250 



ETHNOLOGICAL STUDIES 



Mat-weaving is one of the daily occupations of 

 Rennellese women. 



A chief in old-fashioned 

 bast dress. 



and other tools. Razors were made from sharks' teeth. However, these 

 primitive implements have now given way to articles made from iron; 

 while the simple temples where the chiefs used to offer their prayers and 

 sacrifice to Te Hainggi Atua, Te Hua-i-Nggavenga, and other gods are 

 falling into decay in the forest, as every Sunday nowadays the islanders 

 attend the chapels of the Presbyterian and Seventh Day Adventist missions. 

 But no white man, whether he be missionary, trader, or civil servant, is 

 allowed to settle on the island and no one may go ashore without the 

 permission of the British authorities at Honiara, after previous medical 

 examination. I am unable to say how deeply the Rennellese believe in 

 the new religion; but I am certain that if the small vessels which call at 

 the island once every month or two months for copra for some reason 

 should fail to come, they would easily revert to their original mode of 

 life, so alive are all their old traditions. 



We stayed at the village of Lavanggu, a new development as a result 

 of the anchorage at Kanggava Bay. In the old days the place was taboo, 

 since it was here that the souls of the dead foregathered before leaving 

 for the realm of death, which was thought to lie on two distant islands 

 out in the ocean. Here there is a narrow strip of sandy shore a few hundred 



