THE LINE ISLANDS. 319 



be owing to their revolting practice of eating the scab, and 

 so poisoning themselves internally. 



In the Fiji, New Hebrides, Tongan, and Samoan Groups, 

 nearly every native child has this strange disease between the 

 ages of one and five, being afterwards exempt from it. 

 White men have been known to take it occasionally. I never 

 heard of any remedy, except a sea voyage to a place where 

 the disease does not exist. 



In the Kingsmills is to be found a certain cure for all 

 inflammation of the mucous membrane. I have, I regret to 

 say, forgotten the name of the plant ; but several of my 

 Samoan friends are aware of its existence, and probably know 

 what the natives call it. A friend of mine used to prepare this 

 drug, but he kept the manipulation a secret. 



The other Polynesian labourers come from the New 

 Hebrides, a group which extends from lat. 13 16' to 20 15' S., 

 and from long. 166 40' to 170 20' E., and consists of eleven 

 islands, the largest of which is Espiritu Santo. This island is 

 22 leagues in length, and half that in breadth. 



The natives of the Xew Hebrides Group are dark in colour, 

 of moderate stature, and in some places, as at Pentecost and 

 Malicolo, are robust, muscular men with woolly hair. Gene- 

 rally, however, the Papuan race to which they belong are 

 small, with thin limbs, and physically weak. In their natural 

 condition they are invariably cannibals, and are broken up 

 into small hostile tribes, constantly at war with each other. 

 So great is the ' confusion of tongues ' among these people, 

 that the inhabitants of six native towns in the same island 

 speak six different languages. 



Women in the Papuan Islands are merely the slaves and 

 tools of the men, who care for little else than fighting. In 

 every respect the original condition of the inhabitants of the 



