134 Notes on the Customs of Mota, Banks Islands. 



20. Battles. 



The rattle is a common child's toy at Mota and elsewhere. 

 The natives know nothing of it as " a sacred and mysterious 

 instrument. y 



21. Cannibalism. 



Cannibalism is altogether unknown in the Banks Islands, 

 but is more or less practised nearly everywhere else in 

 Melanesia. 



22. Clothing. 



Clothing was not used at all by males in the Banks Islands* 

 excepting a very handsome dress worn in dancing only by 

 certain grades of the Supwe (see Supwe). The women wore 

 a small double band, prettily made and ornamented. The 

 art of making these dresses has almost died out by this time. 



I think it clear that wearing any considerable amount 

 of clothing is a mark of the Polynesian element, which 

 shows itself in four particulars — cannibalism, clothes, chiefs, 

 and tapu. When I say Polynesian, I mean the race which 

 now occupies the islands to the east. The Tongans are 

 those whom we know to have come in quite modern times 

 to the Banks Islands ; and by the language it seems clear 

 that it is they who are represented by the Polynesian 

 settlements at Mae and Fate. The Mae language is 

 Tongan with very little change, and a Mae man under- 

 stands the Fate. 



But though in the Banks Islands the males wore abso- 

 lutely no clothing, yet they had words for the thing ; and, 

 what is curious, these words are different in different 

 islands. At Merlav (New Hebrides) they call it gagao, 

 which is a Maori word ; in most of the other islands they 

 call it malsam, which is perhaps the Fijian malo ; but in 

 Mota they call it siopa. It is odd that, not having the 

 thing, they should have a word for it peculiar to themselves. 



[In Samoa and Tonga the native cloth made from the paper mulberry is 

 called hiapo or siapo. This doubtless is the Mota siopa. Probably the Fijian 

 seavu is the same word. 



With reference to cannibalism as a " Polynesian" characteristic, it is to be 

 noted that the Tongans were not cannibals. The contrary has been asserted, 

 but without sufficient evidence. Some of the Tongan warriors, who visited 

 Fiji and fought in the wars there, became man-eaters, but they were, looked 

 upon with horror by tbeir countrymen. The question is settled by the fact 

 that there are no cannibal words in tbe Tongan language. The Fijian, on the 

 contrary, is full of them.— L. F.] 



