Art. V.— Notes on the Customs of Mota, Banks Islands. 



By the Rev. R. H. Codrington, M.A., Fellow of Wad- 

 ham Coll., Oxon. 



With Remarks by the Rev. Lorimer Fison, Fiji. 



[Communicated 10th July, 1879.] 



[Some years ago it was my great good fortune to be concerned in a matter 

 which led to an exchange of letters between the Rev. R. H. Codrington, M.A., 

 of the Melanesian Mission, and myself. The correspondence thus begun has 

 been maintained, chiefly with regard to the customs and the languages of 

 the tribes within our knowledge. The facts communicated to me by Mr. 

 Codrington are so valuable, and his comments upon them are so interesting, 

 that I venturer) to urge him strongly to publish them. In reply, he was kind 

 enough to give me permission to make any use of them I pleased, " bearing 

 always in mind that they are only notes." It seems to me, that I cannot 

 make a better use of them than by laying them before the Royal Society of 

 Victoria in his own words, together with such additional remarks as may be 

 suggested by my knowledge of the customs of other tribes. The facts will be 

 thereby presented all the sooner to those who are interested in the study of 

 anthropology, and will cause them to look eagerly for the publication of a work 

 on Melanesian customs and languages, which we may hope to welcome, sooner 

 or later, from Mr, Codrington's pen. 



My own remarks are enclosed in brackets, and signed with my initials, in 

 order to distinguish them from his. — L. F.J 



1. System of Relationship. 



The Banks Islands people, though speaking dialects 

 mutually unintelligible, have throughout the same two 

 families, not properly tribes, called in Mota veve — mother. 

 The members of these two veve are mixed indiscriminately 

 in the villages, and have their property equally mixed. The 

 division exists only for the purpose of distinguishing 

 families. There is no common name to the veve. It is 

 said of people belonging to the same veve, " The mother is 

 one ;" of those belonging to different veve, " The mother is 

 different." All of one veve are said to be " sogoi" to one 

 another. These divisions are called veve at Mota only ; but 

 any Banks islander knows, or can find out, his sogoi on any 

 island. The veve are exogamous, and descent follows the 

 mother. 



To a limited extent, within the veve there are certain 

 families, or family connections; which take a name from a 

 particular place. This can scarcely be called a family name — 

 e.g., at Mota a certain family are " Talo Sepere," of Sepere, a 

 place in the island of Vanua Lava ; and the sons — who are 

 not of the father's veve, because descent is through the 

 mother — will try to marry into the Sepere set again. 



K 



