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tut; tnhiRIT4\T'i OF Y\P!that tlme the total export of oopra1 Hc UNHADl Ifli - ‘ | wa3 550 ton9. Copra or cobra is mere-A Place where the Money is ! ly dried cocoamit, from which In Six Feet in Diameter. t Europe oil is extracted and cake for _____ •. cattle feed ’manufactured. At oneI The Pacific Islanders who Have Came j time there was a fcche-rfc-mcr tishery Into Kecent Prominence. ' j at Yap. but it has been «*»d«ut _ j Some tortoise shell is collected, butThe London Times gives the sub- j the quantity is not large. The EelewiK me loduou x j • , . , ,__at | joined account of Yap, the island ! Islands probably f urn,sh a much larg-* - . . ^ fUio nrrmlo qq t.hw nativftfgroup in the Pacific over which Ger-many and Spain have been quarreling: Is, What our sailors call Yap is not a tie single island, but a group of islands at lying closely together, fringed with at coral reefs, and rising occasionally to tie a .height of several hundred feet above ly the sea. Unlike most of the islandser. amount of this article, as the natives of them use spoons and trays made of tortoise shell, and bundles of it are generally offered for sale to strangersillOfworland(Eiviialw«Aitied urin I retoiin the western Pacific, it is,well popu-»t* lated, the members of several tribes as yaat inhabit it amounting to between B,000 and 10.000. The people are of aThe l’oncho.The Argentine poncho is a great Institution, and if some fashionable dude in New York would set the style' i by wearing one, it would add greatly to the comfort of our people as well as to their conveniences There never- o,wv cxuu iv.ww. — t—r ------wa3 a garment better adapted for out-d comparatively light complexion. The ;Of.door use, and particularly for plainsmen are tall and often handsome,is They tier their long, black hair, into aat knot, and frequently let it down, to n* amuse themselves with combing itn- with a long wooden comb. Their le, bodies are elaborately tattooed. Their w- legs rook as if they were encased intight trousers, and they seem to have ry on woven vests of a deep blue tint.■m The women ar * lighter in hue than, ir* the men and wear their long black ta hair in bands, exactly resembling ut ^ose w.irn by English ladies from or 1830 to ISA). They cover the backs oil 0f their hands and forearms with tat-»at too .marks, so that they appear to have on long woven units. Their dress is a ^ shor-t petticoat of shreds of bark reach-1011 ing below the knee, and their princi-as pal decoration white llowers, thrust ng into the bands of hair that hang in ;li8- front of their ears. As'a rule, both sexes go bareheaded; but the men icb occasionally wear a sharp-crowned ay* hat of Chinese fashion, my Asia usual in the Pacific islands, the adjacent tribes are at constant feud -00 with each other, and wage war almost I continuously with one another in the ! approved Pacific fashion of murdering §tragdlers of the opposite party. The lg a Yap c^sbes are of very graceful de-le a ^ign, and have curved ornaments at im* head and stern, which remind the vis-the itor of Venetian gondolas. and j The natives build enormous houses, ven roofed in and walled at the sides with sit mats, and construct stone piers or 'in' jetties of great length. Some of the bot' villages are remarkably picturesque. bng .The dwellings stand on mounds of 1 at earth, often nearly 100 feet square, the the sides of which are cased in with 11 stones. Against these the rich place yt0 the extraordinary money, which is and found, perhaps, only in their islands.^ It is composed of large discs of arrag-onite, often of great size. Six feet in ould diameter, 12 inches in thickness, and P*ng an estimated weight of 3 tons are not utile uncommon dimensions. The largest lt of ; known piece is said to be 9 feet 4 ^ inches in diameter, lq inches thick at the hole in the centre, and 7 at the edge. The weight of this was estimated by an American trader who helped to move it at four tons and a half. This money is not used as a medium of exchange, but for purposes of ostentation, the richest men being those who can pile most of it against the earthen platforms on which their ' houses stand, and as a ceremonial present on solemn occasions, like the bits of seventeenth century European ' glass called money in the Pelew Is-5 lands, and the tamboa or whale’s teeth j of Fiji. The arragonite quarry is in the harbor of Malakat, at Korrfljr, Island, in the Pelews. At that place | about a hundred Yap men are allowed ' by King Abba Thoul to reside for thephamen or those who are much in the saddle. It is a blanket of ordinary size with a slit in the’ centre, through which the head goes, and the folds o.f the poncho hang down, as far as the knees, giving free use of the arms, bub always furnishing them and the rest of the body shelter. In summer it shields the wearer from the heat of the sun, while in winter it is as warm as an ulster, and in rainy days takes the place of an umbrella. The native is never without it, summer or winter, afoot or horseback, at home or abroad.It stays by him like his shadow, and gives him an overcoat by .day and a blanket by night.Ponchos were formerly made of ■ the hair Of the vicuna, an animal which is a sort of cross between the camel and the antelope, and is found in the Bolivian Andes. Before the conquest vecuua skin was the royal ermine of the Incas, and none but persons of princely blood were allowed to wear it. A vicuna poncho is as soft as velvet, and as durable as steel. You can find plenty of them in Argentine and Chili that have beeD in the old families for two centuries or more, like grandfather’s clock, and have been handed down with the family jewels as heir-looms. They never wear out, and, like lace, improve with age. But genuine vicuna ponchos are hard to get, and very expensive, costing often as much as a camel’s haw shawl, as the animal is becoming scarce. The color is a delicate fawn, and will not change when wet, which is a sure test of its genuineness.Most of the fine ponchos worn nowadays are made of lamb’s wool in Manchester, England, and cannot be dis-Unguished from vicuna except by experts; but tons after tons of a common sort, made of cotton and wool, of gaudy colors, are now imported annually, and answer the purpose of the Gaucho just as well, while the bright tints please his taste better.purpose of quarrying the stone.The few white men who live onOptional Civilities.Optional civilities, such as saying to one’s inferior, “Do not stand without your haC,” to one’s equal, “Do not ri^e,1 beg of you, “Do hot come out in the rain to put me in my carriage,” natur ally occur to the kind-hearted, but they may be cultivated. It used to be enumerated amongst the uses of foreign travel that a man went away a bear and came home a gentleman. It is not natural to the Anglo-Saxon race to be overpolite. They have no petit soins. A husband in France moves out of an easy-chair for his wife, and sets a foot-stool for every lady. He hands her tEe morning paper, he bjafigs a shawl if there is dan-ger/bfa draught, kisses her hand wnen he comes in, and tries to make himself agreeable to her in the the matter of these little optional Civilities. It has the most charming effect Upon all domestic life, and we find a curious allusion to the politenes* observed byYap are at Tomil Bay, a good and fairly spacious reef harbor. In 1888 the number of foreigners was seven, of whom four were English, one American, one German, and one Dutch. The trading stations^ are on small islands in the bay. O’Keefe Co:, the British firm under the management of Mr. O’Keefe in person, has an extensive establishment on the island of Tarang. Capt. Holcombe, an American, who does business usual-I ly but noJLexclusively with Germans, had settled off Tapelan. Capelle j Co., or rather the Sudsee Handels and ! Plantagens Gesellschaft, is established 1 on EngnotsdinJthe newer and enter-! prising wm jBpemsheim Co. had ! a store on thSnainland, at the village I of Rui ,; i - This was the situation of the places | now. , ^I of business the year before last. At [ The timid one is satisfied.—Life.fathers in one Moliere’s comedies where a prodigal son observes to his father, who had come to denounce him, “Pray, sir, take a chair, says Prodigal, “you could scold me so much more at your ease if you were seated.-Harper's Bazar.Satisfied.Nervous old lady boards a train when about to seat herself, discovers a horrid man with a gun in the car.“I hope that thing is not loaded.FrolicSome Sportsman: “Yes, Ma’am; it is. However, I will insert this cork in the muzzle. There!|ulte s»fe
Newspaper Details
Winthrop Gazette
Winthrop, Massachusetts, US
Fri, Oct 16, 1885
Page 2
Full Page
Clipped by
Eileen O.
MA, USA 15 Oct 2023
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