The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-01-30

the illicit manufacture of the fermented milk of the cocoanut. Their love for this intoxicant is so potent that they persist in making and drinking it on every occasion.
 Protestant missions and schools are prohibited by the government, and the Roman Catholics seem to have met with little success in proselyting the natives. A school is maintained at Taiohai, one |of the villages of Nukahiva, by Catholic Sisters, who complained of their lack of success with the children. No sooner had the nuns begun to teach them than |their parents came and took them away For these children there seems no other road than that their parents have trod- den, made even more hopeless by the i1l- creasing degeneracy of the times" Because of the decreasing number of children due to infanticide, it is a com mon practice for a childless couple to adopt as sons and daughters men and women almost as old as themselves. Some travellers say that tWo-thirds of the children are killed as. soon as they are born, and Ellis, in his Researches" tells of women who had killed six eight TO ten of their infants. For the reason that most of the children killed are fe- males, the proportion of women to men | is about one to five a condition which encourages the practice of. polyandry and promotes the disregard of tsose moral standards held sacred by Chris l tian nations.
 Although cannibalism has been sup pressed by the French since they con quered Eastern Polynesia in the early part of the last century, nevertheless, many relics of the custom have sur vived. Many of the ornaments of the i natives consist of human hair. A good beard brings as much as one hundred dollars. Dancers adorn themselves with bracelets and garters of human hair, and the natives of the Austral Isles adorn themselves with headdresses made of woven mustaches.
 1 The French Poiynesian claims to be ! the most skilful tattooer in the world. None of the sailors who visit him can show such elaborate designs as he can ] execute. Before he heard the missiona- { ries talk of Christ and the one God, the native of the Marquesas and the Paun- notu Islands regarded the tattoo as "ta- boo,' or sacred. The higher mans station, the more extensively was his skin punctured. The priests literally covered themselves with tattooed pie lures. A woman was not tattooed until she was married, but should she have \ royal blood she let it flow from almost Z a c ,,.sly, oc4
 is said to have had her body covered
 with such elaborate designs that chiefs from far away islands came merely to gaze at the wonderful workmanship.
 The English word taboo comes from the native language of the Polynesians.
 According to their pagan beliefs, there were certain things which were 'ta
 boo" or sacred, and which profane
 hands must not touch. Thus in the times antedating the advent of Chris
 tianity there the taboo prevented wo-
 men from the use of canoes. It was death for woman even to enter dug
 out when it had been hauled ashore. Robert Louis Stevenson writes:
 Taboo encircled women on all hands They must not sit on the pae-pae Cor stone platform), they must not go up to
 it by the stair; they must not eat pork;
 they must not approach a boat; they must not cook at fire which any male had kindled.''
 The heathen Polynesian still believes
 that only the noble classes are taboo
 and go to heaven after death. Many of
 the Polynesian subjects of France have
 partly adopted the dress of the Caucas-
 ian, choosing to wear that particular Igarment which pleases their fancy most.
 One will be found arrayed only in a pair
 of trousers, or a waistcoat, or should
 the case be that of woman, petti-
 coat or a loose wrapper Of all the me
 chanical inventions brought them by
 Europeans, the sewing machine is their
 favorite Even in huts in the interior
 of the widest islands Miss Wilson found l sewing machines to be almost the sole
 articles of furniture.
 "A sewing machine is a sine qua non in the native household" she says, land
 is generally found in those of the better
 class. The desires of the feminine heart are gratified in the creation of
 new and tasteful halokus Cor wrappers)
 much ruff1ed and adorned with lace,
 and also pillow cases stitched, tucked,
 ruffled and variously adorned"
 The natives of French Polynesia live almost entirely on the breadfruit, which,
 according to many writers, is deleteri-
 ous to the health at certain seasons of
 the year, and which is the cause of sickness especially among children, at these times. The favorite dish made
 from the breadfruit is poi, which sug-
 gests the taste of sour paste to an
 American palate.
 '"The breadfruit," says Miss Wilson,
 ''is roasted in the embers, then freed
 from the hull, or outer covering, mixed
 with water, thoroughly kneaded and
 left to ferment, when it is ready for eating. Sometimes it is only moistened . with water, and then buried in hole in . the ground and covered thickly with leaves, where it may be left undisturbed against time of scarcity. 1t than be-