560 



Mailu woman to elope with him, public opinion was so strong 

 that the Mailu village constables handcuffed the man, and 

 had to suffer afterwards for thus exceeding their powers. 



The prenuptial sexual relations are subject to the rules 

 of exogamy, and clan exogamy regulates both marriage and 

 extraconnubial intercourse, though not with strict rigidity; 

 in fact, there are to my knowledge two cases, one in Mailu 

 and one in Kurere, of endogamous marriage — endogamous 

 not only with reference to the clan, but even to the subclan. 

 These two cases refer to rather old men, who, so far as I could 

 ascertain, had married before the white man's influence had 

 made itself felt. They are stamped by the natives as in- 

 stances of wrong marriage, and it is said that such provoke 

 both indignation and derision. But apparently there has 

 been no attempt at interference or punishment in these in- 

 stances, and when things had settled down the men concerned 

 seemed to enjoy their due share of public respect. 



To return to prenuptial relations, the custom of having 

 a sweetheart is called Ui'ui. The young man calls his mis- 

 tress Ui'ui avefsa fAvetsa = v^0TnsLn). From the confidences of 

 several young sparks of the village of Mailu, I have been 

 able to construct the course of native flirtation. It seems that 

 the initiative comes from the young girl. A girl who fancies 

 a boy might ask him for a piece of betelnut or a bit of 

 tobacco, when they meet casually on the way to the gardens, 

 or during the dances, or on any other occasion when men 

 and women come momentarily into contact without 

 attracting attention, and the boy would naturally grant her 

 request. After several such hints, the boy would seize the 

 iirst opportunity of approaching the girl again on an occa- 

 sion when he could do so without drawing the eye of public 

 opinion upon them, and he would then spontaneously offer 

 her a small gift of Kiiku (tobacco) or betel. At this the girl 

 with "natural astonishment" would ask, ''Why do you give 

 me this?" to which would reply the boy, ''Because I love 

 you." And very likely they would arrange, then and there, 

 for a further meeting. The rendezvous would take place in 

 the girl's house at a time which would be sufficiently late 

 to give an ample margin for all the other inmates to be asleep. 

 The boy, seeing that all is dark and quiet, would climb up 

 the verandah and try to find the girl in the appointed corner, 

 and she would carefully ascertain by touching his face and 

 ornaments that it is the right person. They would talk to 

 each other in undertones, taking great care not to be heard or 

 cletected by the other inmates of the house or by any of the 

 neighbours. There was some disagreement between my in- 

 formants as to whether the girl's family and the neighbours 



