NOTES ON THE TANNESE. 645 



spirit to come out and regale himself. AVhen such repast 

 was not immediately taken, it Avas concluded that the spirit was 

 away at a distance. Eventually the food would be eaten— by 

 rats or some other animals — and the friends were satisfied 

 that the spirit was pleased with their attentions. 



The Loyalty Islanders possessed ideas of the immortality 

 of the soul, but mixed up with these absurd notions of 

 spiritual existences and transmigrations. They had no con- 

 ception of a resurrection of the body. Their cannibalism was 

 opposed to the reception of such a doctrine. 



Having made this paper so long, although I have by no 

 means exhausted the subjects, I must leave the last two items 

 of the syllabus for a future paper. 



5.— SOME NOTES ON THE TANNESE. 



Bti REV. WM. GRAY. 



Tanna, so named by Capt. Cook, is an island of the southern 

 New Hebrides. It is about 45 miles in circumference, and 

 contains now not less than 8000 inhabitants. So far as it is 

 known it must have been always one of the most densely 

 populated islands of the group. It is of volcanic origin. 

 There is in it a central range running with the island from 

 S.E. to N.W. nearly, with lower land, but very little plain 

 along the shore. The hills at the south end are probably 

 3000 feet high, and have the appearance of being the product 

 of volcanoes. Everywhere on the south end and eastern 

 side one finds hills composed of scoriae, now completely over- 

 grown with vegetation. Here and there streams of lava have 

 been poured out and afterwards covered with scoriae. But 

 most of the hills seemed to have been raised by such an 

 ejection of pulverised lava, as is now going on at the active 

 crater on Tanna. At the north end of the island the soil 

 seems to be the product of aqueous sediment. Along part 

 of the east coast, round the north end, and down the west 

 coast, the coral reefs have been raised in past ages. On the 

 west coast coral terraces are seen more than 100 feet above 

 sea level. We find nothing of this kind on the eastern side 

 of Tanna. But on the little islet of Aniwa (about 12 miles 

 E.N.E. from the north end of Tanna, and about 15 miles 



