621 



The Mailu, in olden days, seem to have been self-support- 

 ing, as far as food is concerned (see sec. 1 of this chapter) ; 

 but they had to procure the sago on the mainland, without 

 which there could be no feast and no certainty of a sufficiency 

 of vegetable food. They had also to fetch the timber for 

 building canoes and houses, and the sago palm, leaves for 

 thatching their roofs. They had to go to the tropical jungle 

 on the mainland for the different fibres for their string and 

 ropes, and for the reeds for their matting and basketry. They 

 had on their island no suitable wood for making spears and 

 shields, nor the proper stone for clubs and stone axes. 

 Further, they had neither wild boars on the island, nor could 

 they rear village pigs, and a Papuan without a pig is a very 

 incomplete human being. Thus they were, in their require- 

 ments, a community entirely dependent upon resources from 

 outside, and they had to get the required commodities either 

 by robbery, piracy, or trade. As a matter of fact, in olden 

 days they used to do all these. But I do not think that piracy 

 and robbery were ever important factors in the economic life 

 of the Mailu community, and at present they have become 

 absolutely harmless Philistines under the pressure of law and 

 the influence of religion. 



Their own economic activities on the mainland (sago- 

 making and hunting) have been previously mentioned. There 

 remains to be said a few words about their trading. By their 

 excellent craft, good training in seamanship, and by their 

 eminently favourable position, the Mailu islanders were 

 exceptionally well adapted to become a great trading factor 

 on the southern coast. They could leave their village without 

 approaching any hostile settlement, and they had no rivals 

 equalling them in seamanship anywhere within their sailing 

 area. In this they seem to have been better off than the trading 

 communities of the eastern end and the Archipelago (Milne 

 Bay, Engineer Group, and Louisiades), which must often have 

 met with disaster from hostile tribes on their trading expedi- 

 tions. (54) 



The Mailu had a clear coast from Siio'k Island on the east,, 

 where their crab-claw boats met the oval-shaped Vdgas (or 

 Amiiiuiuas, as they are called in that district) of the Massim, 

 to Aroma in the west, where the native traders from the Hood 

 Bay villages, and even the Motuans, met and carried westward 

 their trading business. 



The Mailu were traders in the true sense of the word r 

 they not only exchanged their own products for the things tEey 

 wanted, but they played the part of middlemen, obtaining 



(54)Oomp. C G. Seligman, op. cit., chaps, xli. and xlii. 



