537 



CHAPTER III. 



TRIBAL LIFE. 



1. Daily Life. 



Division of Daytime. — The natives divide their day into- 

 several periods, determined, of course, and mostly named, by 

 the position of the sun. 



Morning is called Ddha d^) ^ the time at, and after, sunset,, 

 Valavitsa; evening, Vagarutsa; night, Gdruguhdre. The 

 other periods are called after the respective position of the 

 sun (Nina, in Mailu). 



Thus, to summarise all the names in their consecutive 

 order : — 



1. Ddha aioietsa or Ddha kivonai = e3iYlj morning. 



2. D dh a = morning. 



3. Nina aisana?^avaina = time before mid-day. 



4. Nina atsd'i = m.id-dsij and early afternoon — that is, 

 whilst the sun is high. 



5. Valavitsa = \site afternoon, about sundown. 



6. VagariUsa= evening, early part of the night. 



7. Gdruguhdre — deep night. 



The Ddha and Valavitsa times are the busy ones. The 

 natives do not like to do any work during the hot hours of the 

 day, and even during the feasts the mid-day hours are devoted 

 to siesta. This is, of course, not a hard and fast rule. 



Sleeping. — There are no fixed times for going to sleep- 

 er for rising. As a rule, the natives go early to bed and are 

 early risers. But when there is dancing or night fishing, or 

 any other nocturnal occupation, they remain up till late into 

 night. 



They sleep, during the cooler season, in the upper part 

 of their house, under the sago palm thatch. During the 

 change of the south-east tra.de wind into the monsoon (October 

 to December) they spend the hot nights on the lower open 

 platforms, and very often they sleep under small shelters 

 erected near the houses. There are no bedsteads in their 

 houses, only mats spread upon the floor. For pillows they 

 use short, and rather thin, logs. I never saw any of the carved 

 wooden pillows, as used on the north-eastern coast. 



Toilet, Dress, and Cleanliness. — ^They have, in general, no 

 regular times for washing or making their ''toilet," but they 

 bathe fairly often in the sea (coastal natives) or in creeks (in- 

 land Mdgi). They also wash with Delioro, the fluid prepared 

 by moistening scraped coconut and squeezing out the mess^ 



(17) The same term as m Motu. 



