68 A NATURALIST IN CANNIBAL LAND 



married. Then some degree of fidelity is insisted 

 upon by the husband. There are never any children 

 born of these illicit love affairs : but the marriages 

 are usually fruitful. The women evidently have 

 means of preventing conception when they wish. 

 The general looseness of morals among the Tro- 

 brianders is reflected in their religious rites, which seem 

 to be chiefly inspired by phallic worship. 



The architecture of the Trobrianders is fairly good, 

 and a noticeable thing is the large storehouses they 

 build for the storage of yams. Agriculture is so 

 flourishing that sometimes a single garden of a village 

 will extend for half a mile. The natives are not good 

 sailors but they are great fishermen, and are accustomed 

 to keep a watchman posted on a look-out for shoals 

 of fish coming within the reefs. When a shoal of 

 mullet had come within the reef the watchman 

 would give warning, and men posted along the road 

 from the beach to the villages (which were mostly 

 inland) would carry the warning along. Within ten 

 minutes of the fish being noticed the people of the 

 village would have their nets ready and be rushing 

 for the beach. 



The method of fishing was to surround the shoal of 

 fish with nets held on rods in such a way as to form a 

 fence around the shoal. These nets would then be 

 gradually pushed in, forcing the fish to crowd together. 

 The result would be that the fish would leap up into 

 the air. As they jumped they would be captured in 



