POLYHYMNIA
3G9
POLYNESIA
his authority on the early history of the world. Unfor- tunately none of Pdlybistoi's works have come down to us.— English Cyclop, s. v.
Polyhymnia, a daughter of Zeus, or Jupiter, and one of the nine Muses. She presided over lyric poetry, and was believed to have invented the lyre.
Polynesia, or the region of many islands (ttoXvq, many, and vT)<joc, an island), is the name usually given. with more or less of limitation, to the numerous groups of islands, and some few single islands, scattered through- out the great Pacific Ocean, between the eastern shores of Asia and the western shores of America. In its widest signification, the term Polynesia might be understood as embracing, besides the groups hereafter to be mentioned, the various islands, large and small, of the Indian Ar- chipelago, in one direction, and the vast island of New Holland (q. v.) or Australia, with its dependency of Van Diemen's Land, in another. Including these, the whole region has sometimes been called Oceanica, and sometimes Australasia— generally, however, in modern times, to the exclusion of the islands in the Indian Ar- chipelago, to which certain writers have given the name of Malaysia. In proportion, also, as the area of mari- time discovery has become enlarged, it has been thought convenient by some geographers to narrow still further the limits of Polynesia, to the exclusion of Australia and Van Diemen's Land ; while others, again, exclude Papua (q. v.) or New Guinea, New Ireland (q. v.), Solomon's Isles (q. v.), the Louisiade group, the New Hebrides (q. v.), New Caledonia (q. v.), and certain other groups and single islands, together with New Zealand (q. v.). from the area of Polynesia, and give to these, in union with Australia, the collective designation of Australasia. To all these, with the exception of New Zealand, French writers have given the name of Melanesia, or the Black Islands; while a similar name. Kelcenonesia, has been given to them by Prichard and Latham — purely, how- ever, on ethnological grounds, as we shall presently no- tice. Thus we have the three geographical divisions of Malaysia, Australasia, and Polynesia, the last men- tioned of which embraces all the groups and single isl- ands not included under the other two. Accepting this arrangement, still the limits between Australasia and Polynesia have not been very accurately defined; in- deed, scarcely any two geographers appear to be quite agreed upon the subject ; neither shall we pretend to decide in the matter. The following list, however, comprises all the principal groups and single islands not previously named as coming under the division of Australasia — viz.: 1. North of the equator — the Ladrone or Marian Islands, the Pelew Islands, the Caroline Isl- ands, the Radack and Palick chains, the Sandwich Isl- ands, Gilbert's or Kingsmill's Archipelago, and the Ga- lapagos. 2. South of the equator — the Ellice group, the Phoenix and Union groups, the Fiji Islands, the Friendly Islands, the Navigator's Islands, Cook's or Harvey Islands, the Society Islands, the Dangerous Ar- chipelago, the Marquesas Islands, Pitcairn Island, and Easter Island. (In the former part of this article we largely depend upon Chamber*'* Ci/elt>pa>dia, and in the latter part upon Gardner's Faiths of all Xations.)
Geographical Description. — These islands, which ex- tend from about 20° north of the equator to about 30° south of it, are some of them volcanic in their origin, and some of them coralline. The volcanic islands gen- erally rise to a considerable height above the level of the ocean, and are therefore called the high islands, in contradistinction to the coralline or low islands. They consist of basalt and other igneous formations. Of these, the principal are the Friendly Islands, one of which. Otaheite or Tahiti, has a mountain rising to the height of 10,000 feet; the Marquesas Islands (q. v.), also very high; the Samoan (q. v.) or Navigator's Islands; and the Sandwich Islands (q. v.), of which Owyhee or Ha- waii possesses several both active and extinct crater:-, 13,000, 14,000, and even 16,000 feet high. The Gala- VIII.— A a
pagos group, nearest of all to South America, are like- wise of igneous origin, and have several still active craters. The remaining islands are for the most part of coralline formation. Of the islands generally, we need only further observe that, although situated within the tropics, the heat of the atmosphere is delightfully tempered by a succession of land and sea breezes. The soil is exceedingly fertile, and, besides the vegetable productions found growing when the islands were first discovered by Europeans, it has given a welcome home to the orange, lemon, sugar-cane, guava, cotton, potato, melon, and other fruits and plants introduced by foreign visitants. The only native quadrupeds on any of the islands when first visited were pigs, dogs, and rats; but the ox, the sheep, the goat, and even the horse, have since been successfully introduced into many of the groups. The feathered tribes are numerous, likewise the insects, and the coasts everywhere abound with a vast variety of fish and Crustacea, highly important as a matter of food to the inhabitants of those islands in which quadrupeds, whether native or introduced, are found in only a small number. For a more particular description of the several groups we refer to the dis- tinct articles of Fiji ; Friendly Islands; Sandwich Islands, etc. ; and shall now proceed to speak of the Polynesians generally.