3-J.2 THE CRUISE OF THE ' CURAQOA.' 



have less Uie habit of pilfering than any of the other 

 islanders. Many of both sexes go quite naked ; some of 

 the women wear the small lavalara which scarcely covers 

 their nudity. The men use the same grotesque wrapper 

 we have already spoken of in connection with other natives, 

 and which Mr. Murray says he has never seen elsewhere 

 than in the New Hebrides. 



A few of them were more or less clothed in European 

 dress. They are said to work very well under European 

 supervision. 



Nothing seems to be known about the population ; what 

 strikes me as singular is that till now no native name has 

 been found for the entire island. Very little is known of 

 their religion. Their gods are their ancestors, whose relics 

 they keep and idolize. They have in some places wooden 

 idols. They pray to their gods and to the gods of other 

 lands before going to fighting, fishing, planting, house- 

 building, feasting, and doing anytliing of importance. 

 Almost every family has its priest whose office is hereditary, 

 There is a rain-making class of priests. The spirits of the 

 departed are supposed to go to the bush, and at certain 

 periods in the year they have feasts in which they prepare 

 heaps of food for the spirits. They think white men are the 

 spirits of the dead and bring sickness, and they give this as 

 a reason why they kill them. They throw over the cliffs 

 into the sea anyone among themselves suspected of witch- 

 craft, or supposed to have caused the death of any person. 

 At the birth of a child, if a girl, she is betrothed forthwith 



