164 Letter XT. 
Let us turn now and look at the Tanaman as a man of 
peace—let us see how he spends those months of the year 
when, quitting the field of battle, he becomes an agricul- 
turalist. 
“ The gentle island and the genial soil, 
The friendly hearts, the feasts without a toil; 
The courteous manners but from nature caught, 
The wealth unhoarded and the love unbought.” 
So sings Byron, and so many speak of these fair islands and 
their people ; but it is only to a limited extent true of the New 
Hebrides ; and so far as feasts without toil are concerned, 1 in Tana 
at least, it is quite incorrect. There the natives do work, and, 
during the season for raising yams, work tolerably hard too. 
The yam is their principal article of food, and requires care- 
ful cultivation. In the first place, the natives clear the ground 
with axe and fire; then fence it in, dig the soil and raise it 
in mounds four or five feet high ; then the yams are planted— 
a large one generally on the top, and a circle of smaller ones 
round the sides of the mound. Having raised and planted a 
number of these mounds, they build a very small edifice in the 
centre of the plantation, in which they place some food. This 
is for the special benefit of Teapolo, the great evil spirit. The 
intention is, that he should go quietly into his little house, eat 
his dinner, and go off appeased. and satisfied ; instead of ramp- 
ing about at large—spoiling the yams for other and better 
people, which they fancy he might do, were no special pro- 
vision made for him. And this expedient, I am assured, is 
eminently successful. 
Not long after the yams are planted, the green tender shoots 
appear, and then the natives set busily to work making trellis 
supports for the yam vine. Sometimes these supports run out 
from the mound for twenty yards or so; and along these the 
plant pushes its branches with great rapidity, and twines its 
