A TRIP TO THE TROBRIANDS 65 



villages, but I took every possible care to prevent the 

 inhabitants from being aroused. It was not that the 

 natives were hostile, but they were curious and wanted 

 the white man to stop. Others of them were very 

 frightened. My coming was like that of a hawk to a 

 poultry-yard. 



Agriculture in the Trobriands is very flourishing. 

 At the time of my first visit all the villages were 

 surrounded by large gardens of taro and yams. 

 Contact with the white man since has not spoiled the 

 love of the natives for their primitive industry. The 

 1911 Government report on the Trobriands states 



"The Trobriand native is by birth and education 

 an agriculturist. He is a pearl-diver rather by 

 accident than from choice. The pearling is confined 

 to the villages which dot the coast-line of the bay. 

 Outside these bay villages, the topic of interest, the 

 centre of social gravity, and the fulcrum of family 

 and tribal prosperity is the garden. I know of no 

 other place in Papua, either island or mainland, where 

 the idle man is held up to such ridicule as he is in the 

 Trobriand Group. Here it is impossible for an idle 

 man, that is, a man without gardens, to marry. No 

 parents will give their girl to a man who has little or 

 no garden. The garden is the measure of a man's 

 wealth. Yams, taitu, taro, sugar-cane, bananas, 

 and sweet potatoes; they grow them all, and sell 

 the surplus. Last year about 300 tons were pro- 

 duced above their own requirements. This was 

 F 



