The Natural History of the Varieties of Man

by R. G. Latham

Facts of the same sort with the kava, and tabu observations, are to be found in other matters, e.g. the Micronesian sails by the stars, the Polynesian by the flight of birds. The Micronesian canoe is an amphisbæna, i.e. it can be paddled either way, and it is generally simple. The Polynesian, on the other hand, is often double, and almost always an outrigger: so much so that the appearance of Cook's vessels, on the discovery of Tahiti, was hailed by the natives as a fulfilment of one of the prophecies of Mawi; which was to this effect:—That a canoe such as never had been seen by any native before—a canoe without out-riggers, should at some future time visit the island. Now so impossible a thing was a canoe without out-riggers in the eyes of the Tahitians, that the prophecy was laughed to scorn. So in order to gain credence, Mawi launched his wooden dish upon the waters, which swam as he said the strange canoe should swim. Afterwards, when Cook sailed towards the islands, his ship was held to be the prophesied canoe; and at the present moment English vessels have been called Mawi's canoes.

The sum, perhaps, of all the distinctions of the sort already indicated, will give between Polynesia and Micronesia, the difference between a Dutchman and an Englishman; certainly not less—probably more. Probably more, because the very considerable difference in the details of the two mythologies has yet to be added. A brief notice of these may be found in Prichard's chapter on the Marianne Islanders; and this reference is all that our space allows. That the difference, however, of the superstitions is not less (probably greater) than the difference between the languages is a safe conclusion.

The differences in the general moral character of the two divisions lie within a small compass. Coldness of manner in general, less tendency to bloody warfare, less laxity amongst the female part of the population, and less cannibalism, are points wherein the Micronesian character has the advantage. The Micronesian domestic arts also, such as dyeing and weaving, are in advance of the Polynesians.

3. Distribution of Protonesian characteristics.—Which of the two divisions has the most of these? This is partially answered by some of the observations which have just preceded: two other facts answer it more fully.

a. The opinions of MM. Durville and Lesson, as to the connexion of the Micronesians with the Mongolians—without being evidence in favour of the Micronesian branch being the more Protonesian, of the two, this is, certainly, a fact in favour of its being the more continental.

b. The opinion of Le Gobien, one of the early Missionaries, "that the Caroline Islanders came from the Philippines."

4. Details of the distribution within the limits of a single division.—The question as to the particular part of Micronesia, or the particular part of Polynesia, from which the rest of the respective areas was peopled, is so much a part and parcel of the broader question as to the origin of the population en masse, that it belongs, in its entirety, to a latter stage of our inquiries. Still there are a few facts which may be noticed at once; and these apply to Polynesia Proper.

Assuming as a postulate, that the direction of the line of population is from east to west (or vice versâ), from north to south (or vice versâ), &c., it is reasonable to suppose that each isle has been peopled from the one nearest to it, and that exclusively. Hence no second source of population is to be assumed gratuitously. Upon reasonable grounds, however, it may be assumed; e.g. in the Marquesas, it is said, that the difference of dialects for the different islands is scarcely consistent with a population from the Paumoto group exclusively. So also, in the Sandwich Islands, although Nukahiva is the primâ facie source of the population, Tonga elements occur in a degree beyond that in which they are found in Nukahiva itself. Here, also, the inference of a second element is legitimate.

Missionaries and ethnologists, who have applied a sagacious criticism to the problem of the immediate population of Polynesia, have found good reasons for believing that the first archipelago of Polynesia Proper that received a population from some other quarter, and which transmitted it, in different streams elsewhere, was the Samoan or Navigators' Islands. This opinion, the grounds of which may be found in full in the ethnological portion of the United States Exploring Expedition, is, probably, the right one; at any rate it is the proper inference, from the facts known to the investigators.