more remarkable because of the extreme rudeness and simplicity of the tools with which they worked. Their chief implement was an adze made of a black or clay-coloured volcanic stone and polished by constant friction with pumice-stone in water. They had also small instruments made each of a single shark's tooth, some of which were fixed to the forepart of a dog's jawbone and others to a thin wooden handle of the same shape. These served as knives, and pieces of coral were used as files. Captain Cook found the natives in possession of two iron tools, one of them a piece of iron hoop, and the other an edge-tool, perhaps the point of a broadsword. These they could only have procured from a European vessel or from a wreck drifted on their coast. No mines of any kind are known to exist in the islands.1057

Their weapons of war included spears, javelins, daggers, and clubs, all of them made of wood. They also slung stones with deadly effect. But they had no defensive armour; for the war-cloaks and wicker-work helmets, surmounted with lofty crests and decked with the tail feathers of the tropic bird, while they heightened the imposing and martial appearance of the wearers, must have proved rather encumbrances than protections. Captain Cook found the natives in possession of bows and arrows, but from their scarcity and the slenderness of their make he inferred that the Hawaiians, like other Polynesians, never used them in battle.1058