BY THE REV. J. GOLDIE. 2? 



they land another visit is paid to the sacred place, and 

 offerings of food, ornaments, and sometimes of human 

 flesh, are made to the spirits in return for their assistance 

 in the raid. Immediately after these religious observances. 

 a great feast and dance is held — or ratlier. preparations 

 are made to hold it. for it generally occurs some days after 

 — ta celebrate the victory over their enemies. These people 

 are cannibals, and if victims for tlieir feasts could not ho 

 obtained in the raid, then so mucli the worse for some 

 unfortunate slave captured in some previous expedition. 



With regard to slavery — the lot of the slaves ca])- 

 tured in these raids is not an enviable one. While tliey 

 are treated with kindness, and the work they are expecterl 

 to do is not heavy or difficult, they are tlie absolute property 

 of their captors. The women, in addition to liaving to 

 do the work, are nearly always used for immoral purposes, 

 and thus become sources of profit to their owners. Then 

 there is always the dread uncertainty about the tenure of 

 life. When a head is required to pay for some affi'ont to 

 a neighbouring village, or a life to be sacrificed on some 

 occasion of great ceremony, the unfortunate slaves know 

 that, without warning of any kind — often after helping to 

 prepare the feast — -their own life may be taken from them 

 by a sudden blow from the axe of one of their masters. 

 Still I have known cases where the female slaves have 

 become the wives of their captors, and have been treated 

 with as much consideration as the women belonging to tlie 

 tribe — which is per]iax>s not saying much. 



The marriage laws of these people are very sim])ie. 

 The wife is acquired by purchase. When a man makes a 

 proposal for the hand of the girl of his choice, or when — 

 as is very often the case — a girl makes a proposal for the 

 hand of a young man, a meeting of all the friends takes 

 place, and a price is fixed, which must be pa^id by the man 

 before the marriage is allowed to take place. This price 

 is regulated bj^ the position occupied by the parents of the 

 bride, and as it is always paid in native money or orna- 

 ments, it is very hard to say what their value would be in 

 English money. In the New Georgian Group of Islands 

 it is not the custom to have more than one wife, though 

 I have known several cases where a chief has liad more 

 than one. This happened where the first wife was getting 



