EFATE, NEW HEBRIDES. 725 



upside down, with only one opening- in the middle of one side 

 for an entrance. Food was usually abundant, thoiio-h there 

 was a time of scarcity (comi)arative) every year, from 

 December to March, while the yam crop was ripening. The 

 princijial articles of food are yams, bananas, cocoanuts, sugar- 

 cane, and ])readfruit, also fowls and pigs. The yam is 

 cultivated with great care and labour, and in a manner that 

 could in no way be imjjroved upon by the highest European 

 skill and industry. Every year a new piece ofjungle is cleared, 

 burned, fenced in, and cultivated. Both husband and wife 

 work at this, each having a separate plantation in addition to 

 helping each other. The fencing is usually done by the men. 

 Only one principal meal is cooked each day, in the evening, 

 and eaten about 7 — 8 p.m., the men eating by themselves. 

 Before eating this meal one of the men offered a portion of the 

 food to the spii'its ( nntemate), till which had lieen done, no 

 one began to eat. When hungry, one would say, " give the 

 offering to our natemate and let us eat." The food is cooked 

 in an " oven," that is a hole in the ground lined with heated 

 stones ; the food, wrapped in leaves, is laid on these, covered 

 with heated stones, and then the whole covered with earth, 

 &c., until thoroughly baked. The ornaments worn on the 

 head were a bunch of feathers, and sometimes pigs' tusks 

 attached to the hair round the base of the skull. Tortoise- 

 shell rings were attached to the ears. A white smooth shell 

 was inserted in the septum of the nose. Armlets were of 

 tortoise-shell, pigs' tusks, or the panipin, an elaborately woven 

 armlet. Shells were also hung round the neck. Cords dyed 

 with some dye obtained from the sea were wound round the 

 waist or the legs. The clothing of the men consisted of a 

 hand-woven mai: girdle round the loins, to Avhich was 

 attached a bark cloth waist-cloth. This bark cloth was made 

 in the same way as the similar cloth in other parts of the 

 Pacific. The dress of the women was not so decent, consist- 

 ing of a belt of strings to which was attached a woven mat of 

 small dimensions, terminating in a bulky fringe. The men 

 often had a fillet round the head. The hand-weaving of 

 mats and the making of bark cloth employed the women, 

 who had also all the household cooking and a share of 

 plantation work to do. The men had to do a share of 

 plantation work, the cooking at the public (fareaj house of 

 the village, to make canoes, to cut down the logs for napeas, 

 haul them to the village malel, hollow them out, and set them 

 up, and to fight in war. The nettives are -well nourished. 



