Notes on the Customs of Mota, Banks Islands. 123 



Fiji among the " imported labourers," but the women may admit those men 

 only who might lawfully approach them in their own islands. Not long ago 

 a Tana man killed a woman with whom he cohabited here, and pleaded in 

 justification that he was bound to kill her because she had admitted a man 

 who belonged to a class (Mota Veve) forbidden to her by their own laws. Had 

 she admitted any number of men who belonged to the lawful class, he said 

 he could have made no objection. This apparent polyandry, therefore, is 

 simply communism with an exceptional scarcity of women. — L. F.] 



4. Relation of the Sexes. 



Boys, as soon as they grow out of childhood, are sent to 

 sleep in the GAMAL, or public club-house. It was considered 

 to be the duty of parents to look after both boys and girls, 

 and to correct them. Girls never went about alone, and it 

 was no uncommon thing for them to remain chaste until 

 marriage. Adultery was punished as the injured husband 

 chose. He might shoot the man or beat his wife. It is 

 remarkable that sexual intercourse between members of the 

 same veve was thought disgraceful. If such a thing were 

 known, the people of the " other side of the house" would 

 damage the gardens and kill the pigs of those to whom 

 the offenders were "sogoi." No resistance or retaliation 

 would be made. 



[The Mota Gamal— the Fijian Mbure; and the custom is the same in both 

 places. 



The abhorrence of intercourse between males and females of the same veve 

 is common to all the numerous tribes who are divided into exogamous inter- 

 marrying classes like those of Mota. The offence is looked upon as incest, 

 because all the members of a class in the same generation are theoretically 

 brothers and sisters. They are still so designated by many tribes. The "other 

 veve" has the right of revenge for a breach of this rule, because its marital 

 rights have been invaded. The woman was one of its wives. The wasting of 

 the property belonging to the offender's sogoi is in strict accordance with the 

 rule among savages almost everywhere. With them responsibility is not 

 personal but corporate.— L. F.] 



5. Intercourse between Relatives by Marriage. 



A man will not name his wife's father, but will sit and 

 talk with him. He will not take anything from over his 

 head or step across his legs. 



A man will not come near his wife's mother, nor mention 

 her name. They avoid one another, but will talk at a dis- 

 tance. If they meet, the one" to whom it is more convenient 

 gets out of the way. At Vanua Lava a man would not 

 follow his mother-in-law along the beach until her footsteps 

 were washed out by the tide, and vice versa. 



A man will not name his wife's brother, nor reach above 

 his head for anything, nor step across his legs, but he does 



