BY WILLIAM E. ARMIT, F.L.S., F.R.G.S. 115 
them to lead us into such a belief. They seem capable of 
driving the coast natives clean off their land in many places, 
and in others the coast people know nothing whatever about 
their inland neighbours. 
That they are more robust is attributable to the better diet 
they enjoy. Fish, dugong, shell-fish, holothuria, and turtle are 
procurable along the whole coast line. It is impossible to over- 
estimate the importance of this fact, and yet the tribes enjoying 
these advantages are very deficient in courage, and live in con- 
stant dread of attack. 
Women in the south-east of New Guinea possess inalienable 
rights—they have their own property in land or valuables. 
When they marry, they do not forsake their parental roof, but 
the husband becomes a member of his father-in-law’s family. 
Thus a man blessed with several daughters has a clan on which 
he can generally rely to assist him in peace or war. The 
domestic life of the people is simple. A portion of each year is 
spent at the husband’s village—if situated ata distance from his 
wife’s residence—attending to the plantations, bringing in the 
crops, and in attending to his interests generally. The re- 
mainder is spent at the wife’s own home. She very rarely con- 
descends to live with her husband’s relatives. 
Divorce is not unknown, and is effected very simply. Should 
the wife be to blame, the amount paid for her is refunded, and 
she is at liberty to marry again. Should the husband be in the 
wrong, he forfeits all right to compensation. Cases came under 
my observation, at Teste Island, of women leaving their hus- 
bands who were ill, simply because they were weary of nursing 
them. These were missionary women, and they were pointed 
out to me by the teacher’s wife. A man—also at Teste— 
divorced his wife for pilfering from her neighbour’s plantations. 
This was a remarkable case, as the girl was one of the comeliest 
on the Island. Teste Island is the rendezvous of natives from 
all parts of south-eastern New Guinea and the Louisiade since 
