546 



away, and the number of households to whom it was presented, 

 varies with the abundance of food cooked that day, but there 

 is a certain minimum of people who must be thus treated 

 every day. This custom is called Veveni (in Motu, Hierahia), 

 and as far as I have been able to ascertain it prevails among 

 all the Papuo-Melanesians. 



This Veveni food must, in the first place, be sent to the 

 father's house, in the case in which the father and son do not 

 live under one roof. Then come the ''own" (blood) brothers, 

 and afterwards, when food is plentiful, the first paternal and 

 maternal cousins and the uncle are presented with food. Of 

 course, the same people return the presents to the donor in 

 a corresponding degree of frequency and abundance. As a 

 rule the natives, when asked to which houses they send the 

 Veveni, give a definite number, which is usually some three to 

 five, a fact which shows that normally there is a fixed number 

 of people with whom the interchange of food takes place. If 

 food is scarce, and both his parents dead, he gives the 

 Veveni to his elder and younger own brothers, and to his sister. 

 If he has sufficient food he shares it with his half-brother and 

 half-sister, of the same father but of different mothers. In 

 cases of exceptional abundance he sends food to his paternal 

 and maternal cousins (tribal brothers) in equal shares. 



Food: Raiu Materials and Prejoarafion of Food. — The 

 animal food of the natives consists of game, such as pigS, 

 wallabies, kangaroos, rats, bandicoots, cuscus, and various 

 birds, and of fishes and shellfish. The inland Magi had a 

 better supply of land game and the Toulon islanders had a 

 greater abundance of fish, but all the villagers are both 

 hunters and fishermen (see chap. iv.). Moreover, fish 

 seems to be a much more easily and regularly accessible form 

 of food for those natives who live near the sea than game is 

 for the inland natives. Pork is derived from two sources — 

 the wild boar, which is hunted, and the pigs that are bred in 

 the village. The village pigs, which are the more valued, 

 are killed only on the occasions of important feasts (cf. chap, 

 v., sec. 3). 



Vegetable food is undoubtedly far more important in native 

 households than animal food. In the Mailu district, as in all 

 wet regions of Papua, the predominant vegetable food consists 

 of bananas and taro, bananas occupying the first place. Of 

 these there are verv many kinds indigenous to the country, and 

 now there are, besides, several introduced sorts. There are four 

 kinds of indigenous taro and four kinds of yams. There is 

 another tuber, called in Motu Taifu, of which there are several 

 varieties. Sago grows in many places, and every village pos- 

 sesses its sago swamp and coconut plantation. Nowadays the 



