I have mentioned presents,a vexed question in the South Seas;and one which well illustrates the common,ignorant habit of regarding races in a lump.In many quarters the Polynesian gives only to receive.I have visited islands where the population mobbed me for all the world like dogs after the waggon of cat's-meat;and where the frequent proposition,'You my pleni (friend),'or (with more of pathos)'You all 'e same my father,'must be received with hearty laughter and a shout.And perhaps everywhere,among the greedy and rapacious,a gift is regarded as a sprat to catch a whale.It is the habit to give gifts and to receive returns,and such characters,complying with the custom,will look to it nearly that they do not lose.But for persons of a different stamp the statement must be reversed.The shabby Polynesian is anxious till he has received the return gift;the generous is uneasy until he has made it.The first is disappointed if you have not given more than he;the second is miserable if he thinks he has given less than you.This is my experience;if it clash with that of others,I pity their fortune,and praise mine:the circumstances cannot change what I have seen,nor lessen what I have received.And indeed I find that those who oppose me often argue from a ground of singular presumptions;comparing Polynesians with an ideal person,compact of generosity and gratitude,whom I never had the pleasure of encountering;and forgetting that what is almost poverty to us is wealth almost unthinkable to them.I will give one instance:Ichanced to speak with consideration of these gifts of Stanislao's with a certain clever man,a great hater and contemner of Kanakas.
'Well!what were they?'he cried.'A pack of old men's beards.
Trash!'And the same gentleman,some half an hour later,being upon a different train of thought,dwelt at length on the esteem in which the Marquesans held that sort of property,how they preferred it to all others except land,and what fancy prices it would fetch.