9^ Art. VIL— A. Matstunara : 



women. He can depend, in most cases, on the love of any woman 

 who cares to inspect his wand, by touching its carvings. Of 

 course, different men have different designs carved on their wands. 



Night comes and the man visits the woman and awakens her 

 by means of his wand. She can identify him by feehng the 

 carvings on the wand, and either receives or rejects her lover. 



Adultery is not rare among the natives, some of whom ven- 

 ture to break into the bedrooms of married couples with their 

 wands in hand. Though the natives are said to be sound sleepers, 

 it sometimes happens that tlie intruders are killed by the husbands. 



Now the lover's wands above described are going out of use 

 and are replaced by edge-tools with carved handles. Every native 

 has a large knife or cutting instrument imported from abroad ; 

 and when its handle is carved, it is said to serve the same purpose 

 as the lover's wand. Thus, wo find, that while the old tool is 

 disappearing, the custom itself is retained, a fact which goes far 

 to explain many of the peculiarities observed in Truk. A similar 

 custom is said to prevail in Ponapé, where tlio natives use only 

 plain sticks, with which they visit women in their bedrooms for 

 erotic purposes. 



The existence of a custom such as that above described will 

 probably account for the partitions, dividing, in the . case of the 

 houses of Truk, the " bedrooms " of married couples from other 

 sections, as already noted under the head of dwellings. 



