120 Notes on the Customs of Mota, Banks Islands. 



Those of the same veve are said to be " on one side of the 

 house;" those of the other veve are said to be on "the other 

 side of the house" (tavala ima). A man must marry a 

 tavala ima. His wife does not come over to his side of the 

 house, but is said to be "at the door." Her children belong 

 to her side of the house, not to his. Hence a man's own 

 children are not " sogoi" to him. His nearest relations are 

 his sister s children, for these are of his veve, and continue 

 his family. 



["The other side of the house/' see Supwe, No. 29 (Gamal). I omit Mr. 

 Codrington's interesting remarks on the terms of kinship and affinity. These 

 require a special study. 



The Mota veve are the two exogamous intermarrying divisions, with 

 descent through females, which are found so widely prevalent elsewhere. They 

 are frequently subdivided into four, and these again into smaller divisions ; 

 hut the memory of the primary divisions is generally kept up, either by actual 

 nomenclature, or by tradition. The badge, or symbol, of a division is gene- 

 rally, though not necessarily, an animal. This is, in fact, the American Indian 

 totem (Dodeim). There is a mysterious relationship between the totem and 

 those who bear it as their " crest." A man does not willingly kill or eat his 

 totem. I have found divisions similar to the Mota veve in the island of Vanua 

 Levu, Fiji. Probably all the Fijian tribes had them formerly. 



The Banks islanders seem to have advanced far beyond the old commune, 

 which was undoubtedly represented by the two veve. 



Descent is still uterine in some parts of Fiji, as in Mota. Most of the tribes, 

 however, have advanced to agnatic descent. A community is divided into a 

 number of mata nggali, each of which is descended from a common 

 ancestor, whose temple stands in the "quarter" of the town belonging to his 

 matanggali. From each of the sons of this ancestor a minor division, called a 

 yavusa, is descended ; and each yavusa is divided into a number of vuvale 

 — households. A vuvale may consist of a number of brothers with their 

 families. All the matanggali of a community — and, indeed, it may be of 

 several communities — trace their common descent to a still more distant 

 ancestor, who is the Kalou Vu, God ancestor, of them all. — L. F.] 



2. Land Tenuee and Inheeitance. 



Land is held as the property of individuals — i.e., when 

 bought it is bought from individuals. But the people never 

 buy or sell land among themselves. When the mission has 

 bought land, the individuals who received payment have 

 sold rather an interest in the land than a limited piece of 

 property. A piece of land is the property of a certain well- 

 known number of people who have inherited it, and they 

 use it for gardens — i.e., food plantations — as they like, there 

 being plenty of room. 



Property in trees is distinct. A man may have fruit trees, 

 planted by himself or an ancestor, on land to which he has 

 no claim. The property of the two veves is intermingled. 



Inheritance. — Land descends to the relatives " on the same 

 side of the house" — i.e., to the sister's children. But the 

 practice is that the sons redeem it with the personal pro- 



