Women likewise braid very beautiful mats. Those used for sleeping are coarse and strong; but some of them are exceedingly white and delicate, or fancifully ornamented with stained grass woven in various patterns. Mr. Nicholas saw a remarkably elegant and highly finished mat, made of flax, by the wife of a New Zealand chief, and he was assured that it could not be manufactured in less time than two or three years. Even queens pride themselves on their skill in weaving mats and baskets. The eating-houses, being sacred to the use of men, are built entirely by men; but in many of the islands women assist in the construction of the dwellings appropriated to common use. Sometimes a woman of distinction may be seen carrying a heavy stone for the foundation of a building, while a stout attendant carries the light feathered staff to denote her rank. In some places people of noble birth pride themselves on very long nails, to show that they perform no labor; but, generally speaking, women of all classes assist in the labors of agriculture, and the management of canoes; and when a journey is performed, they often carry the baggage. Mr. Marsden, speaking of an expedition of about fifty of the natives of New Zealand, says: “We were to travel more than a hundred miles, in some of the worst paths that can be conceived, and to carry provisions for the journey. A chief’s wife came with us all the way, and I believe her load could not be less than one hundred pounds; many carried much more.”
Females, particularly of the higher class, spend a great deal of their time in making ornaments for their persons, such as necklaces, finger rings, coronets and mantles of feathers. In those islands where there are missionaries and other European residents, they are learning to make neat hats and bonnets, and garments of cotton and silk. These native mantua-makers are said to evince great dexterity and skill in their new occupation. But with all these various employments, the Polynesians, either men or women, seldom work more than five hours out of the twenty-four. They sleep and lounge half their time, and frolic away a good portion of the remainder. They are attracted by every new object, and run after it with the eagerness of children. Mrs. Williams, wife of one of the missionaries, says: “The best of native girls will, on a hot day, take themselves off and swim, just when you may be wishing for some one to relieve you; and after this, they will go to sleep for two or three hours. The moment a boat arrives, away run men, boys, and girls, to the beach. If the mistress censures them, they will laugh at her, and tell her she has ‘too much of the mouth.’”
Dancing is one of the most common amusements in the islands of the South sea. The dances in which the women join are generally slow and graceful, accompanied by a variety of motions with the head, body, and limbs. In most of these dances, little attention is paid to decorum. Sometimes forty or fifty women dance together in a solid square, changing their attitudes every moment; sometimes all squatting down, and then all springing up at the same moment. A musician accompanies the dancers, who beats a small drum, made of a cocoa-nut shell covered with shark’s skin. The women likewise strike pieces of wood or notched reeds together in cadence, like the castanets of more civilized nations. In addition to this they often wear around their ankles a network of shells, or dog’s teeth, which rattle as they dance.
They have songs descriptive of war, or love, or beautiful scenery. These are generally sung alternately by both sexes, in a sort of recitative. The following are extracts from a favorite song among the Tonga people: “The women said to us, let us repair to the back of the island to contemplate the setting sun; there let us listen to the warbling of birds and the cooing of the wood-pigeon. We will gather flowers from the burial place at Matawto, and then bathe in the sea, and anoint ourselves in the sun with sweet-scented oil, and will weave in garlands the flowers gathered at Matawto. Oh, how much happier shall we be than when engaged in the wearisome and insipid affairs of life! How troublesome are the young men begging for wreaths of flowers, while they say in their flattery, ‘See how charming these young girls look coming from Licoo! How beautiful is their skin, diffusing around a fragrance like the flowery precipice of Mataloco!’”
It is a common amusement with the women of Polynesia to throw up five balls in such a manner as to keep four perpetually in the air. They are thrown with the left hand, and caught with the right. The players at the same time chant verses, with the cadence of which their motions keep perfect time. Sometimes seven or eight join together in this recreation.
Swimming is their favorite diversion, and they show an astonishing degree of courage and expertness in the practice of it. Women will often, for mere sport, frolic in places where such a tremendous surf breaks on the shore, that the boldest European swimmer would not dare to venture within its power. If beads, or nails, be thrown into the sea, they will dive after them with incredible velocity, and seldom fail to bring them up.
If a shark makes his appearance when women are swimming, it is said the playful water nymphs surround him, and, if they can once get him into the surf, fairly drive him on shore; and even if the monster escapes from them, they continue their sport, without any apparent fear of danger.
At great festivals it is not uncommon for the women to wrestle together in pairs. Finow, king of Tonga, ordered a mock fight, in which fifteen hundred women were ranged on each side. They gave fair hits, without pulling each other’s hair, and kept up the contest about an hour, without an inch of ground being lost by either side.
In the Radack islands women fight not merely for pastime, but in good earnest. They station themselves behind the men, beating drums, and throwing stones gathered in baskets for the purpose. When the combat is ended, they throw themselves in as mediators between the conquerors and the vanquished.
When a person of superior rank is ill, it is customary for his relations to cut off a joint of the little finger, as a sacrifice to the gods for his recovery. Even little children will quarrel for the honor of laying their finger upon a block of wood, and having a joint cut off with an axe, or sharp stone. As soon as a person dies, the air is rent with the shrieks and lamentations of friends and dependents. The house is hung with coarse brown gnatoo striped with black, and the mourners, as an indication of wretchedness and gloom, wear the most ragged and dirty mats they can find. They pluck out the hair, beat their faces till they become black and swollen, and disfigure themselves in a frightful manner with gashes made by sharp shells. Very handsome women sometimes, in the excess of their grief, destroy every vestige of their beauty. In the Feejee islands, when a chief dies, custom requires that his principal wife should be strangled and buried with him. Powerful friends, by the offer of very valuable gifts, may save the widow from this fate; but in many cases they are unable to do it, and in others the victim makes it a point of honor to be sacrificed. In the Sandwich islands, it was formerly the practice to immolate a number of slaves on the grave of the king and queen; but this custom has been abolished by the influence of the missionaries. The graves are decorated with flowers, and carefully kept in order with smooth layers of black and white pebbles gathered from the beach.