Volume Xvii Part 3 (1/2)
The dagger, or _pahooa_, is made of heavy black wood, resembling ebony. Its length is from one to two feet, with a string pa.s.sing through the handle, for the purpose of suspending it to the arm.
The clubs are made indifferently of several sorts of wood. They are of rude workmans.h.i.+p, and of a variety of shapes and sizes.
The slings have nothing singular about them; and in no respect differ from our common slings, except that the stone is lodged on a piece of matting instead of leather.
[5] The nice and highly interesting subject now adverted to, it is evident, will require a very extensive and cautious enquiry, and cannot possibly be discussed in the small compa.s.s allotted to notes. See Forster's Observations. But additional information has been obtained since the time of that author.--E.
[6] There is good reason to imagine that most of the early voyagers into the South Sea, have exaggerated the numbers of the inhabitants in the various groups of islands they met with. The present calculation, most readers will believe, is beyond the truth. Certain however it is, that almost all the recent accounts are at variance with such astonis.h.i.+ng estimates as were formerly made. But, on the other hand, Mr.
Pinkerton's a.s.sertion, that ”it is probable there are not above 300,000 souls in all Australasia and Polynesia,” (Geog. 3d ed. 2d vol.
p. 172,) must appear so extraordinary when considered in opposition to them, as at once to convey the notion of a bold adventure. Yet even this admits of some degree of probability, from the account formerly given, of the immense decrease in the population of Otaheite.
Altogether the subject is imperfectly understood, and labours under peculiar difficulties; we ought to listen with some hesitation, therefore, to all a.s.sertions respecting it.--E.
[7] We have elsewhere had occasion to take notice of the fact of human sacrifices and cannibalism, forming an essential particular in the history of all the South Sea islanders. It is unnecessary to occupy a moment's attention in farther enquiry respecting it, as perhaps no question, in the circle of philosophical research, has received more complete solution by the testimony of credible witnesses. He that shall attempt to controvert their evidence, will have need of all the effrontery and invincibility to truth that ever stamped the forehead or hardened the heart of a polemist.--E.
[8] Here, then, we have two reasons for the practice of tattowing, in addition to those which we enumerated in the account of Cook's first voyage, provided only that Captain King's information can he relied on. The first of these, it may be remarked, is so extremely similar to the practice of wounding or cutting the body for the dead, which has prevailed so extensively, that we can have no difficulty in allowing the full force of the observation. But, with respect to the second, one may incline to demur, on the ground of the improbability that such a state of servitude as it implies, could exist in so apparently primitive a condition of society. This, however, is not difficult of explanation, as the reader will find in the following section, from which one may safely infer, that the government of the Sandwich islands is by no means one which requires for its exhibition, the innocence, the liberty, and equality of the golden age. Some conclusion may hence be drawn as to the probable origin and antiquity of these islanders. But it is obvious that we are far from possessing sufficient data to enable us to enter satisfactorily on the discussion of the topic.--E.
[9] Mr Playfair in his Geography, vol. vi. p. 839, a.s.serts, that the Sandwich islands were first discovered by Gaetano, a Spanish navigator, in 1542; but he does not a.s.sign his authority, or give any clue for which the position may be verified. The fact is certainly probable, as Captain King seems to admit; and supposing it so, we can easily conceive that the distance of time from the period of the discovery above stated, would be quite sufficient to account for the natives having no tradition of such a visit. Even a much shorter period would be adequate for the total loss of almost any event in the current history of a people, who had no other method of preserving it than the impression it made on the senses, and to whom there was no excitement to impress it on the memories of succeeding generations, arising from the importance of the circ.u.mstances connected with it.
The possession of iron, indeed, supposing it traced to this source, may be alleged too valuable, to have admitted such total forgetfulness of the event which occasioned it. But this difficulty readily resolves into a general remark, that even in more fortunate situations, the authors and occasions of many discoveries and inventions are soon lost sight of, in the more interesting experience of the utility that commends them. Men, in fact, are always much more anxious to avail themselves of the advantages which genius or accident has presented to their notice, than careful to testify grat.i.tude by ascertaining and perpetuating the original sources to which they have been indebted. A case, not indeed quite parallel, instantly occurs to recollection. How few persons are there in this island, who have the smallest conception, to whom it is they are indebted for the introduction of that valuable vegetable the potatoe? The incident, no doubt, is recorded in the history of our country. But is there one in a thousand to whom the article is so familiar, that knows whence it came; or is it conceivable, that, without such a record, any individual of the present generation would have doubted for a moment that it was indigenous to Britain? We might multiply such examples almost without end. But the reader may like better to amuse himself with an enquiry into the extent of common ignorance and indifference.--E.
[10] As this circ.u.mstance, of their _singing in parts_, has been much doubted by persons eminently skilled in music, and would be exceedingly curious if it were clearly ascertained, it is to be lamented that it cannot be more positively authenticated.
Captain Burney, and Captain Phillips, of the marines, who both have a tolerable knowledge of music, have given it as their opinion, that they did sing in parts; that is to say, that they sung together in different notes, which formed a pleasing harmony.
These gentlemen have fully testified, that the Friendly Islanders undoubtedly studied their performances before they were exhibited in public; that they had an idea of different notes being useful in harmony; and also, that they rehea.r.s.ed their compositions in private, and threw out the inferior voices, before they ventured to appear before those who were supposed to be judges of their skill in music.
In their regular concerts each man had a bamboo, which was of a different length and gave a different tone; these they beat against the ground, and each performer, a.s.sisted by the note given by this instrument, repeated the same note, accompanying it by words, by which means it was rendered sometimes short and sometimes long. In this manner they sing in chorus, and not only produced octaves to each other, according to their different species of voice, but fell on concords, such as were not disagreeable to the ear.
Now, to overturn this fact, by the reasoning of persons who did not hear these performances, is rather an arduous task. And yet there is great improbability, that any uncivilized people should, by accident, arrive at this degree of perfection in the art of music, which, we imagine, can only be attained by dint of study, and knowledge of the system and theory upon which musical composition is founded. Such miserable jargon as our country psalm-singers practise, which may be justly deemed the lowest cla.s.s of counterpoint, or singing in several parts, cannot be acquired, in the coa.r.s.e manner in which it is performed in the churches, without considerable time and practice. It is therefore scarcely credible, that a people, semi-barbarous, should naturally arrive at any perfection in that art, which it is much doubted, whether the Greeks and Romans, with all their refinements in music, ever attained, and which the Chinese, who have been longer civilized than any people on the globe, have not yet found out.
If Captain Burney (who, by the testimony of his father, perhaps the greatest musical theorist of this or any other age, was able to have done it) had written down, in European notes, the concords that these people sing; and if these concords had been such as European ears could tolerate, there would have been no longer doubt of the fact; but, as it is, it would, in my opinion, be a rash judgment to venture to affirm, that they did or did not understand counterpoint; and therefore I fear that this curious matter must be considered as still remaining undecided.
[11] An amus.e.m.e.nt somewhat similar to this, at Otaheite, has been elsewhere described.
SECTION VIII.
General Account of the Sandwich Islands, continued.--Government.--People divided into three Cla.s.ses,--Power of Erreetaboo.--Genealogy of the Kings of Owhyhee and Mowee.--Power of the Chiefs.--State of the inferior Cla.s.s.
--Punishment of Crimes.--Religion.--Society of Priests.--The Orono.--Their Idols.--Songs chanted by the Chiefs, before they drink Ava.--Human Sacrifices.--Custom of knocking out the fore Teeth.--Notions with regard to a future State.--Marriages.--Remarkable Instance of Jealousy.--Funeral Rites.
The people of these islands are manifestly divided into three cla.s.ses. The first are the _Erees_, or chiefs, of each district, one of which is superior to the rest, and is called at Owhyhee _Eree-taboo_, and _Eree- moee_. By the first of these words they express his absolute authority; and by the latter, that all are obliged to prostrate themselves (or put themselves to sleep, as the word signifies) in his presence. The second cla.s.s are those who appear to enjoy a right of property without authority.
The third are the _towtows_, or servants, who have neither rank nor property.
It is not possible to give any thing like a systematical account of the subordination of these cla.s.ses to each other, without departing from that strict veracity, which, in works of this nature, is more satisfactory than conjectures, however ingenious. I will, therefore, content myself with relating such facts as we were witnesses to ourselves, and such accounts as we thought could be depended upon; and shall leave the reader to form from them his own ideas of the nature of their government.
The great power and high rank of Terreeoboo, the _Eree-taboo_ of Owhyhee, was very evident, from the manner in which he was received at Karakakooa, on his first arrival. All the natives were seen prostrated at the entrance of their houses; and the canoes, for two days before, were _tabooed_, or forbidden to go out, till he took off the restraint. He was at this time just returned from Mowee, for the possession of which he was contending in favour of his son Teewarro, who had married the daughter and only child of the late king of that island, against Tabeeterree, his surviving brother.
He was attended, in this expedition, by many of his warriors; but whether their service was voluntary, or the condition on which they hold their rank and property, we could not learn.