510 



unit in this description. In the relations of village to village^, 

 however, the ethnographical unity does not find its sociological 

 parallel. There were several groups of villages, M^iicli we 

 may design by the name of "village confederacies." The 

 villages of such confederacies maintained friendly relations 

 between themselves, and were, broadly speaking, on terms 

 of enmity with the others. Some of these confederacies were 

 also on permanently good terms with villages outside the 

 Mailu district. Thus the social and political unity of the 

 Mailu tribe was divided not only by internal dissensions, but 

 also by the adhesion of certain portions of the tribe to ex- 

 ternal centres. 



In the foregoing chapter the various Mailu villages have 

 been enumerated. I shall now briefly state how those villages 

 are grouped into small confederacies, which constituted the 

 most extensive tribal or political units of the Mailu. 



The most important of such groups was the Mailu village 

 itself, with its recent colonies: Oraido and Kurere. This 

 group was undoubtedly the most powerful politically, the 

 Mailu being the most populous village of the district, and 

 possessing the greatest number of war canoes. It is 

 also the most important economically, inasmuch as it is the 

 seafaring and trading community of the wiiole district, and 

 even of the whole south-eastern coast. The group was also 

 in possession of certain industries (pottery and canoe-building) 

 which were unknown to the other villages. 



The scattered Mailu villages to the v/est of Amazon Bay 

 — Daldva, Magauho, Durom, Domdra, and Domu — formed, 

 as far as my information goes, another group. These are, on the 

 whole, practically identical with the Mailu group in all cul- 

 tural resj>ects, though they hardly did any trading to speak 

 of, did not build the big canoes, and knevv^ not pottery in 

 olden days, except perhaps the Donidra. Nowadays things 

 have changed considerably, all the natives adopting industries 

 and activities from which, by pure inertia of custom and pos- 

 sibly by other factors, they had been excluded in the past. The 

 western villages were on friendly terms with the Mailu group. 



The two villages on the coral islands in Amazon Bay, 

 Loiipom and Laruoro, form a group apart. They were both 

 living under identical conditions, and they were similar in 

 tlieir economic activities and sociological features. They were 

 keen fishermen, but in olden days they did not do much 

 sailing, nor had they any big canoes. They were on good 

 terms with each other, but they were not permanently friendly 

 with the Mailu. This was especially the case with the village 

 of Laruoro, which was nearer to Mailu, and used to make 



