births to 47 deaths for 1887. Dropping three out of the fifteen,
there remained for the other twelve the comfortable ratio of 50
births to 32 deaths. Long habits of hardship and activity
doubtless explain the contrast with Marquesan figures. But the
Paumotuan displays, besides, a certain concern for health and the
rudiments of a sanitary discipline. Public talk with these free-
spoken people plays the part of the Contagious Diseases Act; in-
comers to fresh islands anxiously inquire if all be well; and
syphilis, when contracted, is successfully treated with indigenous
herbs. Like their neighbours of Tahiti, from whom they have
perhaps imbibed the error, they regard leprosy with comparative
indifference, elephantiasis with disproportionate fear. But,
unlike indeed to the Tahitian, their alarm puts on the guise of
self-defence. Any one stricken with this painful and ugly malady
is confined to the ends of villages, denied the use of paths and
highways, and condemned to transport himself between his house and
coco-patch by water only, his very footprint being held infectious.
Fe'efe'e, being a creature of marshes and the sequel of malarial
fever, is not original in atolls. On the single isle of Makatea,
where the lagoon is now a marsh, the disease has made a home. Many
suffer; they are excluded (if Mr. Wilmot be right) from much of the
comfort of society; and it is believed they take a secret
vengeance. The defections of the sick are considered highly
poisonous. Early in the morning, it is narrated, aged and
malicious persons creep into the sleeping village, and stealthily
make water at the doors of the houses of young men. Thus they
propagate disease; thus they breathe on and obliterate comeliness
and health, the objects of their envy. Whether horrid fact or more
abominable legend, it equally depicts that something bitter and
energetic which distinguishes Paumotuan man.