POPULAR MISCELLANY 



279 



lowest are the Armidwon, or Kajur, who own 

 nothing; above them arc the Leadagedag, 

 to whom they must bring provision, and whom 

 they must obey. Men of the latter class are 

 permitted to own property. The third rank, 

 called the Budag, is composed of the broth- 

 ers and sous of the king. Over all is the 

 Irod, or king, from whom the Leadagedag 

 receive their commands. The Kajurs are 

 allowed to have but one wife ; men of the 

 other classes may have more. The Kajur 

 has the right to take the single wife from a 

 man of lower condition than himself, but the 

 men of the second rank are not permitted to 

 speak with the wife of the king ; and if the 

 king goes abroad, leaving his wife at home, 

 all the Leadagedag and the Budag, except 

 the sons of the king, must leave the island. 

 If a woman in the higher ranks is put away 

 by her husband, as may happen if she is 

 childless, she can not be taken in marriaire 

 by any one of a lower condition ; but a man 

 may marry a woman of a higher rank than 

 his own and be raised to her rank. The food 

 of the islanders is scanty. Young cocoa- 

 nuts take the place of the drinking water, 

 which is brackish. Cocoa-nuts, pandanus, and 

 bread-fruit form the regular food. Arrow, 

 root, brought from the northern islands, 

 cooked with finely cut cocoa-nut, forms a 

 favorite dish. A kind of conserve is made 

 by roasting the pandanus-fruit over a bed 

 of hot coals and covered with hot sand. 

 In two days the fruit is taken out, sliced, 

 dried in the sun, and pressed into rolls, which 

 can be kept for two years. Another prepa- 

 ration, piru, is made from the bread-fruit. 

 The fruit is cut up, steeped in salt water, 

 and beaten ; it is then put away in a shady 

 place and covered with leaves ; the soft mass 

 is kneaded on the second day, laid away for 

 a week, and kneaded again, when it is ready 

 for use, and will keep good for five or six 

 months. The principal disease from which 

 the people suffer, and the most fatal one, is 

 a catarrhal cold resembling the glanders in 

 beasts. Europeans are also liable to take 

 it, but they have it in a milder form, and 

 do not die of it. A skin-disease called 

 the gogo is generally prevalent, but is not 

 commonly dangerous. This disease is not 

 due to lack of personal cleanliness, for 

 the natives are so much in the water as to 

 make such a condition rare, and it prevails 



chiefly with the men, who are most in the 

 water. The guild of the heathen priests 

 consisted chiefly of diviners. God was sup- 

 posed to appear to them and disclose the 

 future to them. During the interview, which 

 usually lasted for two or three days, they 

 took no food. They never ate or drank out 

 of dishes that had been used, and broke the 

 cups after they had drunken from them. 

 They were supposed to know about the wind 

 and the weather, and the chances of success 

 in enterprises, and were called into the sick 

 and expected to foretell whether they would 

 live or die. Remedies for disease were and 

 are wholly unknown. Warm water, a few 

 leaves, and especially rubbing, which is care- 

 fully attended to by the women with con- 

 juring words, are the only medicaments. The 

 friends of the sick man were formerly accus- 

 tomed to come to him, bringing pandanus 

 leaves, which they would fold together in 

 patterns of equal size ; if the last fold came 

 out of the same length with the others, the 

 omen was considered a good one for an 

 impending recovery ; if otherwise, the sick 

 man was taker away to a distance, depend- 

 ing on the length of the last fold. These 

 and many other customs have gone or are 

 going out of use, and occur only exception- 

 ally in places where one tenth of the popu- 

 lation have been converted to Christianity. 

 Fights are rare ; wars are carried on chiefly 

 by one party trying to destroy the cocoa 

 palms or burn the houses of the other. They 

 never come to a battle, but are conducted by 

 siege, and generally end by the besieged 

 party yielding. The worst damage ensues 

 after the war, when, the trees being cut down 

 and the land wasted, a famine of five or six 

 months' duration is nearly certain. The 

 principal occupation of the inhabitants is 

 fishing. To catch the flying-fish a large 

 torch is burned in a dark night upon a fast- 

 sailing canoe. The fish fly toward the glim- 

 mer and cither strike the sail and fall down 

 or arc caught by the skillful fisherman with 

 a long-handled net. The yellow-tail fish 

 swims in schools, and is caught with two 

 canoes which, tied together, draw a cord after 

 them on the top of the water, and drive the 

 fish into shallow places, where they are 

 caught with little trouble. It is a curious 

 fact that the fish will occasionally leap over 

 the cord, but will never swim away under it. 



