446 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL 



for adorning the hair, or are tucked beneath the armlets. 

 Tattooing is less common than the patterns produced 

 in raised scars by the use of the moxa. 



• Dug-out canoes, and the system of outrigging so 

 widely used in the East Indian Archipelago, are not very 

 frequently seen, the boats being usually built of planks. 

 The large war-canoes, 40 or 50 feet in length, are highly 

 decorated with carving, and with inlaid shells, paint, and 

 tassels of dyed pandanus leaves, and have very high 

 upturned prows. The houses vary much in construction, 

 but most are of small size with a gable roof. Those of 

 the chiefs are larger. As a rule they are not built upon 

 piles. The " fdmhu-house " is a sort of club, correspond- 

 ing to the large houses for young men in New Guinea and 

 some parts of Sumatra. The war-canoes are also kept 

 here, and the ashes of the chiefs ; the bodies of most of 

 those of that rank being cremated, while ordinary persons 

 are generally buried at sea. 



Hereditary chiefs exist in almost every tribe. Head- 

 hunting is general, and cannibalism is widely practised. 

 Captain Eedlick in 1872 saw a human body cooked 

 whole, and Mr. Perry, an English resident at Makira, told 

 him that he had seen twenty such ready to be served up 

 at one time. Polygamy prevails, and some chiefs have 

 as many as eighty or a hundred wives. The people are 

 agricultural, cultivating the banana, taro, and sweet 

 potato. They are also good fishermen, and not only 

 make good nets, but have many exceedingly ingenious 

 methods of taking fish. The weapons in use in the group 

 are bows and arrows, clubs, spears, and tomahawks, and 

 the wicker shields which are carried are often beautifully 

 ornamented with shell-work. 



It will thus be seen that the Solomon islanders closely 

 resemble the New Guinea Papuans, both in manners 



