320 TEB 0BUI8E OF THE ' GUBAQOA.' 



brothers fall to the eldest surviving brother. Incest is 

 probably rare ; but instances it is said can be found. 



Two different languages are spoken, the one, it is alleged, 

 more generally than tlie other. 



The great god of the Eramangans is called Nabu, and 

 strangely enough they call all strangers by this name, 

 whether black or white. They suppose the paradise of 

 souls to be in the West. They have a tradition which says 

 that men originally walked like pigs, and that pigs walked 

 erect. They say the first of the human race was a woman, 

 then came her son, and from them sprang the race of men. 

 The Nabu, after having created the human race at Ei'a- 

 manga, went away to another land. They worship the 

 moon, having images in the form of the new and full moons, 

 made of a kind of stone. They do not pray to these images, 

 but cleave to them as their protecting gods. They practise 

 circumcision, and believe in witchcraft. The graves of the 

 dead are known by a depression in the earth of a few 

 inches, and by two sticks placed erect. Some of the dead 

 are placed in caves without any earth or covering. The 

 natives do not eat anything which grows within about 

 one hundred yards of a place where their own dead are 

 buried. I heard nothing about their temples, if they have 

 any. 



Articles exported are sandal-wood and women. A 

 Captain Edwards is spoken of, who in one year embarked 

 15,000 tons of sandal-wood, and in a short time realised a 

 fortune of £'75,000. This Captain Edwards has improved 



