HANDY] THE POLYNESIAN PROBLEM 2$I
(Cook group), Niue, Samoa, the Society group, and the Mar- quesas. 1 We know of no evidence of the use of such seats in Tonga or Hawaii. This usage was, therefore, of importance in the southern groups where stone construction was not found, viz., New Zealand and the Cook group. Furthermore, stone seats were not found in association with chiefs or sacred places in Tonga or Hawaii where large stone construction was of great importance. Hence it was concluded that this use of stone slab seats belonged to one cultural stratum, while the utilization of large stone in temple construction belonged to another.
In connection with this there is some interesting and very sug- gestive evidence with regard to Hawaii. The Pohaku o Kane, or stones of Kane, were here upright stones of varying sizes which were venerated by the lower classes. 2 It seems possible that the Pohaku o Kane originally corresponded to the stone seats under discussion. If this proves to be so, will it not indicate the sub- mergence in Hawaii of that cultural stratum of which the veneration of such slabs as seats of sacred chiefs was typical? A number of other bits of evidence lend support to this theory. It is impossible, however, to enter into a discussion of these here, because they have grown out of the study of certain phases of the religion of Polynesia as a whole, which would have to be described with more thorough- ness than space allows at this time. But it may be said in passing that careful study of certain matters in Hawaii would be expected to throw much light on this question. Some of these features in Hawaiian culture are the use of face tattooing by the Kauwa, or lowest class, exclusively; the fact that these Kauwa were also called
��1 New Zealand: S. Percy Smith, Memoirs of the Polynesian Society, vol. HI, pp. 88-9. Cook Group: S. Percy Smith, " Arai-te-Tonga, the ancient Marae of Rarotonga,"
Journal of the Polynesian Society, vol. xi, p. 174; vol. xn, pp. 21820.
Niue: S. Percy Smith, "Niue Island and its People," Part n, Journal oj the Poly- nesian Society, vol. xi, p. 174.
Samoa: G. Turner, Somoa, a Hundred Years Ago and Long Before, p. 23. Lon- don, 1884. Society Group: A. Baessler, Neue Siidsee Bilder, pp. 119-20. Berlin, 1900.
Marquesas: LeP. Mathias Garcia, Letters sur les lies Marquises, p. 72. Paris, 1843.
2 W. D. Alexander, A Brief History of the Hawaiian People, pp. 37, 44. New York, 1892.
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