226 THE CEUISE OF THE 'CURAQOA: 



tlio interioi' ; tlie coast dialect is the best known, and is 

 simpler in constiuction than the languages of the southern 

 isles of the group; as in Englisli the subject comes first, 

 then the verb, and then the object. 



The government is more in the hands of elected than 

 hereditary chiefs, the right of governing being by common 

 consent assigned to the most influential of the tribe. In 

 general, each village is independent in itself, and possesses 

 a council of petty chiefs, whose principal business it is to 

 accept or modify more or less the decisions of the head 

 chief. 



The people of Vate pass for being eminently cruel and 

 savage. Then- taste for human flesh is perhaps more decided 

 than it is auywhere else, since it leads them to violate the 

 graves of their enemies, in order to carry off" dead bodies, 

 after being some days buried, in order to bake and eat 

 them. When one of two fighting parties feels it has had 

 enough of it, and wants peace, it puts to death one of its 

 own people and offers him to the enemy, who accepts or 

 rejects the offer, accordingly as the corpse is in a more or 

 less tempting condition. Polygamy exists ; in general, the 

 woman will not consent to rear more than two or three 

 children ; beyond this number the newborn infant is 

 instantly thrown into a hole dug for the purpose. This 

 execrable practice is more the act of the woman than the 

 man, for there arc cases where husbands oppose it, and 

 require that their wives should either suckle theit intended 

 victims, or transfer them to persons (lisi)osed to adopt them. 



