ABSTRACT
The nearest of the Ralik chain is only about one hundred and fifty miles from Mokil. The Mokil folk, who number some two hundred, probably have a strong Marshall Island admixture like their Pingelap neighbours. Many of their words are akin to those in Ralik, and some again are an obsolete form of Ponapean, but nowadays the modern Ponapean is everywhere spoken, intr(!)duced by the American missionaries and native teachers. The natives are Christianised; coconut toddy is tabooed, and all use of intoxicating liquors and tobacco strictly forbidden. They make capital sailors, for which calling a certain cheery hardihood peculiarly fits them, but on land,
like all Pacific islanders, their zeal is occasionally dashed by fits of laziness. A steady aversion to settled labour ashore has left many a promising contract half completed. I t is so with all the brown races-it is otherwise with the black or yellow-but this roving nature, impatient of control, engendered by numberless predatory raids, and long sea-rovings in the olden days, is the true heritage of the Malayan. These bold navigators, as any up-to-date philological chart will show, swept out wave upon wave through Gilolo Straits, conquering and blending in various proportions with the agricultural black races which had preceded them. Thlc: is clearly proved by the frequent occurrence of Malay and Sanskritoid root-words along the north coast of New Guinea and down to Port Moresby, where the Motu dialect is spoken. Let the doubting reader only glance at the long list of Caroline root-words in the Comparative Table soon to be published by the Polynesian Society of New Zealand, and then doubt any more if he can.
