32 GOVERN^rKXT. 



capacity of interpreters, lived on board the ship for Nveeks together, 

 one was always keeping watch over his comrades during the long 

 hours of the night whenever we were at any anchorage away from 

 their own island ; and I have been told by the officers in charge of 

 the detached surveying parties, that even after a hard day's work in 

 the boat, they have found their natives keeping a self-imposed watch 



during the night. 



I pass on now to the subject of the power of the " tambu," or 

 " taboo " as it is more usually termed. The tambu ban constitutes 

 the real authority of a petty chief in times of peace. In the eastern 

 islands, the tambu sign is often two sticks crossed and placed in the 

 ground. In such a manner, the St. Christoval native secures his 

 patch of ground from intrusion. In the islands of Bougainville 

 Straits, posts six to eight feet in height, rudely carved in the form of 

 the head and face, are erected facing sea- ward on the beach of a village 

 to keep off enemies and sickness. Similar posts are erected on the 

 skirts of a plantation of cocoa-nut palms to warn off intruders. On 

 one occasion, whilst ascending the higher part of a stream in 

 Treasury, my natives unexpectedly came upon the faint footprint 

 of a bush man ; and my sheath-knife was at once borrowed by the 

 chief's eldest son, who happened to be one of the party, to cut out a 

 face in the soft rock as a tambu njark for the bushman, or in other 

 words to preserve the stream. I have only touched on the exercise 

 of the rio-ht of tambu in its narrowest sense. Scattered about in the 

 pao-es of this v/ork will be found numerous allusions to customs 

 which would be comprised under this head in its widest meaning : 

 for the power of the tambu is but the power of a code which 

 usuallv prohibits and rarely commands ; and in enumerating its 

 restrictions and defining its limits, one would be in reality describing 

 a nef'ative system of public and private etiquette. It is worthy of 

 note, that the term " tambu " is not included in the vocabulary of 

 the lan<'uage of the natives of Bougainville Straits, its equivalent 

 beinff " olatu." -" 



It may be here apposite to make some observations on the slaver}^ 

 which is practised in connection with the bush-tribes of these islands. 

 As already remarked, a wide distinction usually prevails in the 

 Solomon Gi'oup between the inhabitants of the coast and those of 

 the inteiior ; and although this distinction is most evident in the 

 case of the larger islands, it also prevails, but to a less degree, in 

 those of smaller size. It is a noteworthy fact that the bushmen are 



