_Union Club_, _Sydney_ [_August _1890].
MY DEAR LANG,—I observed with a great deal of surprise and interest that
a controversy in which you have been taking sides at home, in yellow
London, hinges in part at least on the Gilbert Islanders and their
customs in burial. Nearly six months of my life has been passed in the
group: I have revisited it but the other day; and I make haste to tell
you what I know. The upright stones—I enclose you a photograph of one on
Apemama—are certainly connected with religion; I do not think they are
adored. They stand usually on the windward shore of the islands, that is
to say, apart from habitation (on _enclosed islands_, where the people
live on the sea side, I do not know how it is, never having lived on
one). I gathered from Tembinoka, Rex Apemamae, that the pillars were
supposed to fortify the island from invasion: spiritual martellos. I
think he indicated they were connected with the cult of Tenti—pronounce
almost as chintz in English, the _t_ being explosive; but you must take
this with a grain of salt, for I knew no word of Gilbert Island; and the
King’s English, although creditable, is rather vigorous than exact. Now,
here follows the point of interest to you: such pillars, or standing
stones, have no connection with graves. The most elaborate grave that I
have ever seen in the group—to be certain—is in the form of a _raised
border_ of gravel, usually strewn with broken glass. One, of which I
cannot be sure that it was a grave, for I was told by one that it was,
and by another that it was not—consisted of a mound about breast high in
an excavated taro swamp, on the top of which was a child’s house, or
rather _maniapa_—that is to say, shed, or open house, such as is used in
the group for social or political gatherings—so small that only a child
could creep under its eaves. I have heard of another great tomb on
Apemama, which I did not see; but here again, by all accounts, no sign of
a standing stone. My report would be—no connection between standing
stones and sepulture. I shall, however, send on the terms of the problem
to a highly intelligent resident trader, who knows more than perhaps any
one living, white or native, of the Gilbert group; and you shall have the
result. In Samoa, whither I return for good, I shall myself make
inquiries; up to now, I have neither seen nor heard of any standing
stones in that group.—Yours,