90 A NATURALIST IN CANNIBAL LAND 



child, pig, dog, and fowl. However, I did not anti- 

 cipate trouble with the natives, after the Government 

 boat had been there. 



But the reputation of the place was so bad that I 

 did not think it wise to trust the natives too much; 

 and the natives themselves did not trust one another, 

 for it was quite usual for the young fellows of a village 

 who felt that they were in particularly good eating 

 condition to refuse to sleep in the village, and to 

 take to canoes at evening-tide and sleep out some- 

 where on the reef where they would be more safe. 



Rossel Island is very mountainous and the natives 

 are in many respects different from those of the main- 

 land of New Guinea. They are an agricultural people 

 mainly. In the villages the two sexes are separated 

 into different quarters. The morals of the people 

 are good usually, but there is a custom there which 

 I do not remember having observed anywhere else 

 in the South Seas, that of setting aside a certain 

 number of women who are accessible to all the males 

 of the community. This imitation of the Japanese 

 yoshiwarra I have not found elsewhere in the South 

 Seas, though it is not unusual in some of the islands 

 for strangers, especially white men, to be offered 

 women as concubines. Apart from the public women, 

 the females of Rossel Island seem very shy and are 

 difficult to see, it seeming to be the custom to keep 

 them from the view of strangers. 



The Rossel Island natives put up a house for us 



