Connecticut western news., 1920-03-11
QUEER LITTLE YAP
Odd Customs on Small Island,
 Now American.
Peculiar Currency System Would Seem to Have Some Disadvantages Religious Rites Observed by
 Parties of Fishermen.


 Parties of Fishermen.
 The island of Tap isn't such a yap place. after all.
 Returned travellers from the South seas give Illuminating details of life on the queer little island which even President Wilson hadn't heard of un- til the Paris conference decided that America ought to get something out of the war-and generously gave us Tap.
 If America's would-be czars should adopt the well-known Russian plan of using Tap as "Siberia"-as suggest ed the other day by a senator. who got a big laugh for his idea-here are some strongly American customs with a Malayan twist that deported persons would find in operation there:
 Money as big as cartwheels mot only" but considerably bigger-huge stone dollars from two to twelve feet acrossi .a'
 Bachelors club houses occupied by the entire male population on certain occasions, women being entirely ex- cluded. ># .
 A social order, consisting of four castes-magicians, impoverished aris- tocrats, rich men and the populace.
 A religion that includes a god, Lux, who protects thieves and swindlers.
 A language that would delight a diplomat or a blushing maiden. hay ing nearly 40 different ways of say ing "No.r -z is
 The two great products of Tap are coconuts and typhoons. The typhoons save the natives the trouble of pick ing the coconuts. It is precisely in that quarter of the Pacific that the worst storms on earth are born, and from July to December the weather would delight Professor Porta.
 Gold or silver money has no more value in Tap than bolshevik rubles have here. The Yaps have such faith In human nature that they have de- vised a coin nobody can lift. A small coin Is a disk of granite two feet across and six inches thick, with a hole in the middle.
 A large coin is two fathoms across and two feet thick. Rich people in Tap simply pile their money in the front yard or lean it against the side of the house, which saves them the trouble of showing off by elaborate dress or other indirect methods. It also gives full publicity to all cash transactions. # @
 For chicken feed" they use large pairs of oyster shells and hundred pound sacks of copra. To "pass the plate" in a Tap church you have to use a moving van. .rs..
 Americans who oppose foreign en- tanglements may take comfort from the fact that the word "Yap" originally meant foreigner" The early Yaps were great traders and voyagers around the South seas. Tn other words, foreigners are Yaps-the same old story. ..t
 Today the Yaps fish religIously. Be- fore every fishing party the men ara obliged to leave their wives and spend are large stone mansions.
 After the nrSt succesSful eaten, the men come ashore and everybody takes a pull at the fermented juice of the green coconut. This is dubbed a re- ligious rite, and the women have ts keep quiet about 1t or get cussed by the gods-an idea which should inter est Americans who are still fond of little fishing parties.
 When a Tap grnticm~n wishes ts steal he prays to Lux. Lux keeps other people from looking. If the thief gets caught anyhow, he simply decides that Lux must have been too busy to hear his prayer, and hopes for better Lux next time.
 For the rest of 1t, Tap is 35 miles long and five broad, surrounded by coral reef, has hills 1000 feet high, runs out of water whenever it fails to rain for a week, has five smaller is- lands near 1t, grows yams and trop- ical fruitsi but not rice, and contains some 10000 natives of the Malay race, whose language, curlously enough, shows basic relation to Sanskrit- .,
 And it's ours. every bit of h