LIFE IN THE SOUTH-SEA ISLANDS. 201 



perhaps children, and one or two teachers, or subordinate lay mission- 

 aries, who are generally natives of other and remote islands. A plain 

 wooden house is brought from New Zealand and put up for the mis- 

 sionary and his family, usually with his own hands and those of his 

 brethren, who assemble for the purpose. A church, built in the style 

 of the native houses — of reeds and mats — occasionally at the older 

 stations of coral masonry, and a similar edifice for a school, with the 

 comfortable huts of the teachers and the catechumens, complete the 

 buildings of the station. 



The other white men in the group follow the occupations of plant- 

 ers and traders. Attempts, in one case on a large scale, were made 

 some years ago to grow cotton, but without much success, on the 

 Island of Sandwich or Vate. The cultivation of maize and coffee has 

 been tried with better results on the same island. The staple vegeta- 

 ble product is copra, the dried pulp of the cocoanut. 



The trader is usually the agent of a mercantile firm, which sup- 

 plies him with a certain quantity of " trade " goods, and receives in 

 return his copra. He has, as a rule, three or four laborers in his em- 

 ployment. Owing to a singular custom or prejudice, these are rarely 

 natives of the island in which they work. He buys the nuts from his 

 neighbors, and, with the assistance of his laborers, prepares the copra. 

 On the more savage islands, arras and ammunition, as long as their 

 introduction was allowed (and it is doubtful if it has yet been quite 

 stopped), matches, pipes, and tobacco are the things commonly given 

 for nuts. The price varies greatly, according to locality and year ; 

 but a pipe, a small fragment of tobacco, or a box of matches is fre- 

 quently given for a dozen nuts. Every few months a small vessel 

 visits the different stations, bringing goods and supplies of food for 

 the traders and taking away the copra, which, on arrival in Europe, is 

 converted into oil, the refuse being used in the manufacture of cake 

 for cattle. 



The New Hebrides natives differ greatly in physical qualities. On 

 Mallicolo there are two distinct races, distinguished by the length 

 and breadth of their skulls. Persons familiar with the group can 

 readily point out an Espiritu-Santo man, a Sandwich man, a Pentecost 

 man, or a Tanna man. The dress differs in nearly every island, and in 

 some is very remarkable, more so on Tanna, on Erromango, on Api, 

 and on Ambrym than would bear public description. The modes of 

 dressing the hair are various. On Tanna it is dyed auburn or nearly 

 gold color with lime, and is gathered into small thin locks which are 

 wound round with a slender filament like thread. On Sandwich the 

 women shave the skull completely. On Espiritu-Santo they shave it, 

 but leave a broad ridge of frizzled hair in the middle from poll to 

 forehead, like the well-known garniture of the head of a clown. I 

 had the good fortune to witness some Santo ladies making their toilet, 

 which was effected by mutual assistance. The person being dressed 



