PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION F. 307 
enclosed by the sticks was filled up; then from the top of the 
sticks the pile was gradually diminished until it terminated 
in a single yam. The whole represented a great quantity of 
food. In addition to these were pigs, cocoanuts, prepared sago, 
and numbers of yams suspended over the platforms of the houses 
on frames of wood. When all the preparations were completed, 
the widow threw herself down on the ground, and gave utter- 
ance to loud wails and sobbing cries, in which she was joined 
by several relatives. A woman now took a piece of cooked 
yam, and held it to the nostrils of the widow for her to inhale 
the odour from it, and then gave it to her to eat, calling out 
at the same time, so that all present could hear, “ Kani i kani 
ia!” ‘Yam she eats now!” Similarly a piece of pork, a piece 
of fish, a piece of taro, and sago was offered in turn, and par- 
taken of by the widow. As each piece of food was accepted by 
her, the woman called out as above, giving the name of the 
food eaten. 
This ceremony ended the period of fasting from these things 
by the widow and her clan, and then the mourning tokens or 
dress were removed from the woman’s neck, and she and the 
clan afterwards washed their bodies, and anointed their heads 
with the oil of the cocoanut. All the food displayed now be- 
came the property of the clan of the deceased, and the accounts 
between the different tribes were regarded as settled. 
In the case of an unmarried man or woman dying, the father 
and his relatives provide the feast, and the members of the de- 
ceased’s clan or totem from another village receive the yams, &c., 
provided. 
6—SOME NEW BRITAIN CUSTOMS. 
By Rev. GeorGce Brown. 
Peace MAKING. 
Two districts on New Britain had been at war with each other 
fora long time. One day a teacher was preaching to them, and 
urged them to make peace, but apparently without effect. After 
he had left them, however, on his way to the district with which 
they were at war, one of the chiefs to whom he had been preach- 
ing, overtook him, and gave him a dracena plant, and said: 
“Take this to the Nukukuru chiefs, and tell them it is our 
peace offering. It is to make the road good between our villages. 
Tell them our mind is to live in peace.” The teacher took the 
dracena, and gave it to the chiefs of the opposite district, urging 
upon them at the same time the advisability of accepting the 
proposals for peace. When he was preparing to return home, 
a Nukukuru chief took the dracena plant which the teacher had 
U2 
