Ethnography of Micronesia. 55 



reaches dozens of feet in height. As it has no branches hke the 

 bread -fruit tree it is rather difficult to chrab. To supply a foot- 

 hold cuts are made on the trunk, like steps on a staircase. On 

 all the islands coconut palms are treated in the same way (PI. 

 XXVIII, fig. 1). It is evident from this that collecting coconuts 

 is the work of men. Also, the transportation and preparation of 

 the bread-fruit are usually done by men. It may be that 

 women carry the taro, bread-fruit, etc., which are already prepared, 

 such as bread-fruit cakes. At least we often saw women oroiner 

 home carrying them on the head (PI. \l, fig. 2). 



II. Deinks. 



Among the articles of food and drink in our newly occupied 

 islands, fresh water is perhaps the most difficult to obtain. Ponapé, 

 however, has small streams of fresh water, so the natives on this 

 island do not suffer much from want of drinking water ; but the 

 inhabitants in the Marshall Islands which consist largely of atoQs 

 experience much difficulty in getting fresh water. Not only in the 

 Marshall Islands but also in Ponapé rain-water collected from coconut 

 palms or roofs is preserved for drinking purposes. In a part of 

 Jabor, Jaluit, tliere are lagoons from which, according to A. Agassiz,^ 

 the natives obtain a large amount of their water supply. He 

 writes : " Immediately back of Jabor are two fresh- water lagoons, or 

 rather brackish lagoons, formed by the throwing up on the lagoon 

 face of low beaches, and thus isolated from the inroads, both of the 

 water of the lagoon and of the sea. They rise and fall with tlu^ 

 action of the tides, showing how loose or porous the dam of the 

 narrow land rim is. These sinks supply a large amount of the 



1 A. Ag:\ssiz, " The Coral reefs of the Tropical Paciac," Memoirs of the Museum of Com- 

 parative Zoology at Harvard College, XXVUI, 1903, p. 284. 



