326 



Corals and Coral- Islands. 



[Sess. 



present inhabitants must have found their way thither by 

 means of navigation. If, on the other hand, a great sub- 

 sidence has taken place in that portion of the Pacific, ob- 

 literating a continent and leaving the mountain-tops to form 

 islands, then naturally the strongest would seek to save them- 

 selves by taking refuge in the higher regions, and the fittest 

 would survive. As matters are at present, long years of 

 isolation have done much to intensify the differences in 

 language found on most of the islands in the New Hebrides 

 group. These are not mere dialects, but languages as distinct 

 from one another as English is from French, or that from 

 German. In some of the larger islands, such as Tanna, Epi, 

 Malekula, and Santo, from two to six languages are spoken. 

 The tribes, moreover, have little intercourse with each other, 

 national jealousies and hatreds continuing from one generation 

 to another, as in the case of Tanna, where tribal war is the 

 rule rather than the exception. These differences in language 

 may be illustrated by giving the names for the sun and moon 

 on some of the islands : — 



A further philological study of the many languages spoken 

 by the natives, and a fuller inquiry into the folk-lore and 

 legendary stories of the older people, may lead to some clue 

 as to their original abode, and the means by which these New 

 Hebrideans have been distributed over so wide an area in the 

 South Pacific Ocean. 



