BY SUTHERLAND SINCLAIR. 705 



one side. The bows are made of a hard red wcmxI from a tree 

 resembling the willow ; they are shaped by means of a pig's tusk, 

 which scrapes away the wood without breaking or cutting the 

 fibre as a knife or sharp tool would do. They are stained with 

 cocoanut oil and smoke, and in course of time acquire a beautiful 

 dark polish. The arrows are made from the reeds which grow 

 everywhere in abundance, the barbs being from the wood of the 

 tree-fern, neatly lashed into the reeds by a strand of cocoanut 

 fibre. Spears were made of wood and sometimes with a barb of 

 tree-fern, but were not much used. Stone axes were rather a tool 

 than a weapon ; they were used for cutting down trees, digging 

 out canoes with the aid of fire, and other such work ; they were 

 roughly set in wooden handles. The axe now in use is a modern 

 iron blade, into which is set a native club handle, forming a 

 useful weapon, a combination of old and new civilisation. 



The Erromangan canoe is usually made from the trunk of the 

 bread fruit tree. It is roughly shaped, and hollowed out, formerly 

 with primitive tools, by fire and patient digging ; now it is made 

 more easily with iron tools; it is steadied by an outrigger. There is 

 no ornamentation or fancy work about it, and the fastenings are 

 simply lashings of cocoanut fibre. These canoes are vei-y light 

 and buoyant. They are propelled by paddles, and sometimes by 

 sails, but they are never of any great size : the largest would 

 carry perhaps five or six men. 



The food of the Erromangans consists pi'incipally of yams, 

 cocoanuts, breadfruit, taro, native cabbage a kind of hibiscus, 

 native beans, and other local products, with fish, fowl or pig 

 occasionally. A primitive but efficient system of cultivation is 

 followed. The yam garden consists of a clearance in the forest 

 where the yams are planted, and the creeper trained over canes and 

 trunks of trees. The garden implements consist of a pointed stick 

 and a pair of hands. Some gardens are fenced in, and so 

 luxuriant is the vegetation that the fences sprout and grow — 

 giving an appearance of truth to the saying, " If you plant your 

 walking-stick it will grow." These clearances are not used two 

 years in succession, but each year the old garden is abandoned 



