704 VISIT TO THE ISLAND OF ERROMANGA, 



and when they have settled the locality to which their intertribal 

 interests require her to go, she is asked whom in that place she would 

 like fora husband. When she has made her choice the man is asked, 

 and then they come to the missionary to have the ceremony per- 

 formed. It is very difficult to ascertain the name of a married 

 woman. Native etiquette in such matters is strict, and no man will 

 tell it. She is called the wife of So and So. This is after all much like 

 our own custom of calling married women Mrs. So and So, and 

 dropping their maiden and Christian names. But in Erromanga 

 a man even will hardly tell you his own name ; he somehow does 

 not like to do so, but his friend will tell it. 



The women in former times were dressed much better than the 

 men. The latter wore hardly any clothing, while the women 

 wore skirts made from the leaves of the pandanus or the bark of the 

 the hibiscus. Girls, unmarried women and widows wore short skirts, 

 betrothed and married women wore long skirts. The shoulders 

 would be covered with a piece of tappa or native cloth. The 

 Erromangan name for this cloth is " Namas-itsa," which means 

 simply beaten cloth. It was made by beating the inner bark of 

 a banyan tree on a log with a wooden beater called " Nseko." 

 The result was a tough serviceable material. The women still 

 wear the native dresses, but calicoes and coloured prints have 

 taken the place of the beaten cloth. The men now wear a lava- 

 lava of calico or print and a shirt. It makes a dress very like 

 the Scotchman's kilt, except that it is light enough for use in a 

 tropical climate. Many, however, have attained to the dignity 

 of trousers, shirts, coats and hats. The head-dress of the women 

 now is a coloured handkerchief — of the men a comb. 



The weapons of the Erromagans consisted of clubs, bows and 

 arrows, spears and stone hatchets. There were three kinds of 

 clubs : — " Telungumti " (splitear), the starheaded club, which 

 was made at the south of the island and is now very rare ; 

 "Netnevrie," a club with a flattened disc at each end, and 

 divided into two parts of unequal length by a pair of similar 

 discs, the shorter part being thickened or bulged; " Novwan " 

 (fruit), a club similar in shape, but with a I'aised beading along 



