558 



hunting, sailing), those remaining behind devoting 

 themselves to siesta. In the afternoon the women return 

 from the gradens, carrying vegetables and firewood, and water 

 in water-bottles. An hour or two before sunset the meal is 

 prepared and put on the fire. In the evening, if it be the 

 proper season, there is some dancing in the village; otherwise 

 the people sit in groups and talk. At such times the fronts 

 of the verandahs are crowded, the men in some houses sitting 

 on the verandah, in others the women gathering together on 

 the front. 



There is a marked separation of the sexes in the village life-. 

 At daytime, when at work, there is the man's end of the 

 verandah — the front; and the women's^ — the rear end. Not 

 that there would be any taboo or even customary restriction 

 in this respect, but, normally, one sees the men in the front 

 part and the women busy round the fireplace behind. If 

 there is anything going on in the street there will be in some 

 houses women in the front of the verandah; but usually they 

 keep to themselves. The groups in the street, on the beach, 

 behind the houses, and on the bush side of the village are 

 formed by members of one sex only. Men and women con- 

 verse freely in public and approach each other, but it is 

 not the right thing for a boy and girl to talk together in 

 public for any length of time, and husband and wife do not 

 associate in the street. When I approached a group of women 

 my native interpreters and informants usually drifted away, 

 or sat discreetly at a distance, never freely joining the circle 

 of women. There is, in fact, a great deal of decorum in the 

 relation of the sexes in public, a man never paying too much 

 attention to a woman in public. There is also what might 

 be called a distinct feeling of decency, without giving this 

 term its strict, moral European meaning. My informants 

 would not talk loudly of certain subjects on the verandah, 

 for fear that women might hear from the adjoining houses, 

 although hardly any woman was able to understand Motu, in 

 which the conversation was carried on. (^2) And once, in the 

 course of inquiring about man's dress in olden days, I was 

 warned not to talk loudly in public about the Bui, or 

 arrangement of the perineal band; in fact, I was asked not 

 to say this word loudly, as everybody would be ashamed, and, 



(32) Men learn Motu when working in plantations, or when in 

 jail, or when in contact with the native constabulary. The mem- 

 bers of the latter all speak Motu, as they are recruited from all 

 tribes, and had to adopt some common language. Women have 

 none of those opportunities. Thus Motu has become distinctly 

 a man's language. In Mailu few men, especially those under 

 forty, do not speak it, but there is not a single woman who can 

 speak this language. 



