710 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION G. 



allowed to live, have been disgraced and chided l)y the dead 

 man's friends ; also the belief that they would Hve together 

 hereafter. 



In heathen days the wife was to all intents and purposes 

 the slave of the husband : the words for wife, slave, or servant 

 are interchangeable. 



Children inherited parents' land equally, according to 

 common consent. Orphans are cared for by uncles or aunts. 

 Married women help in plantation work and cooking the 

 food, &c. 



The Tribe (partly answered in last). 



The office of chief is hereditary ; it passes from father to 

 son, or nephew or nearest male relative ; only on rare occa- 

 sions have there been female chiefs, A chief was frequently 

 a supposed disease-maker, and therefore feared and obeyed in 

 matters relating to food and war. The tribal council con- 

 sisted of the head men of each village or hamlet under the 

 jurisdiction of each high chief. All infractions of tribal law 

 were discussed, and punished by the arms being bound and 

 the culprit left for several hours to the public gaze, also by 

 his getting growing food uprooted to feed the council ; but 

 in heathen days club law was the rule rather than the excep- 

 tion. Quarrels about land and women were the leading 

 causes of offence. 



Social and Domestic. 



Natural bent posts are put in the ground and made to 

 meet over a ridgepole at the top, then bound together by 

 means of vines, closed all round except at one end, which 

 serves as door, window, and chimney. The hut is covered 

 with thatch made from sugar-cane leaves sown on to long 

 reeds, or thatch in some cases made by plaiting cocoanut 

 leaves, and then covering with long reeds, with the grassy 

 ends hanging over. 



Ground is cultivated with digging stick or iron crowbar 

 four feet long, and all the earth pulverised by hand. Taro 

 is plentiful, and is grown in swampy land ; yams are less 

 plentiful, and are grown in soft soil ; bananas, sugar-cane, 

 breadfruit, and chestnuts are plentiful. Food is usually cooked 

 in earth ovens by means of heated stones. 



In pre-christian days the corded hair and ear ornaments 

 were the same as on Tanna. Women were always well 

 clothed by means of pandanus leaf skirts, even when heathen. 



