563 



illness, bodily decay, and death. From several informants 

 I got the answer that possibly the two things are connected ; 

 but, like Prof. Seligman among the Koita, I found the firm 

 belief that it is only continuous intercourse — for a month or 

 more — that leads to pregnancy, and that one single act is not 

 sufficient to produce the result. This may explain the ideas 

 and practices of the preventative taboo just mentioned. 



Neither do the natives seem to trouble very much about 

 the casual connection in point. Ignorant of the physiological 

 knowledge we possess, they approach in this connection the 

 standpoint of the Arunia and the many other aboriginal tribes 

 of Australia, amongst whom Prof. Spencer and Mr. Gillen 

 have found a complete ignorance on this point, associated 

 with a belief in toteaxiic incarnation. I was, however, unable 

 to discover any beliefs in supernatural causes of pregnancy 

 •or magical means to produce or prevent it. 



It must be noted that even the taboos before the Maduna 

 (feast) do not mean so much that the natives know the con- 

 nection in question, as that they are afraid of conception 

 during the feast time — a fear which might as well be based 

 on an original belief in supernatural incarnation as on a 

 knowledge of the real association. 



The state of affairs in sex matters seems also to accord 

 with slackness of native induction. There are very few virgins 

 among the grown-up marriageable girls, and yet illegitimate 

 children are rare, if not altogether absent — a somewhat 

 mysterious state of things, which has been found by Prof. 

 Seligman to exist among the Southern Massim^^'^) With the 

 assistance of a white resident in the district of over twenty 

 years' standing, who is himself married to a native woman of 

 Mailu village, I inquired into the matter as carefully as I 

 •could. My friend informed me that, in spite of his strenuous 

 attempts to discover a native preventative of conception, he 

 failed to find any, and that the natives always told him that 

 they knew of none. Abortion is undoubtedly practised by 

 both married and unmarried women ; but, as among the 

 Massim, it is not frequent, especially in the case of the un- 

 married. It would seem, therefore, that the women have 

 some means of guarding against an undesired conception. 

 Thus the matter is obscure, and needs explanation. 



(37) ''Another puzzling feature of the licence undoubtedly per- 

 mitted througliout the Massim area is the very small number of 

 illegitimate births which take place. Wherever the confidence of 

 the natives was gained it Avas admitted that abortion was 

 induced, but the most careful inquiries failed to produce evidence 

 that the practice was as frequent as might be expected consider- 

 ing the prevailing liberty." — Seligman, ''Melanesians," p. 500. 



