618 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION G. 



all their cooking was done either by i-oasting upon the tire or 

 baking in folds of the banana leaf in the oven, which is 

 made as other South Sea Islanders make it. 



As regards the food itself, most articles are common to all, 

 but there are a few things which seem to be reserved for the 

 Avomen, viz., the dog, the iguana, and a certain kind of 

 jDudding, the latter seeming to be principally for mothers-in- 

 law. Chiefs and men under certain vows in connection with 

 a society called the eniat do not eat pork or certain kinds of 

 fish, among whicli is the shark. The penalty for breaking 

 this vow is enlargement of the stomach to bursting jjoint, and 

 other evils, ending in death. Fish, fowls, and small reptiles 

 are plentiful, the wallaby and cassowary not so plentiful. In 

 New Ireland there is fresh-water game to a limited extent. 

 Pigeons and other birds in abundance, but the means of 

 capture were primitive until the introduction of firearms. 

 The people are cannibals, and though not to such an extent 

 as other inhabitants of the South Seas, they carry it out in a 

 very cold-blooded way, the portions of the victim being sold 

 as we sell meat in the shambles, the purchasers quietly cook- 

 ing and eating the flesh at home. Vegetables are plentiful. 

 Bananas of many kinds form the staple article of diet, with 

 cocoanuts in abundance. The yam, taro, sweet potato, a 

 tender plant used as a cabbage, the bread fruit, the kuru — 

 Fijian toi — pandanus fruit, sugar-cane, and various other 

 fruits and vegetables — in short, both soil and climate unite to 

 make the procuring of food an easy matter. A provident 

 father w^ill plant a number of cocoa-nut trees when a son is 

 born, and in seven or eight years they form a large portion of 

 the lad's living. As soon as the child can do anything he has 

 a small plantation of his own. 



The plantation work in its early stages is fairly divided 

 between the men and women. The men clear the ground 

 and burn off. They then turn up the clods and plant the 

 bananas and other things. The women then go to work 

 with short sticks beating the clods into powder, passing the 

 earth through their hands, gathering the grass, roots, etc., 

 out of the soil to be burnt. This method of Aveeding is very 

 effective. From that time forward the plantation comes 

 principally under the care of the women . Plantation work 

 is usually done early in the morning. 



The fish-traps I have described in a previous paper read 

 before this Society. Their shell money and its uses, their 

 marriage and burial customs, I have described in papers read 



