698 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION G. 



Marriage. 



Polyg-amy exists. It is not restricted, but only men of 

 wealth can procure wives in any number. 



Children take their classification from their mother, and in 

 war would join her kin. In speaking of the men of a 

 village, natives never forget to tell you the villages to which 

 the different individuals belong. 



Widows generally marry again ; they are the property of 

 the deceased husband's brother, but he often disposes of them. 

 He adopts the children, if any, and in islands like ours, 

 where population is sparse, children are very much prized. 



The work of a married woman consists in planting and 

 looking after tiie garden. She dare not cook or even touch 

 her husband's food. Women are, as a rule, well treated. 



Chieftainship is gained by a man's rising through a long- 

 course of degrees, each attained by the slaughter of pigs. 

 This rank is in a sense hereditary, inasmuch as a son takes a 

 high degree at birth, and so starts on a higher platform than 

 the others. Chiefs are called mulitn, but the name of a high 

 chief is majri. Chiefs are all very old men. One of them 

 died lately, and his son, although regarded as chief in his 

 village, has not the same rank as his father had. 



Social and Domestic. 



The huts are built like a roof placed on the ground. The 

 ridge-pole is supported on two or more forked stakes driven 

 into the ground. For rafters long bamboos are used, which 

 are softened by fire and bent into shape to fit the ridge-pole. 



It is thatched with the leaves of a kind of palm, sewed on 

 reeds. If well and closely thatched, a hut will stand a long 

 time. Some are standing yet which were built before Hving 

 memory. The ends are finished with split bamboos. 



Cultivation, 

 Yams, taro, and bananas are grown in well fenced gardens. 

 Yams are ripe in March, and are plentiful until October. 

 Planting begins in September. Thereafter the people live 

 on breadfruit, bananas, and cocoanuts, with wdiatever yam 

 they have stored in their yam-houses, which are bamboo 

 erections i-aised four feet or so above ground and substantially 

 thatched. Men and women all work together in the gardens. 

 The whole village goes in turns to put up the fences. They 

 often sleep in their gardens, if they are at any distance from 

 the village. 



