48 Proceedinr/s of the Royal Society of Victoria. 



When new, the " tabu " shell is ot a dark colour, and 

 strange as it may appear, the people on this side of the island, 

 and on the Duke of York Islands, refuse to accept it as 

 money. The coin new from the mint is repudiated in favour 

 of the old and worn. However, we have not to look far for 

 the explanation. The " tabu " comes from a great distance, 

 and in the past, when communication was more difhcult and 

 less frequent than it is now, it was obtained here after it had 

 passed from one person to another, from village to village^ 

 and from district to district, being probably years on the way, 

 by which time it had become white, and until late years the 

 people on the East Coast, and on Duke of York never saw 

 the dark kind. The conservative nature of natives is not 

 easily reconciled to anything which is different from that of 

 their fathers. In fact, the most frequent and conclusive 

 argument they use is " It was always so," implying " and it 

 must always be so." White traders have tried in vain to 

 whiten the new shell with chemicals. The "tabu" is worth 

 much more here than it is at any of the places nearer its 

 source, for passing through so many hands, it necessarily 

 becomes dearer. If the traders could whiten the new shell, 

 which they can buy cheaply at Nakanai, so as to pass it here, 

 it would be very remunerative. 



To witness the uses and advantages of the " tabu," let us 

 first visit the market. This is either on the beach or on the 

 boundary of two districts, at an appointed place, where the 

 people of two or more small districts meet every third day 

 to buy and sell. Here the women begin to assemble early 

 in the morning, bringing with them burdens more suitable 

 for horses than for human beings — baskets of tai'o, yam, or 

 betel nut, coils of cane, and various other articles, which 

 they carry on their backs, suspended by a strap passed over 

 their heads. Those who arrive first sweep the grassless 

 market-place, making it perfectly clean, for reasons which 

 will appear in our paper on witchcraft. Soon the place is 

 crowded with (in some instances) hundreds of men and 

 women. The latter sit or squat down with their baskets, 

 and spread out their taro or yams in sixes for sale. Their 

 chatter is almost deafening, while ihay do a little tracing 

 among themselves. The men are standing about in little 

 groups, some talking or joking boisterously, others speaking 

 in a low voice, giving and receiving private commissions 

 most secretly. Two old friends or business acquaintances 

 meet, one of whom takes a bit of "tabu," about an inch 



