3] W. W. Gill, _Life in the Southern Isles_. pp. 7 _sq._;
_id._, _From Darkness to Light in Polynesia_ (London, 1894), pp.
6 _sq._; A. Baessler, _Neue Suedsee-Bilder_ (Berlin, 1900), pp.
271 _sqq._, 274 _sqq._ (as to the caverns).

Sec. 2. _The Islanders and their Mode of Life_

Though the natives speak a Polynesian language closely akin to the
Samoan and have legends of their migration from Samoa, they appear not
to be pure Polynesians. They say that they found black people on
Rarotonga; and their more pronounced features, more wavy hair, darker
complexion, and more energetic character seem to indicate an admixture
of Melanesian blood. In Mangaia, indeed, this type is said to
predominate, the natives of that island being characterised by dusky
brown skin, wavy or frizzly hair, and ample beards: their features, too,
are more prominent than those of the Rarotongans, and their manners are
wilder.[4] Cannibalism prevailed in most of the islands of the group
down to the conversion of the natives to Christianity, which took place
between 1823 and 1834, when, with the exception of a few pagans in
Mangaia, there did not remain a single idolater, or vestige of idolatry,
in any one of the islands. However, many years afterwards old men, who
had partaken of cannibal feasts, assured a missionary that human flesh
was far superior to pork.[5]

[4] F. H. H. Guillemard, _Australasia_, ii. 509. Compare A.
Baessler, _Neue Suedsee-Bilder_, pp. 257 _sq._, 269. The latter
writer remarks on the great variety of types among the natives
of these islands. In Mangaia he found the people darker than in
Rarotonga, undersized, sturdy, with thick lips, noses broad and
sunken at the bridge, which gave them a somewhat wild
appearance. As to the tradition of an emigration of the Hervey
Islanders from Samoa, see W. W. Gill, _Life in the Southern
Isles_, pp. 23 _sqq._ "The Mangaians themselves trace their
origin to Avaiki, or nether world; but Avaiki, Hawai'i, and
Savai'i, are but slightly different forms of one word. The _s_
of the Samoan dialect is invariably dropped in the Hervey Group
dialects, whilst a _k_ is substituted for the break at the end.
No native of these days doubts that by Avaiki his ancestors
really intended Savai'i, the largest island of the Samoan Group.
In Polynesia, to sail _west_ is to go _down_; to sail _east_ is
to go _up_. To sail from Samoa to