326 AUSTEALA81A. 



San Cristobal, nearly all the children of both sexes are killed by their parents, 

 and the population is recruited by the purchase of young slaves on the neighbour- 

 ing island ; on reaching the adult age these slaves become free. 



The Melanesians do not practise circumcision, and the prevalence of this rite 

 in any community is a sure proof of Polynesian descent. Tattooing is the rule, 

 performed, however, by incisions with sharp stones, not by pricking, as amongst the 

 South-Sea Islanders. In Santa- Ana, at the southern extremity of the Solomon 

 group, the youths do not acquire the privileges of manhood until they have sub- 

 mitted to this rite, and during the operation they are obHged to dwell apart and 

 live on the blood of a sacred fish. In Bougainville, on the contrary, tattooing is 

 interdicted to the young ; but after marriage both sexes embellish the person with 

 rows of knobs in the form of peas, the number and disposition of which indicate 

 the rank of the individual. 



Like most savages the Melanesians pay great attention to their toilet ; they 

 daily spend hours in the water, rubbing the body and painting it red, except in 

 time of mourning, when bathing is forbidden. The hair is dressed in various ways, 

 either as an enormous globe, or tower-shaped, or else fashioned by means of clay 

 and ochre into a compact red mass. Such is the labour required to keep the 

 hair properly dressed that in Treasury Island some of the old women shave it 

 off altogether in order to find time for their household duties. 



Instead of clothes some of the more savage tribes load themselves with orna 

 ments of all kinds, necklaces, bracelets, fantastic trinkets, tufts of foliage and 

 the like. The cartilage of the nose is generally pierced for the insertion of small 

 boars' tusks, or else strings of shells, while bits of stick, bone, and other objects 

 are introduced into the pierced lobe of the ear. Warriors distinguished for their 

 prowess in the battlefield wear festoons of human teeth, vertebrae or finger joints, 

 a thigh bone suspended on the breast completing their military decorations. In 

 Matupi and many other islands the currency still consists of strings of shells,, 

 replaced elsewhere by dogs' teeth, and in the cannibal districts by necklets of 

 human teeth ; empty bottles serve the like purpose in the Admiralty group. 



Incessant warfare prevails in certain islands not only between the seaboard and 

 inland tribes, but also between the coastlanders themselves. This is due to the 

 necessity of procuring heads to decorate the chief's house and the war canoes ; 

 captives are also needed, to be slaughtered on certain solemn feasts, so that their 

 souls may protect the plantations or bring success to the fishermen. Further 

 victims are required to grace the funeral obsequies of the chiefs. The body is 

 placed erect in the grave, then buried up to the neck, after which a fire is kindled 

 to consume the flesh, the skull being then carried off and set up in the canoe, 

 serving the purpose of a temple. But the grave has still to be filled in with the 

 youngest wife, a child, and the most valued treasures of the departed, together 

 with the offerings of his friends. Then the miscellaneous contents are crushed, 

 broken to pieces and covered with stones, while the assembled multitude utter 

 cries of grief ; occasionally the very palm groves are felled, so that the owner's 

 trees may share in the universal mourning, or else accompany him to the other world. 



