513 



in the dialectical variety of their speech, (8) those groups 

 form ethnological subclasses. My studies have been, however, 

 made nearly exclusively among one group, consisting of the 

 villages of Mailu and KurerCy which in fact are identical, so 

 that I am not able to do justice to the differences among 

 the various groups, though I noted them in the few cases 

 where, from being prominent, they were brought under my 

 notice by my informants. 



2. The Village Community. 



Type of Mailu Village; its Surroundings ; Village 

 Buildings. — Perhaps the most important social division 

 among the Mailu is that into village communities. These 

 are the real political, economic, and sociological units of the 

 Mailu tribe. The Mailu villages of the Western Papuo- 

 Melanesian type, consisting of one compact group of houses, 

 as opposed to the scattered villages of the Southern Massim.(9) 

 They are extremely regularly built, more so than the villages 

 of the Sinangholo, which can be considered representative of 

 the Western Papuo-Melanesians of the Central District. They 

 were all built on land, the houses standing on piles. 



All the villages with one exception — Gima — are now built 

 on the shore, and they all represent the same type (see page 

 opposite for plan of Mailu village). They consist of two 

 parallel rows of houses, forming a street some 10 to 15 metres 

 broad, and, usually, they are quite close to the beach. Thus 

 in Mailu there is a belt of some 30 metres between 

 the high-water mark and the houses. The same holds good 

 with reference to Boreho, Lov/pom, Tselai, Banoro, Geagea^ 

 etc. (comp. pis. xxvii. and xxviii.). Some villages, however, 

 like Kurere, are about 100 metres distant from high-water 

 mark. 



The fronts of the houses are always turned towards the 

 street, so that the fronts of the two rows face each other, 

 while their backs are turned to the sea and to the gardens 



(8) As I have no knowledge of the Mailu language, I am 

 unable to speak with any authority about linguistic matters, and 

 I am here only repeating what I was told by Mr. Greenaway 

 and by my native informants, none of whom was reliable on this 

 point. I missed the opportunity of discussing the subject with 

 Mr. Saville, who knows the language well and who has studied 

 the problem scientifically (cf., his ''Grammar of the Mailu 

 Language" in the Journal of the Royal Anthropological 

 Institute). 



(9) Prof. Seligman draws attention to this feature as one of 

 the cultural differences between the Southern Massim and the 

 Western Papuo-Melanesians; comp. op. cit. Introduction passim. 



B 



