The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1876-09-02
TIE PACIFIC
Commercial AOOrrtlsrr
SATURD4 /. SEPT. >.
The MammalIa of the Pacific.
sY WILLIAM WYATT GILL, z. =

absent.
This Statement, agrees neither with the ira
ditions of the islanders themselves, nor with the
testimony Of the early voyagers.
Referring TO the Sandwich Islands, Captain
Cook says = The quadrupeds in these islands,
as in oil the others that have been discovered in
the South Sea, ere confined 10 three sorts dogs,
hogs, and rats,''- Voyages, rol. 7, P. log.
The rat alone is universal it is about half the
size Of the Norway mt. In many Of the islands
the indigenous breed has been exterminated By
the imported rat.
In 1852, a solitary male Norway rat got ashore
at Mangnia, from the wreck Of an American
whaler. 1t made war upon the native mt. On
removing the flooring of one of onr rooms, about
thirty dead native rats were found. We were
fortunate enough 20 catch the offender in q trap.
In some of the islands of the South Pacific, 1t
was usual to defend growing coeoanuts from the
depredationso of the native rat by making a sort Of
screen, weIl-secured all around the tree, close TO
the fronds, at a great height from the ground.
When extracting a child's tooth, it was custo-
mary to offer a prayer, in which the gods were
asked to give a rats tooth (Hio kiore) in its place
!. ?. q strong tooth.
Most of the Pacific Islands were, like Mangaia
literally oyerrun with these rats. There can be
no mistake as to this small rat being indigenous.
At Mangaia they were mythieally regarded as
the progeny of Echo, the ironical goddess "who
talks cut of the rocks" The rat figures again
and again in their ancient songs and myths.
Two methods of rat-cacthing were successfully
~pTacticed in the olden time. One was to make a
circle of loops of cinet with slip-nooses, the en-
closed space being covered with candle-nuts.
(AeuyifeS ~triIoJa). Rats were thus easily
strangled.
Another plan was 10 dig a large bottleshaped
hole in the earth, two narrow pathways being
made to permit tho rats to descend TO least on
the candie-nuts. When this hole was we'll filled
with rats, two men would go down with knobbed
sticks to kill the rats.
One morning, some lads, climbing up some
high rocks dislodgcd n large stone, and so ex-
posed a mummy-caye. The mummy was in adj
mirable preservation, but there was n hole in its
side, out of which some little rats were peeping.
4 rat-nest had been made where the heart had
been
The proyerb, { : Sweet as q rat survives in
Mangaia to this day, although the adults of this
generation have given up the disgusting practice
of rat-eating.
l recollect, in 1852, being several times asked,
'Wil Jehovah be angry with us if we eat rats?'
"Why,"I asked, in astonishment, do you ask
this?'" Because, we have been reading in
Leviticus that rat-eating is forbidden" was the
reply.
Boys, to this day, set fire to the mountain-fern,
so that the myriad of rats rushing out of the fern,
halfblinded with fire and smoke, are easily killed
with long sticks. This is done when the sea is
rough, so that the boys cannot catch fish. These
rats feed exclusively on coeoa-nuts, bananas, ar
row-root, candle-nuts, and papao-apples.
THE HOG.
OF the seven islands constituting the Hervey
Group, Mangaia and Aitutaki were the only ones
without a native. breed of pigs. The first were
landed in 1923, by the martyr Williams. The men
of that day took them to the marae of the prin-
cipal god, clothed them in the tapd, fed with the
food of the high chiefs, and bestowed upon them
separate names. They were then regarded as
foreign diyinites.
After a time, on account of their filthy habits,
they were expelled from the sacred enclosure. It
was several years before the natives could be in
duced to taste the flesh. So rapid was their in
crease, that, after supplying numberless vessels,
on the occasion of the annual May festivities,
1852, a thousand pigs We're killed and eaten
OF late years the number of these useful animals
has greatly fallen off, owing to the desolation
occasioned by successive hurricanes.
The original pig of Polynesia is now extinct.
1t was a lanky, long-legged creature, not unlike
the SuS PdpuenSis L saw everywhere in New
Guinea. To Captain Cook and the missionaries
belong the credit of introducing an improved
breed amongst the numerous islands of the Pacific.
The hog was, originally, indigenous to the
Sandwich Islands, Tahiti, and the Friendly
Islands. Captain Cook found the hog on Tanna,
one of the Hebrides. Nearly three centuries ago,
Quiros saw pigs on Espirito Santo, the northern
most island of the same group
THE DOG.
The dog was indigenous to Tahiti, Samoa,
Sandwich Islands, and New Zealand. Captain
Cook describes them as having {" short, crooked
legs, long backs and pricked ears. They are, in
general, fed or left to herd with the hogs and l
do not r~ecollect of one instance in which a dog
was made a companion of man. Indeed, the
custom of eating them is an inseparable barrier
to their admission into society - Oyoges,
UoL. Up. LOG.
Again, speaking of Tahiti, Captain Cook says
Cyol. /, p. 145) :" The dogs which are here bred
to be eaten, taste no animal food, but are kept
wholly on breadfruits, cocoa-nuts, yams, and
other vegetables of u like kind"
The native name {Uri) supports the above
view.
The dog was unknown in the Heryey group
until one was obtained from the ship Resolution,
in 1777, in exchange for a hog. The natives
were wonderfully delighted with it. 1t is a cir
cumstance that no really good dog will live in the
Hervey Group. The islands are now overrun
with worthless ours.
THE BAT.
The last island in the Pacific to the eastward,
where the bat is found, is Mangaia. No other
=. A. IJo.-a- E,1,- - o.o Tho a-o