Pioneers in Australasia

by Harry Johnston

The principal personage of Tahiti seemed to be a queen, whose name was Oberea, about forty years of age, almost white-skinned, but now very stout, though with evidence of great beauty at an earlier age. There were several men chiefs of importance in the main island, and something like an aristocracy. This "nobility" had faces of a more Caucasian character and a taller stature than the common people, who were many of them in the position of serfs.

The Tahitians believed in numerous gods, one of which was supreme over the rest. They also had priests called tahawa, who were the "wise men" of the land, possessing more knowledge of navigation, astronomy, and medicine than the others. They believed vaguely in a life after death, and their dead were disposed of usually (in all but cases of worthless slaves) in the following manner (I quote from Banks):—

"I found the shed under which the body lay, close by the house in which the man resided when he was alive, some other houses being not more than 10 yards distant. The shed was about 15 feet long, and 11 broad, and of a proportionate height: one end was wholly open, and the other end and the two sides, were partly enclosed with a kind of wicker work. The bier on which the corpse was deposited, was a frame of wood ... with a matted bottom, and supported by four posts, at the height of about 5 feet from the ground. The body was covered first with a mat, and then with white cloth; by the side of it lay a wooden mace, one of their weapons of war, and near the head of it, which lay next to the close end of the shed, lay two coconut shells, such as are sometimes used to carry water in; at the other end a bunch of green leaves, with some dried twigs, all tied together, were stuck in the ground, by which lay a stone about as big as a coconut: near these lay one of the young plantain trees, which are used for emblems of peace, and close by it a stone axe. At the open end of the shed also hung, in several strings, a great number of palm nuts, and without the shed, was stuck upright in the ground, the stem of a plantain tree about 5 feet high, upon the top of which was placed a coconut shell full of fresh water; against the side of one of the posts hung a small bag, containing a few pieces of bread-fruit ready roasted."

The emotions of the Tahitians were easily excited. Both men and women readily gave way to tears, and would fly into hysterical rages in which they struck their heads several times with sharks' teeth, so that a profusion of blood often followed. A woman who acted thus owing to some trifling affair which had piqued her, after her bleeding was over looked up with a smile, ceased her loud, doleful talking, collected the pieces of blood-stained cloth with which she had dabbed her head and neck, and threw them into the sea. Then she plunged herself into a river, washed her whole body, and returned to the encampment as gay and cheerful as if nothing had happened.

Cook was greatly struck with the stature of the men and with the beautiful shape of their bodies. One man coming from a small outlying island measured nearly 6 feet 4 inches. The women of the better class were in general taller than English women. On the other hand, those of the more serf-like people were not only below the average stature of Europeans but even quite dwarf-like. Occasionally albinos made their appearance with skins of a dead white, red eyes, and white hair. As to their tatuing, the Tahitians pricked the skin, so as just to fetch blood, with a small instrument something in the form of a hoe, with a blade made of bone or shell scraped very thin, and from ¼ inch to 1½ inches wide. The edge of this was cut into sharp teeth, and when about to be used the teeth of the hoe were dipped into a black paste made from the soot from an oily nut—a nut which the natives burnt in lieu of candles. Having been dipped into this mixture and pressed into the skin, the top of the hoe would be struck a smart blow with a stick, so that it punctured the skin and left behind an indelible black stain. The operation was painful and it took some days before the wounds were healed.

Cook expatiates on the personal cleanliness of the Tahitians, who constantly washed the whole of the body in running water perhaps three times a day. After every meal their mouth and hands were washed, and their clothes as well as their persons were kept without spot or stain, "so that in a large company of these people nothing is suffered but heat, which, perhaps, is more than can be said of the politest assembly in Europe". For in Cook's day—and, indeed, for nearly one hundred years later—civilized Europeans (to say nothing of the working classes, who were most uncleanly) very seldom washed their bodies. Tahitian clothing consisted of bark cloth or matting of different kinds. The bark cloth would not bear wetting, so it was only worn in dry weather and exchanged for matting when it came on to rain. None of the materials of their dress were sewn. Their clothes consisted of long strips of bark cloth or matting, which would be draped about the body, principaly round the waist. Large pieces were worn loosely over the shoulders in the manner of a cloak, or allowed to fall about the limbs like loose trousers. In the heat of the day clothing was mostly reduced to a scanty petticoat for the women and a sash for the men. To shade their faces from the sun they sometimes wore bonnets made of matting or coconut fronds. These they would plait together in a few minutes. The women also wore little turbans of cloth, and sometimes a very elaborate dress made of plaited human hair. Of this material Sir Joseph Banks brought away with him pieces that were over a mile in length, apparently without a knot. They would wind these strips of hair (like silk) round and round the head, and thus produce a very pretty effect. Amongst these threads they stuck flowers of various kinds. The men would thrust the pinkish tail-feathers of the Tropic-bird upright into the bunch of hair on the top of their head, or wear whimsical garlands of flowers or scarlet seeds, or wigs made of dogs' hair, or men's hair, or coconut matting. Ear-rings made of shells, stones, berries, seeds, or small pearls were also worn.

The only domestic animals of Tahiti were pigs, dogs, and fowls, but the natives also ate wild ducks, which were plentiful. Cannibalism did not exist in this archipelago, though there were traces of it in the religious customs.

Their manner of executing and cooking dogs, which they bred for eating, was as follows: The man who performed the double office of butcher and cook killed the dog by holding his hand over the dog's mouth and nose. In about a quarter of an hour the animal was stifled. Whilst this was being done someone else was digging a hole in the ground about a foot deep, in which the fire was kindled. On top of the fire were placed stones to be heated. The dog was then singed by being held over the fire, and scraped with a shell. Thus all the hair was taken off. The entrails were removed, and the body was cut up with a sharp shell. The entrails, after being carefully washed in sea water, were put into coconut shells, together with all the blood which had been collected from the body. When the oven in the ground had been sufficiently heated the fire was taken out, and some of the stones which were not hot enough to burn anything were placed at the bottom and covered with green leaves. The cut-up dog, together with its entrails, was then placed on these leaves, and other leaves were laid on top. The hole was afterwards covered with the remainder of the hot stones, on which earth was heaped. In about four hours this oven was opened, and the dog's meat taken out, "excellently baked, so that we all agreed he made a very good dish". The dogs which were bred in Tahiti for food were kept wholly on a vegetable diet—bread-fruit, coconuts, and yams.

The principal vegetable foods of the natives of the island of Tahiti were bread-fruit, coconuts, bananas of thirteen sorts, and the long banana which is known by the name of plantain; then there were a fruit not unlike an apple, which when ripe was very pleasant; another resembling a nectarine, and called ahiya; sweet potatoes, dioscorea yams, koko or taro yams (an aroid); a fruit known by the name of jambu, and reckoned most delicious; sugar cane; a root called by the inhabitants pea; a plant called ethe, of which the root only was eaten; a fruit like a large kidney-bean, grown in a pod and tasting like a chestnut after being roasted, called by the natives ahi; the fruits of the pandanus; the morinda fruit; a kind of bracken fern, of which not only the root but the leaves were sometimes eaten; and a plant called theve, which had an edible root. There was also in the island the paper-mulberry tree (the range of which extends from China to Polynesia), and several fig trees, some of which, with their enormously extended aerial roots and branches, covered an area of 60 square feet. This mulberry and most of the figs provided bast which was made into cloth.

Bread-fruit was sometimes turned into a delicious dish by mixing its farinaceous pulp with coconut milk, with pounded bananas, or with a paste made of the mahi fruit. This mahi was gathered just before it became ripe, and, being laid in heaps, was closely covered with leaves. In this state it fermented and became disagreeably sweet. After pulling out the core from the rotten fruit the rest was thrown into a hole neatly lined with grass. The hole having been covered with stones, the fruit then underwent fermentation and became sour. After that it was wrapped up in leaves and baked, and, both cooked and uncooked, would keep for weeks. It was eaten hot or cold, and the natives seldom made a meal without it, though its taste to Europeans was "as disagreeable as that of a pickled olive". Salt water was the universal sauce to their food, no meal being eaten without it, so much so that the natives who lived at a great distance from the seacoast had to keep sea water in segments of bamboos like tubes. A kind of butter was also made of coconut kernels flavoured with salt water, which at first tasted to the Europeans nauseous and rancid, but afterwards grew so much in favour with them that they preferred it to the sauces they had brought out from England.