A PECULIAR PEOPLE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXXX, Issue 10103, 31 July 1893, Page 3

A PECULIAR PEOPLE.

(San Fran cisco Chronicle.)

Lying away down in the Pacific Ocean, bo far beyond the Hawaiian kingdom that Honolulu is called by sailing vessels the half-way house between the Golden Gate and their coral reefs, are the Gilbert islands. Their natives are governed by petty chiefs and kings, and form a rare and interesting combination of heathenish customs and religious teachings. The avarice of the miser and the thoughtless waste of the child make up a general disposition at once affectionate and cruel, which proclaims that the work of the sometimes devout missionary and the association of the worldly civilised trader have not yet been able to effect a change of their moral character or prepare them for a higher civilisation. The hoisting of the British flag at the village of Butaritari, on tbo island of Butaritari, the visit of King Tiburoimoa to this country in the hope of securing some sort of recognition or relief from the United States, and the result of the King's self-appointed mission are all well known, but from Mrs A. Kick, wife of the exUnifced States Consul at Butaritari, who has just returned to San Francisco, has been learned something of the strange customs and peculiar characteristics of the inhabitants of the Gilbert islands not hitherto published. Mr and Mrs Rick were for eeveral years residents of the Islands previous to the appointment of Mr Eick to the Consulate at Butaritari in 1887, and were there when Davis of the British navy hoisted England's flag on the island, notwithstanding the vigorous protest of the powerless old King.

THE KINGDOM OVER WHICH TIBUREIMOA REIGNS consists of three islands, Butaritari, Big Mokin and Little Mokin, populated by 4000 inhabitants. The revenue enjoyed by Tibureimoa would not serve for pin money for many a young San Francisco belle, but the habits of fcho monarch of those islands are not expensive, and his costumes lack the spendour which distinguish Eastern courts. He taxes the thirteen foreign storekeepers lOOdiol each per annum, and every male subject pays him Idol, every woman 50 cents, and every child 25 cents each year. He also receives all the fines which may be imposed for trifling offences against his kingly dignity or the peace of ary of his faithful subjects. In this way King Tibureimoa manages to live a jolly life, entirely typical of bis race. He is heathen or Christian as may best serve his turn —not hesitating to pray like a priest, swear like a sailor, or lie like a politician whenever his interests are met by it. While the islands have been

THE FIELD OP ACTIVE MISSIONARY EFFORT for years, according to the observations of Mrs Kick, whose opportunities for investigation were wide, and covered a period of a dozen years, there has been very little really accomplished, Tho native swings into line with the Christian to-day, or at any and all times when in his presence; but this lady, ohortly before her departure from Butaritari, frequently saw the professed Christian islander secretly teaching the little children weird heathen dances and wild incantations—certain proof that while missionary teachings are outwardly accepted, the native mind and heart still cling to tho customs taught and believed in through the gone centuries. ; Formerly it was the tho custom in the islands to inflict the death penalty upon both parties to adultery, so that the moral status of the natives in olden days, as may be readily supposed, was such a sight as might put the standard of chastity in Christian America to the blush, but under the benign and ameliorating influences of civilization the law has been changed so that now a fine takes the place of the more heroic punishment and a few coins hide tho stains which in former times could only bo wiped out with blood. But to return to THE KING’S REVENUES. From all these sources Tibureimoa receives about SOOOdols per annum. His table —that is when he does not eat sitting on the floor on a mat—is supplied with the choicest fish taken by bis subjects from the adjacent sea, and whenever he sees fit be serves notice on any particular native that ho wants his crop of cocoanuts, and ho gets it. The natives idolize their children. Little ones are not permitted to walk until they are seven or eight years old, but the old people are not the objects of solicitude, and are compelled to look out for themselves or starve. ONE OF THE PECULIAR CUSTOMS, and the most repellant and revolting that c*n be imagined, is the treatment of the dead by the islanders. While an old person living is held of no account, the moment the breath leaves the body it becomes an object of the most ardent affection and veneration. The corpse is not buried nor cast into the sea. nor does it feed a funeral pyre. It is simply kept in the house. The sick die on a mat in the low hut, and the remains are each morning taken without the house, where they remain until sunset, when they are again brought within. This horrible treatment is kept up until nothing but bones remain. These imperishable relics are stuck up in cracks about tho house, and like the clay of imperial Csesar, " might atop a hole to keep tho wind away.” The sick are left to heal themselves, so far as native skill or surgery may aid them. There aro doctors, it is true; but their treatment would not be thought beneficial in civilized countries. If a person be sick he is taken out at sunset and placed on a mat just at the edge of the sea, and the “ doctor,” carrying a torch made of the split bark of the cocoanut tree, marches about the patient three times with the flaming brand waving slowly above his head in a measure with his step, at the same time chanting in low, slow tone a sort of song. This mummery is repeated at intervals until the corpse is conveyed to the home or the sick one gets well.

MARRIAGE AMONG THE NATIVES is simply accomplished and as quickly undone. Women are regarded as cattle or any other property. If a man fancies a girl he seizes her by the hair of the head wherever he may find her, and, notwithstanding her protestations, drags her away to his home. This resistance is not often serious, for, with that true sense of coquetry which makes all womankind kin, a show of refusal is made. Arrived at the house of the groom, a wedding feast is furnished forthwith, to which all the immediate friends of the "contracting parties ” are invited. But invitation implies that those responding must each one bring some article to the banquet. There is no further ceremony. When a man grows weary of his wife ha simply orders her to leave, and if she does not take the hint, he removes her much as he wooed and won her—by the hair of her head. To the mind of the natives the islands are

PEOPLED WITH GHOSTS. In the evening those who stir about the beach or penetrate the thick tropical dark*; ness carry rifles with them. Asked what, they do this for, the answer is " Ghosts.”' They fear the departed shades more than any living thing. Singularly enough, they believe that these ghosts are the spirits; of their dead relatives and friends, andyet they hold them in mortal terror. A strange custom among the islanders is this, that begging never meets refusal., However much one may prize his gun, hio ■ boat or cocoanute, persistent begging will \ secure possession without payment. When : the islander is at his meal he is hound to ‘ ask any native who may happen to pass bin , door, no matter however bitter an enemy, ] to enter and eat with him. Hostilities, while the meal proceeds, are at on end,! King Tibureimoa has

A COUNCIL OF OLD MEN and indirectly absolutely controls the lands of his little kingdom, and for certain ' offences may confiscate them. Different possessions are marked by little piles of! stones, and the owners grow so familiar with their holdings that they know every tree and to whom it belongs, and not infrequently can instantly tell the very ■ tree from which the cocoanut comet by its appearance. This product is to the native of tbo Gilbert islands what gold ia . to the resident of San Francisco. It ia meat, drink, clothing, home—everything. The nut is eaten green, dried, reduced to a paste aud cooked. The juice of the tree makes his "toddy,” which will moke a native drunk and keep him so for a week. The sap makes sugar. The trunk builds his home, and its bark and leaves hie thatched roof, the mats for his bed, hia boat and his clothes. THE POPULATION OF THE LITTLE KINGDOM* is decreasing. Large families are directly discouraged. The custom attendant upon childbirth is not calculated to raise the percentage of infantile life, for at the ■ accouchement nature is aided by vigorous kicks and nmnlings, and the little native first sees the light of day and takes a plunge hath in the ocean at one and the same moment, without regard to temperature or, other conditions. Tibureimoa built a dock or mole 1600 feet long, fourteen foet-wide, and eight feet above high water, out from Butari* tari to fifteen feet depth, and offered it to this country. It was constructed of stone at infinite pains and much labour, and the natives were engaged for years in carrying rocks on their backs from many parts of the island to create this mole. But Tibu« reimoa's entreaties were unavailing, and the English flag now files from the end of the old King's stone wharf.