RACES BIBLIOGRAPHY COMMITTEE. 317 
he planted trees which cause elephantiasis ; hence the prevalence 
of that disease at Meveave. They take offerings to Hiovaki, and 
seek his favour in fighting. All killed in fighting go to Hiovaki. 
Hiovaki is the son of Semese by his wife Kauue. He has a 
younger brother, and they divide work—Miai is his name. 
Hiovaki made first men and women from a cocoanut tree 
which he cut down, and he first taught men how to build houses 
and Eramos. 
I cannot find that they deify heroes or ancestors. Spirits 
both help and injure men. 
PHILOLOGY (see Motu Grammar). 
(5) KOIARI TRIBE. 
BIRTH AND CHILDHOOD. 
When a woman is known to have procreated, her husband 
takes a spear and points it at her breasts, signifying he wants a 
son, ales being more desired than females. When it is certain 
a woman is in such a state, food is cooked and a feast (udugui) 
is made by the parents of the husband and wife, and eaten by the 
woman and all friends and relatives. The woman is not then 
sacred, but cooks food and sleeps with her husband. 
When pains of childbirth first begin, her friends get a supply 
of dried banana leaves, spread them on the floor, and on these she 
lies. The house will be full of women, the only males present 
being her father and husband. The father will call on the spirits 
of his forefathers to come and help his beloved daughter in her 
pains. He will take an old cocoanut, break it in two, and over 
it prays that the child may be quickly born. Food is cooked by 
the woman’s friends, and the women in attendance eat it. The 
husband, when the pains are great, takes off his sihi (string— 
only article of clothing worn) and armlets and sits apart. The 
sihi is made fast to a rafter in the roof, and in pain the woman 
hangs on to it. An old man, a member of that part of the tribe, 
is fetched, who looks at the woman, then goes inland and plucks 
long grass, returns to the house, breaks the grass up small and 
places it in a dish, pours water over it, repeating a prayer and 
breathing on it. The grass is then thrown away, and the water 
poured on the woman’s head, who sips what flows over to her 
mouth. The old man leaves, and soon after the child is born. 
When the child is born, food is prepared by friends of both 
parties. When the navel string drops (dokoru negea), more 
food is cooked. 
The woman stays in the house after the birth of her first child 
for a month or two. When she goes out for the first time, food 
is again cooked (hadihoa). From the birth the woman becomes 
