Arizona republican., 1921-01-30

derstand that the cable rights of Tap if not the island itself were to be ours. This is the highly strategic Yap situation, regarding which the state department finds no words sufficient ly meaningless to be safely uttered at present.
 As a piece of land Tap wouldn't be worth any nation wasting language over. As cable landing it is a prize which is not to be eareIessly aban- doned. Yap as a tropical island. how ever, is far more interesting than Yap as cable base. It is seldom visited ! island but t has had one enthusiastic ' biographer in William H. Furness. who has given us a fascinating account of the life and ways of the Yappers In Nap, MT Furness found a com- munistic scheme of life operating on a really practical basis. Certain pecnyf liar factors make practicable in Yav that communistic life which has 50 often failed in western countries These are the character of the land.
 and the temperament of the people.
 The Yapper literally picks his
 clothes off the bushes. Long grasses
 and leaves make up the skirt which is
 all the woman wears, except a few
 flowers. She plaits and weaves her
 long skirt together with a very little } labor, and it lasts about a month The
 
 | loin cloth, a small grass girdle, and the inevitable string of beads. If he is q free man, he also displays comb in his hair.
 : The natives, children and all. live on : cocoanuts, fish, yams. and other easily l found foods. Their houses are built of ! beams with low matched roofs. Every 5 thing is at hand and their wants are !. few. The Yappers have no ambitions nd fax 5assfa rfn !, is no trouble about getting work done ! because there is so little to do The 7 bachelors Of a tribe build and live in 2 what corresponds to a fraternity house. When one marries. he builds a hut for
 simple housekeeping, and returns to the mems quarters mainly for pow
 VOWS and other ceremonies to which women are not invited. The children s of Tap roam about and pick up food g anywhere. and sleep as often in one = house as in another
 Stone Money
 Life is reduced to it's lowest terms [. without sacrificing comfort. Yet the v people of this island do not go to the
 limits of communism. They believe s strongly in personal property, and they r have rigid monetary system It is It extremely rude to enter another's house If without invitation. AS for the money. 1t it is not in constant circulation, for l. there is not great deal to buy. but r there is good deal of it in evidence.
 To purchase some trinket, or fish from o the fisherman, shell money is used. a But in big transactions. in a real estate c deal, or in buying a canoe, stone Q money must be produced.
 l. This stone money is quarried on an d island 400 miles away and shipped to a Yap where it is official currency. Each al piece is as round as the cutters can se make it, and has hole in it. Size de
 termines the relative value of the It coin A small coin would be about a Id foot in diameter, a middle sized coin te would be the size of cart wheel, and at a big coin might be as much as twelve 7- feet in diameter
 W Of course. these biggest pieces oi F currency cannot be carried about. They s- cannot even be got inside the native re houses. Usually the owner of the for. ne tune has it propped up against tht n- house. or against a tree in the yard m and there it stays Nobody could O. steal it without rousing the neighbor 1g hood And there is practically nj ly theft in Yap, anyway.
 When small pieces of stone mone' ng change hands. the new owner hoist a. his pay on a pole and stasgers hor it with it. If the payment is too uu re, wicldly for him to roll or drag it homo
 
 ad ance 1t is quite customary to leave tn re. money at the former owners house an IT, perhaps mark it so that the new own ii- CT can claim it.
 he These people who find life so simpl Or are not semi-civilized or even barbar mt ians. but they are rather high up i he the savage scale. Dr. Furness de of scribes them as 9of the Malayan tyr he "a light coffee colored skin; hat
 black and inclined 70 wave or curl. nc all crinkly. like the Melanesian and Afr mt can. eyes very dark brown, almo: -as black; cheek bones rather high an mt noses inclined to be hooked. but n, to prominent. Since the sale of intov nat capts and gunpowder has been pr. he hibited, except to the trustwoIt m, chiefs, they are gentle docile a, SC. lazy" of These natives cannot read or writ ble even their own language. so they ma ion not know that the United States is Q, zen gazing in an after thC-Var canfli esS over their little island. They probah
 would not care anyway. SO long Is q
 battle rascs at distance. All u 2 !. 0