THE SAVAGE ISLANDERS.

Bruce Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 143, 12 June 1903, Page 7

THE SAVAGE ISLANDERS.

When Captain Cook sailed from theSanga, or Friendly Islands, as he railed them, toward the Hervey group, he discovered a small island, the natives of which -to use his own words —attacked him • like so many wild boars.' He called the place Savage Island, md sailed on. He did not know the reason for the ferocity whioh he encountered. These natives: dreaded disease, which they thought always came from some other land than cheirs, and they put to death not only all newcomers, but returning natives who had been away some time. The dead bodies were disposed of so that no contamination might reach their little .island, whioh they believed was naturally free from sickness. On my tour around the world, I met Rev. W G. Lawes, the missionary, who had aharge of Savage Island for many years, and who is now stationed at-Port Moresby, in New Guinea. He informed me that on Niue , or Savage Island, only thirty miles in oir snmferenoe, the population numbers 5,003, and nearly all are Christians. Thoy send out mission teachers, subscribe regularly to aousion work, and have furnished the money *j build a schooner, whioh was launched at Sydney, and whioh is used by Mr. Lawes along the New Guinea _aoast. __Mta Lawes looks like one of the Patriarohs, with his long, rilvery beard, his handsome face, and tower ing form. is a practical farmer, as indeed most missionaries in the Southern seas have to be. • What do you think of a people who never use tobacco ? said the old pasto of the Niuans of Savage Isles. These savages never used the weed.: They were never cannibals as the inhabitants of neighboring isles were. Their morality was much higher, too. They were always good canoe builders, ornamenting them with shells and mother-of-pearl. Another curious feature was the way in whioh they punished criminals strapping them to trees for. minor offences—and starv ing them for a time. If anything all was allowed, it was some bitter fruit. Although the Niuans paintedrtheir bodies, they did not tattoo them as the Samoans and Mairquesans do. In many, '.respects .the Niuans differed from the people of Polynesia.. Their dead were takwrto the woods, laid on a rude bench and left to decay. Then the whitened bones were brought back and buried in limestone caves. Another method was like the old Norse custom of sending the dead to sea. (?he body was placed in a canoe and sent adrift on the wide and lonely ocean. —H. S. tlenton, Queensland, Australia.