was an indignity never to be forgotten. Gattanewa, nay, all his family, scorned to pass a gateway which is ever closed, or a house with a door; all must be as open and free as their unrestrained manners. He would pass under nothing that had been raised by the hand of man, if there was a possibility of getting round or over it. Often have I seen him walk the whole length of our barrier, in preference to passing between our water-casks; and at the risk of his life scramble over the loose stones of a wall, rather than go through the gateway.”[1] Marquesan women have been known to refuse to go on the decks of ships for fear of passing over the heads of chiefs who might be below.[2] But it was not the Marquesan chiefs only whose heads were sacred; the head of every Marquesan was taboo, and might neither be touched nor stepped over by another; even a father might not step over the head of his sleeping child.[3] No one was allowed to be over the head of the king of Tonga.[4] In Hawaii (the Sandwich Islands) if a man climbed upon a chief’s house or upon the wall of his yard, he was put to death; if his shadow fell on a chief, he was put to death; if he walked in the shadow of a chief’s house with his head painted white or decked with a garland or wetted with water, he was put to death.[5] In Tahiti any one who stood over the king or queen, or passed his hand over their heads, might be put to death.[6] Until certain rites were performed over it, a Tahitian infant was
- ↑ David Porter, Journal of a Cruise made to the Pacific Ocean in the U.S. Frigate Essex (New York, 1822), ii. 65.
- ↑ Vincendon-Dumoulin et Desgraz, Iles Marquises, p. 262.
- ↑ Langsdorff, Reise um die Welt, i. 115 sq..
- ↑ Capt. James Cook, Voyages, v. 427 (ed. 1809).
- ↑ Jules Remy, Ka Mooolelo Hawaii, Histoire de l’Archipel Hawaiien (Paris and Leipzig, 1862), p. 159.
- ↑ Ellis, Polynesian Researches, iii. 102.
