RADACK AND OTHER ISLANDS. IGS 



the form of a tent round about, serve as separate 

 sleeping apartments. The roofs are of cocoa or 

 pandanus leaves; the floor is strewed with very fine 

 fragments of coral and shells, which are found on 

 the shore. Only a coarse mat serves for a bed and 

 a block of wood for a pillow. 



At first we did not take these houses, which we 

 often found deserted, to be the constant residences 

 of the people. These seamen sail in their ingenious 

 boats * with their family and all their goods from 

 one island to another, and in this manner, after we 

 had become intimate with them, the greater part 

 of the population of a group always assembled 

 near us. 



The wild pandanus appears to be general pro- 

 perty. A bundle of leaves of this tree (tokens of 

 property) tied to the branch on which the fruit is 

 ripening, secures the right of him who has discover- 

 ed it. We have frequently, and particularly in the 

 northern poorer groups, seen this fruit, which is the 

 only food of the Radackers, devoured quite unripe. 

 Cocoa trees are private property. Those in the 

 neighbourhood of the habitations, the fruit of which 

 is ripening, are often seen with a cocoa leaf fastened 

 round the stem, which is intended, by the rustling, to 

 give notice if any one should attempt to climb the 



• The author of these essays leaves it to more competent 

 persons to describe scientifically these vessels, which agree in 

 their essential particulars with the often-mentioned proas of 

 the Mariana islands. 



M 2 



