THE NEW HEBRIDES 453 



drawback to their settlement, as from Novemljcr to 

 April the weather is often unsettled, and hurricanes not 

 uncommon. The fauna is little known, but there appear 

 to be no indigenous terrestrial mammals except rats, and 

 the variety of the birds is far less than in the Solomon 

 Islands and New Caledonia. The exploitation of minerals 

 has not been taken in hand, but copper, iron, and nickel 

 have been found. 



The inhabitants of the New Hebrides vary very 

 considerably from island to island, and show distinctly the 

 hybridism of the race. In some places — as, for example, 

 Pele and Vele, two small islets close to Sandwich Island, 

 and in Aoba or Lepers' Island — there are true Polynesians, 

 tall, light-coloured, and with almost straight hair ; but the 

 rest of the natives are dark-skinned and woolly-haired 

 people, who, although without the pronounced Papuan 

 features, are undoubtedly of that stock. Many of the 

 customs are purely Papuan. They use bows and arrows, 

 pierce the nostrils, enlarge the ear lobes, paint their faces 

 in stripes, use the moxa, and have " gods " with the 

 features identical with similar carvings in New Guinea. 

 In character they are excitable and treacherous, and 

 cannibalism, though now less frequent, was at one time 

 a universal practice. The houses vary much in con- 

 struction, some being round like those in New Caledonia, 

 others consisting of a roof only, coming down nearly to 

 the ground. The villages are often fortified with stone 

 walls, and in some places each house also, thus forming 

 a network of palisades. A curious series of gigantic 

 drums are used in some islands, these instruments beino; 

 formed from hollowed tree-trunks of various heights and 

 sizes, with a narrow longitudinal slit down the front. 

 They are carved in the shape of human beings, and 

 implanted in the ground, and are used on the occasion of 



