Marquesas, and other Polynesian islands we have the survival of an early
measure to increase reserve between the sexes, long after regard for
chastity has vanished.[1016]

[Sidenote: Low valuation of human life.]

The constant pressure of population upon the limits of subsistence
throughout Oceanica has occasioned a low valuation of human life. Among
natural peoples the helpless suffer first. The native Hawaiians, though
a good-natured folk, were relentless towards the aged, weak, sick, and
insane. These were frequently stoned to death or allowed to perish of
hunger.[1017] In Fiji, the aged are treated with such contempt, that when
decrepitude or illness threatens them, they beg their children to
strangle them, unless the children anticipate the request.[1018] In Vate
(or Efate) of the New Hebrides, old people are buried alive, and their
passage to another world duly celebrated by a feast.[1019] However, in
the Tonga Islands and in New Zealand, great respect and consideration
are shown the aged as embodying experience.[1020] The harsher custom
recalls an ancient law of Aegean Ceos, which, ordained that all persons
over sixty years of age should be compelled to drink hemlock, in order
that there might be sufficient food for the rest.[1021]

[Sidenote: Cannibalism in islands.]

Many customs of Oceanica can be understood only in the light of the
small value attached to human life in this island world. The
overpopulation which lies back of their colonization explains the human
sacrifices in their religious orgies and funeral rites, as also the
widespread practice of cannibalism. This can be traced in vestigial
forms, or as an occasional or habitual custom from one end of the
Pacific to the other, from the Marquesas to New Guinea and from New
Zealand to Hawaii. All Melanesia is tainted with it, and Micronesia is
not above suspicion. The cause of this extensive practice, Stevenson
attributes to the imminence of famine and the craving for flesh as food
in these small islands, which are destitute of animals except fowls,
dogs and hogs. In times of scarcity cannibalism threatens all; it
strikes from within or without the clan.[1022] Ratzel leans to the same
opinion.[1023] Captain Cook thought the motive of a good full meal of
human flesh was often back of the constant warfare in New Zealand, and
was sometimes the only alternative of death by hunger. Cannibalism was
not habitual in the Tonga Islands, but became conspicuous du