601 



in which dancing feathers are kept, and it also has its^. 

 use in making the sails of toy canoes. 



The coconut, in its green, unripe condition, affords an 

 ■extremely pleasant drink. In its ripe state it is used in the 

 form of a coconut cream (see chap, iii., sec. 1), and it is eaten 

 raw. The hard shell of the ripe nut is used for waterbottles 

 and spoons (chap, iii., sec. 1). 



The operation of removing the thick outer husk prepara- 

 tory to piercing the shell in order to obtain the kernel is by 

 no means easy. To do this the native holds the nut between 

 his feet and uses the long, heavy stick, sharpened at the end, 

 called Gehdtsa (see above), with which the husk is chopped 

 off. The husk, which is used as fuel, consists of a thick layer 

 of fibre, covered with a polished skin. When burnt it yields 

 an acrid smoke, which is used at the wet season for keeping 

 off mosquitoes. It is used also for such cleaning and scrubbing 

 as the natives require, and it affords the best painting charcoal. 

 Mixed with salt or fresh water it contributes the black paint 

 of mourning. 



Use made of some Jungle Plants. — Besides the cultivated 

 plants, the natives utilise the wild jungle plants for many 

 purposes. 1 am not able to give anything like a complete list 

 of the forest plants which are used as food or for technical 

 purposes, but a few examples may, however, be given by way 

 of illustration. 



The high timber was used for dug-outs, which were the 

 most important structures in the construction of the large and 

 small canoes. Formerly a much softer timber (Mailu name, 

 Moda) was used for this purpose, as only stone tools were 

 then available, but since they have possessed iron axes they 

 make use of different kinds of harder timber. The same holds 

 good with reference to the house-bnilding material. The bush 

 furnishes the native with an extremely strong and flexible 

 lashing in the form of lawyer cane (Oro), which is used either 

 simply stripped of its thorns or, when finer lashings are- 

 required, it is split. 



Material for ropes (Y dm) and string (Tdkoi) is furnished 

 by bush plants, and it is to be noted that the native always 

 uses the name of the original plant to denote the finished 

 article. Thus Vdru and Tdkoi are names of plants, which are, 

 as stated, used also to denote the rope and string made from 

 them respectively. 



2. Hunting. 



As mentioned above, hunting was carried on both by the- 

 mainland Mdgi and by the Mailu islanders, but there was not 

 much done on the island itself. A few wallabies, which lived 

 on the grassy slopes of the hills, were hunted from time to 



