MALEKULA, NEW HEBRIDES. 



G99 



There is I'eally but one meal cooked in tlie afternoon, con- 

 sisting of a puclding of grated yam or taro, toasted yam, 

 breadfruit, bananas, or toasted breadfruit ])eaten to a pulp, 

 and cocoawut milk poured over it. 



Every man has to do his own cooking on his own fire ; at 

 least only those of the same name and rank can cook and 

 eat together, as the Baras, the Gulguls, the Muluns, &c. 



The women cook for themselves and the children. Pigs 

 are rarely, if ever, killed for food, except wlien a wild boar is 

 shot. Men will not touch a female pig ; it is eaten by women 

 or children. They have fish occasionally, but in no great 

 quantity, as their only means of procuring them is by wading 

 on the reef and shooting at them with bows and arrows. 



They give strangers raw food to cook, or, if the same rank, 

 they sliare the meal of their host. 



Ornaments. 



The Malekulans usually wear a plume of cock's feathers in 

 their hair, and occasionally decorate themselves with red 

 hibiscus blossoms. They wear small ear-rings of turtle-shell, 

 to which a tuft of hair from a pig's tail is attached. The 

 nose is not perforated ; on the arms they often wear bracelets 

 of beads, and, as they have no pockets, they wind a spider's 

 web, of a very strong texture and yellow colour, round their 

 arms, in which they stick a knife or pipe. They often have 

 this same thing tied round their foreheads. Round the neck 

 and legs they tie creepers or dried strips of pandanus leaves. 



Painting is common. They smear their faces with black, 

 and their foreheads with a glistening black paint made by 

 burning a cocoa-nut in the fire, the ashes of the shell being- 

 mixed with the oil from the kernel. They paint themselves 

 red and white, chiefly for feasts and dances. 



Their clothing consists of a belt of cocoa-nut cloth or bark 

 wound round the body. The penis is wrapped in a small mat 

 of a red colour, the end of which is held up by the belt. 

 The women wear a small mat or strip of calico, about 6-ins. 

 wide and a yard long, round them ; it passes under the hips 

 and is held up in fi-ont by a belt round their middle. Being 

 under the hips, it is quite a covering when they stoop. They 

 wear great quantities of beads, not round the neck but 

 generally over the shoulders and across the chest. They paint 

 themselves black also, hke the men, when working, and red 

 for feasts. They have also a habit of smearing their hair 

 '\vith paint and oil for feasts until it looks as if they wore caps. 



