84 NANKAURI 



framework of thick rattan by lashings of cane, the sides and 

 floor are generally of roughly-hewn boards ; inside, about 3 

 feet from the wall, a circle of posts helps to support the roof, 

 which, in some cases, is entirely lined with horizontal laths of 

 wood. The apex is crowned outside by a high, carved finial. 

 Access is obtained by means of a notched pole, and to permit 

 the entrance of domestic animals, a tree trunk, split and hollowed 

 out to form a trough, slopes gently up from the ground to door 

 or window. Beneath the houses are platforms on which the 

 natives keep their store of pandanus and coconuts, their spare 

 pots and baskets, and peculiar bundles of wood. This latter is 

 neatly cut into billets about i foot long, and packed into circular 

 bundles, 2 or 3 feet in diameter, by means of a tight lashing 

 of cane.* 



One afternoon we paid a visit to Tanamara. He and his wife 

 have no children, but have adopted a little girl from Chaura, 

 whose parents are dead. This custom of adoption is, he says, 

 not at all uncommon. Tanamara's father and mother live with 

 him ; the former, " England " by name, is an old, white-headed 

 man, who is nearly eighty ; he professes to know nothing 

 about the piratical atrocities which formerly occurred in this 

 group of islands, although many of them happened at a period 

 sufficiently late in his life for him to have fully comprehended 

 such events. 



The interior and contents of the house were very similar to 

 what we had already seen in Trinkat. Opposite the door stood 

 the fireplace — a bed of clay on the floor — above which was a 

 mantle-shelf or rack, where are kept pots, baskets, trays, etc. A 

 grated floor formed a small chamber immediately under the 



* " The large, neatly-made bundles of trimmed billets of wood, have always 

 been mistaken for firewood, even by Pastor Rosen, who spent three or four 

 years in the Harbour. They are, however, made merely to serve as offerings, 

 and are rolled on to a grave of some relative or friend. They are supposed to 

 represent a substantial token of affection and regard as they take much trouble 

 to make. Their bundles of firewood are also cylindrical, but consist of dry 

 scraps of wood picked up in the jungle and tied round with pieces of cane." — 

 E. H. Man. 



