The Emporia weekly news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1881-1889, 1885-07-09
Tho Fejees-The Habits of a Re-
narkab!e People.

A correspondent of the San Francisco
Chronicle, writing about the South Sea
Islands, says:
1t is a common impression that the
South Sea Islanders are all cannibals,
and that the islands are filled with wild
beasts. Such is not the case The ma
tives are indolent and far from being
savage, and their relations with the
whites are easy going and simple.
There is little romance and less adven-
ture in exploring these Southern archi-
pelagoes. The islands are all of vol
canic origin, and in the lowest strata
show no evidence of ores or minerals.
The vegetation is tropical and luxu-
RANT, and the forests abound in every
variety of birds. 1t is common sup
position that the Islanders are physi-
cally dwarfS and the women shriveled
and hag-like in appearance, resemb-
ling the Indian squaw. The truth is,
however, that no finer race exists in
the world as regards physical structure.
The men are tall and well formed. The
women have magnificent proportions,
pleasing faces, are neither habby nor
fat, and the contours of their bodies
are harmonious and voluptuous.
They have well-developed busts,
form, as they wear nothing above the
waist BY actual measurement they
approach the Venus of Milo nearer
than the European. Their houses are
built of a framework of saplings, put
together without any nails, fastened by
sennit made from the cocoanut fibre
and matched with long grass to the
thickness of several feet The sides
and ends are filed with latticework of
reeds that admit the air. The floors
are covered with soft grasses to the
depth of several feet, over which are
spread mats. One end of the floor is
raised about one foot above the rest,
and is used as a bed, upon which is
laid from fifty to one hundred of the
softest mats. One corner is reserved
as small fireplace, consisting of bare
ground and q few stones, on which are
always kept smouldering a few cocoa
nut husks, used for the purpose of max
| ing the suluka, or native cigarette. The
| tobacco which they smoke is sinply
the raw leaf dried in the sun. They
hold the leaf over the fire until it is
crisp, and then roll it in dried banana
leaf to a sharp point at one end and
broad at the other. One cigar usually
does for several persons, each taking a
| few whiffs and passing it to the next.
The chief of these is the mandrai,
made from any fruit. yams, taro or
bananas, pounded into a thick paste
| and buried on the shore between high
| and low water mark. There it is left
| to decompose for year, when it is dug
up and steamed in large pot. When
unrolled from the dried banana leaves
the odor is that of bad sourkrOut sliced
with Limburger cheese. The natives
relish this condiment as a masterpiece
of their art, and eat it without even
holding the nose. 1t is sweet to the
taste and easily digestible. Another
| Polynesian delicacy is raw fish about
the size of q sardine. which the natives
scoop out of the water and bolt while
the fish is still wriggling. They taste
| like sardines. The natives are very po-
| lite in their intercourse with each other.
| When one sneezes his companion says,
''Sabula," your health; the person
sneezing replying, ''Moli," thank you
| They never meet in the morning with
out saying ''Sa yandre," it is awake,
and in departing say, ''Sa Xxi moce, "
go to sleep. The language abounds in
poetry, without rhyme, and mainly of
the trochee meter, as the accents Of
the words usually fall on the penult.
| They celebrate love, martial deeds,
feats of strength and drinking feats in
verses. which are handed down by oral
tradition.