i. M 4 AUSTRALASIA ILLUSTRATED. 



of bamboo, cocoa-nut or arcca palm, and are about twenty-five or thirty feet in length, 

 by a breadth of fifteen or thirty feet, and about eight or ten feet in height. In some 

 villages the houses are built on piles, and so raised about six feet from the ground. 

 The Tambu House, however, is the largest and most important house in the village. 

 It is generally about sixty feet in length, and twenty or twenty-five feet wide. Women 

 are forbidden to enter it, the war-canoes are kept there, and skulls of ordinary men 

 and the dead bodies of chiefs are also placed in it. It is always ornamented and carved 

 with representations of sharks, canoes, human and other figures, and sometimes a fancy 

 carving is made of the demi-god himself. 



Head-hunting is the principal cause of the raids which are periodically made upon 

 the large islands. Isabel has suffered more than others from this cause, and some 

 horrible stories are told of the outrages which are committed on these occasions. The 

 custom has its origin, doubtless, in much the same reason as that which makes a 

 North American Indian estimated by the. number of scalps hanging at his girdle. A 

 man in the Solomons is praised and feared in proportion to the number of heads that 

 adorn his house. It is also another instance of the wide-spread Papuan custom that 

 requires human sacrifices on great occasions, such as the building of a house or the launch- 

 ing of a canoe, in order to propitiate the spiritual powers and to make the house strong, 

 or the canoe successful. The custom of human sacrifices -was very prevalent in Fiji in 

 the olden days. In Isabel Island, where the natives have suffered most from the visits 

 of the head-hunters, the need of protecting themselves from these raids has caused them 

 to build tree-houses. One of the best descriptions of a house of this kind, is that given 

 by the Reverend Mr. Penny. He says, " The tree in which the house was built 

 must have been one hundred and fifty feet high. The lower branches had been cut 

 away, leaving a bare straight stem below the platform on which the house was built, 

 eighty feet from the ground. It was reached by a ladder." He was much surprised at 

 the skill and neatness which the construction of the house displayed. The floor smooth, 

 flat, and perfectly clean was made of split bamboos closely plaited ; these had been 

 laid on a layer of soft bark which again rested on the wood-work of the platform. The 

 side walls were made of bamboos firmly lashed together, and the roof was thatched 

 with the leaves of the sago-palm. A heap of sand on which to make a fire was kept 

 in its place by a ruck of stones, and yams and water were stored in the house. The 

 interior measured thirty feet, by fifteen feet wide. Forty people had once taken refuge 

 there. When an enemy appears the women and children go up into these houses, where 

 they are followed by the men if they have to flee from a superior force. Then they 

 throw down large stones on the heads of the enemy. A large pile of these stones is 

 always kept in readiness for defence on the platform outside. 



The clothing of the natives is of very scanty description. The men generally wear 

 only the small "T" bandage, and the women fringes of flax, which vary in length and 

 quantity in the different islands. In many of the villages, however, the print or calico 

 waist-cloth is now used. Their ornaments consist, of armlets made of plaited grass or 

 fern tissue, which are often neatly plaited in different colours and patterns ; shell armlets 

 of different sizes, which are also used as money ; necklaces made of the teeth of dogs, 

 porpoises, fruit-eating bats and phalangers ; frontlets of cowrie shells, and almost anything 



