and Hawaii these have come down to _tai_ and
_lai_, as though the language became shrunk and formless as the
race migrated further from home, and sank into the barbaric life
of ocean islanders." Dr. W. H. R. Rivers suggests that the
Polynesian language "arose out of a pidgin Indonesian" (_The
History of Melanesian Society_, ii. 584).

But these are intricate questions which await future investigation. I
cannot enter into them now, but must confine myself to my immediate
subject, the beliefs of the Polynesians concerning the human soul and
the life after death.

In spite of their diffusion over a multitude of islands separated from
each other by hundreds and even thousands of miles of ocean, the
Polynesians are on the whole a remarkably homogeneous race in physical
type, language, and forms of society and religion. The differences of
language between them are inconsiderable, amounting to little more than
some well-marked dialectical variations: all dwell in settled homes and
subsist partly by fishing partly by the fruits of the earth, tilling the
soil and gathering coconuts and bread-fruit from the trees:[9] all are
bold and expert mariners, making long voyages in large well-built
canoes: all possess a copious and comparatively well developed
mythology; and all at the time of their discovery enjoyed, or perhaps we
should rather say suffered from, a singular institution, half social,
half religious, which may be summed up in the single Polynesian word
taboo. Hence it would no doubt be possible to give a general account of
the belief in human immortality which would hold good in outline for all
the different branches of the Polynesian race; but such an account would
necessarily be somewhat meagre, inexact in detail, and liable to many
exceptions. Accordingly I shall not attempt it, but shall describe the
creed of each group of islanders separately. As the beliefs of the
various islanders on this momentous topic are characterised by a general
similarity, the method I have adopted will no doubt involve a certain
sameness and repetition, but for the serious student of comparative
religion I hope that these disadvantages may be more than outweighed by
the greater accuracy and fulness of detail which this mode of treating
the subject renders possible.

[9] J. Deniker, _The Races of Man_, p. 501. On the apparent
homogeneity of the Polynesian race see W. H. R. Rivers, _The
History of Melanesian