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4

The Aborigines

The Chamorros at the time of Magellan's Umatac landing were a proud primitive people, highly evolved for their type of civilization and radiantly healthy. They had built a picturesque society entirely self-sufficient unto the island and its neighboring chain, and they were apparently quite content with their resultant life.

Early descriptions of the aborigines are scarce. They are generally described as tall and robust, not too dark, with skin pigmentation somewhere between that of the American Indian and the Oriental. The men were handsome and powerfully built, and the women were usually opulent-busted and graceful. Although obesity and deformity are rarely sighted in the records of early-day observers, Padre Sanvitores did not agree with one of these omissions. "The Marianos," he wrote, "are in color a somewhat lighter shade than the Filipinos, pleasant with agreeable faces. They are so fat they appear swollen. They remain in good health to an advanced age and it is very normal to live ninety or one hundred years. . . ."

Notwithstanding this description, the Chamorros were extremely vain about their tawny physical symmetry, being more shapely than the Spaniards, which may have accounted for the persistent Spanish desire not only to reduce their numbers systematically, but to subdue and break this racial residue into a polyglot indolence.

The aboriginal Chamorros were a simple and poetic race, and their poets were considered preternaturally endowed in a class with their makahnas (sorcerers) who, being village soothsayers, were the nearest thing they had to priests. Therefore, with their uncomplex character and their natural, easy life, it is not difficult to understand why they looked upon their race with a peacock's vanity, considering their own breed the earth's most supreme. All other nations, in their eyes, were contemptible in comparison. This pride was doubtless based in the legend of their origin (see Chapter 7—Origin, Religion, and Legend), which taught them to believe themselves to be the earth's original people born of a mighty unseen force, and their language to be the prime instrument of speech in the world—all others being false mispronunciations of their own glorious tongue.

They possessed, according to one account, "great strength as fitting to their statures," and they bleached their naturally rich black hair to a yellowish shade, some of the men tying theirs in a knot at the base of their necks, and the women allowing theirs to trail down their backs, sometimes touching the ground. The Chamorros wore no clothes in Magellan's day, although the women did occasionally sport a small woven triangle apron (called a tifi) to cover themselves, or fringes of grass or leaves hung from a waistband. The men, however, used no such adornment and went entirely naked except for sunshade visors and full-brimmed hats made from pandanus leaves which they wore when farming or fishing. In accounts after Magellan, the Chamorro men are described as shaving their heads, leaving a small crest about a finger long on the crown. Some of them wore thick, short beards but are pictured as having extremely muscular, hairless bodies. The aborigines apparently did not tattoo themselves or pierce their ears or noses, although both sexes anointed themselves with fragrant coconut oil and washed their hair with the soap orange.

Being completely isolated from the rest of the world, not counting the probable occasional visits of the Caroline Islanders in their own times of social disruption, the native populace had remained remarkably free from disease, just as their thriving plants were free from blight. Their physical prowess, coupled with exuberant health, made their endurance almost legendary in quality. Padre García in his descriptive Life of Padre Sanvitores tells that even ". . . among those who were baptized the first year of the mission there were more than 120 who were past the age of a hundred years; owing perhaps to their rugged constitutions, inured from their infancy to the distempers which afterwards do not affect them, or to the uniformity and naturalness (naturalidad) of their food without the artifice which gluttony has introduced to waste the life which it sustains, or to their occupations necessitating plenty of exercise without too great fatigue, or to the absence of vices and worries—which are roses and thorns whose pricking and piercing put an end to man—or perhaps all of these causes combined contribute to the prolix age of these islanders. As they know few infirmities so they know few medicines, and cure themselves with a few herbs which necessity and experience have taught them to be possessed of some virtue."

On festive occasions the women adorned their heads with wreaths of flowers and necklaces of tortoise shell hung from a band of red spondylus shells—their equivalent of pearls. They made pendant belts of small coconuts, nicely fitted over skirts or fringes of tree root, described in early times as "rather a cage than a dress . . ." Since betel-nut chewing was universally popular then, the aborigines' teeth were stained black (some say this was for ornament), and their bleached hair accented in strange contrast the teeth and smooth beige skin.

ANCIENT SOCIETY

According to Laura Thompson the aborigines were grouped ". . . into matrilineal clans localized in hamlets and villages and organized into districts under local chiefs. The power of the chiefs was based on inherited wealth in the form of land and special prerogatives such as the right to make certain types of 'shell money' and sailing canoes."

Miss Thompson defines three social classes: the nobility, the commoners, and the slaves. Slaves in the society were actually menial servants and were probably better off under this system than they would have been in almost any other aboriginal civilization one can think of. The upper class, oddly enough, consisted not of lazy aristocrats but of artisans and craftsmen: carpenters, mariners, warriors, and fishermen. They acted as foremen in these professions, assisted in their supervisory work by the commoners; but the commoners in turn—no matter how great their knowledge—were barred by taboo from ever attaining the exalted positions of the nobility (Chamorri). Naturally, this in itself preserved the sovereignty of the noblemen.

Agaña, according to most sources, was the acknowledged ancient capital of the island. "The chiefs of Agaña," states Miss Thompson, "were feared and respected by the inhabitants of the whole island and an elaborate code of etiquette regulated social relations and upheld their prestige. Those of low station were not permitted to eat or drink in the houses of the nobles or even to go near them. If they needed anything they asked for it from a distance. They practised many courtesies and an ordinary salutation on meeting and on passing in front of one another was 'Aki Arinmo' (ati adengmo), meaning 'Give me permission to kiss your feet.' . . . To pass the hand over the breast of the host was considered a great courtesy. This custom has been superseded by the manñgiñge or smelling the hand."

Before discussing aboriginal houses, it is interesting to add another social note. In Agaña and in all the larger villages there was always a "great house," or "long house" as they were sometimes called. This public building of considerable size was communal and frequented by the urritaos or young bachelors; in it unmarried men and women lived together in apparent concord and most certainly in youthful pleasure.

Laura Thompson states: "The premarital consorting of the sexes in the Marianas was institutionalized in clubhouses as in other parts of Micronesia. . . ." Marriage, however, was quite another matter and usually an intensely monogamous affair, although at certain periods in the aboriginal culture a man could have more than one wife. The accent on monogamy, strangely, has carried over into modern times, and even today, after the buffetings and subjections of over four hundred years of rape, reduction, intermarriage and invasion, the Chamorro sense of honor and fidelity within the family is remarkably strong and important to the island people.

But in the long houses there was no such rigid family code; the life was open and free and continually gay. Custom allowed the freedom of the communal houses to the young urritaos for purposes of companionship, either with their male friends or with young women whom they had often purchased from the parents or had merely hired on a time-arrangement basis. Oddly enough, this did not seem to affect the girl's later chances for marriage (or the man's), and both were usually married in due time to suitable individuals. As in other Pacific islands where this custom prevailed, it is probable that girls who were obtained from their families for consorts to the urritaos came from isolated villages and not from the town of the communal house in which they lived. There was apparently no undue promiscuity to the long-house arrangements, and the relationships were as scrupulously guarded and respected as in the most proper marriage. (Sexual relations between people of kin were considered heinous; these did not occur in the long-house relationships and would not have been tolerated.)

Marriage amounted almost to purchase. A young suitor would be forced to offer his service to the parents and a fee for his bride. The fee might be collected either from him or from his relatives. In frequent cases the groom himself might have enough property of his own to make a present to the father of the bride. With the advent of children, in marriage the mother became the central figure of the clan. Decisions were always hers, and the husband was always the lesser of the parents when he was at home. A son would usually grow up with little fear or respect for his father, and he could be openly insolent to him if he stood in his mother's favor, for the mother would protect the son from paternal punishment.

Despite the strict marriage code, men did have their youthful freedom through the long houses. This custom extended clear down to the Florida Islands and is maintained in modern times. There are still houses—or were before the last war—where "the large canoes are kept, men congregate, and young men sleep, strangers are entertained. . . ." The romantic aspect may be gone, but the general pattern remains, and the long houses are still the expression of young male freedom before marriage.

EARLY HOUSES

According to the word of early writers, the aboriginal houses were better constructed than any other Pacific dwellings. They were made of several native woods, generally rectangular in shape, with roofs of palm leaves, solidly twisted and woven. Sturdy, resistant wood formed the support posts, raising the floor several feet off the ground. In some cases the houses were built in sections. A sleeping unit for the whole family would be elevated on wooden or stone posts, while the kitchen would be constructed at ground level with a covering of thatching, and behind this would be a split-bamboo pen for small domestic animals to protect them from marauders. Floors were generally of split bamboo, and this practice has been carried down to the present era.

The houses themselves in the early villages were usually located either on the actual strand itself or in proximity to a convenient harbor. Often huts dotted the gentler banks of the small rivers so that the inhabitants would easily have a good water supply and a place for bathing and washing clothes (after they began to wear them). In some cases, villages were settled, as on the southern-mountain coast, high on hilltops to make them secure against attack. Often the early beach villages ran to 150 houses, while the interior villages seldom ran above 20 houses each.

By modern Western standards the early houses could scarcely be said to contain much in the way of furniture. The only parallel to be drawn here is that everything in the ancient Chamorro house was completely functional. There were common floor mats, diagonally braided, and softer sleeping mats, some of them extremely fine in texture being made from the leaves of the textile screw pine. Water vessels were fashioned from lengths of large hollow bamboo stalks, five or six feet long and open at one end, filled, and supported against the side of a wall for storage.

Coarsely woven pandanus (textile screw pine) held everything from dried breadfruit to rice. Each native carried a small finely woven sack of some type of native material to hold his individual supply of betel nut and pepper leaves and the necessary pinch of lime. Coarse portage baskets were created from soft fresh coconut leaves as the need arose. These were utilized until they were stiff and dry and then discarded, probably into a kitchen fire to swell the blaze. Bamboo baskets were the most pliable of all types and the most durable. The skill of making these has been handed down, and there are still excellent ones to be found on the island.

FOOD

In ancient times the Chamorros' diet was simple and salutary. It consisted mainly of the various indigenous island fruits (see Chapter 2—Other Food Staples), yams, taro root, and various salt-water fish. Coconuts were prepared in many different fashions; sugar cane provided a ready natural sweet by chewing sections of the fresh stalk; bananas were eaten raw or cooked (in the case of plantains) over roasting fires. The ubiquitous breadfruit was always there, either to be eaten hot from stone ovens for part of the year or baked and stored dry in thatched communal storerooms to be drawn on during the remainder of the year. Yams were a favorite with the aborigines and were baked in the earthen ovens covered with hot stones.

Following hurricanes, during times of near famine, the natives would seek the cycas or fadang nuts as a prime source of food in the inner valleys unstripped of their vegetation by the storms. These nuts have certain poisonous properties which are removed by soaking them in frequent changes of fresh water, and though palatable enough, they are seldom eaten except in times of emergency. The pulpy, starchlike residue created by soaking is further reduced with native stone pestle and mortar before molding and baking the nuts into a heavy sort of bread.

Primitive relishes were made from certain dried seaweeds. Seaweed is still part of a Chamorro sauce served today with deep-fried prawns. This sauce includes, besides ground seaweed, soya juice, small fiery Guamanian peppers, a bit of lime juice, and various native spices. Formerly nuts were much used in augmenting the diet; terminalia nuts and the kernels of the textile screw pine were once much sought after.

Although rice was willingly sold to the early navigators who stopped at Guam, it was not considered a common staple by the aborigines, being reserved for their principal feasts and special occasions such as weddings and funerals, when it was used as a base for a seasoned fish broth or stew. Maize and sweet potatoes were not cultivated before Magellan's discovery, being a Spanish introduction brought with other innovations from the Western world. (See Chapter 2—Other Food Staples.)

The aboriginal taste for food did not include fresh meat. The Chamorros have no record either of eating animal flesh or of early cannibalism and, up to the date when pork was introduced, presumably by the Spanish, records show that they apparently ate no fresh meat at all. Although they kept fowl as pets, there is no evidence that these animals were ever slaughtered and eaten. Even fresh-water fish (as was cited in the case of eels) held no appeal for them, except for the fresh-water shrimp and a shore-bound spiny lobster living near the fresh-water discharges into lagoons. The aborigines spoke disparagingly of the Jesuit missionaries and the itinerant navigators who enjoyed the flesh of animals.

Juice of the grated coconut was used in food and was an integral part of their principal dishes. As was the classic custom throughout the tropical Pacific, the Chamorri cooked their food covered, alternating leaves between layers of stones in the manner of a Polynesian luau, although the pits were not as deep. Poi, the fermented paste of the taro plant's root, was unknown to the aborigines.

It is interesting to note that in all their diet few items were consumed raw. Fish or manahag was dried in abundance, and stored away for future requirements. Breadfruit was cut into thin slices and dried, without being first baked, for the drying process served the same curative purpose as baking. Dried slices were palatable without further preparation, like dried prunes or apricots. Sometimes they were cut up and incorporated in hot-food dishes.

There was neither a native wine or spirit on Guam nor in the rest of the Marianas until the Spanish occupation. Besides the milk of young coconuts, the only Chamorro beverage was water. They did not even use the various aromatic leaves of island plants as a source of native tea. Temperance in diet was their watchword, and they attributed their tall splendid bodies, radiant health, and great strength to their particular feeding and working and leisure habits.

NATIVE ARTS

In the useful arts—such as the construction of their fine, sturdy houses and their fabulous outrigger canoes—this glowing health was a great aid. It contributed to the incredible design and utility of their flying praos, to the swift and lethal slings they fashioned, to their woodworking instruments of stone, their finely plaited fishing nets, and their hooks and lines.

The arts of woodcarving, engraving, or true weaving with the aid of looms were not among their skills, oddly enough. They braided their mats diagonally in the primitive Polynesian fashion, and their nets, though efficient, were not actually woven.

Houses were built in communal effort by male labor while the female contingency braided the necessary interior household mats, the carrying bags, the storage bags, the bed mats, and the long crisscross strips of tough lightweight matting from which the lateen-type sails for canoes were made.

Pottery was unknown too, and the aforementioned bamboo or crude gouged wooden vessels substituted for this art. The fishhooks referred to above were sometimes made from mother-of-pearl, sometimes from tortoise shell, and carved by hand. Fish were caught either by trawling from canoes or by net casting along the shore. Spear fishing from the reefs at low tide was practiced, and night fishing on the reefs by torch at low tide is still a popular and frequent diversion with the native population.

The 20th-century industrialization of the populated areas of Guam has reduced the need or desire to follow ancient custom, and the native arts are slowly dying out. Modernization, however, has not altered too drastically the essential basic character of the Chamorro, which still remains linked with the island's unique past.