14 



The National Geographic Magazine 



'«** ..Jf*l8|fc»"* 



SHOOTING FISH, NEW HEBRIDES 



formed; I did not count them, since that 

 would have involved going up the tree 

 with a paint-pot and a brush to mark 

 them off), and I heard of one or two that 

 had four and even five hundred. 



This is a more important matter than 

 might appear at first, for the copra 

 trade is the true gold-mine of the Pacific. 

 The oil that is expressed from the dried 

 nut kernels is used in many different de- 

 partments of commerce, especiallv in 

 soap-making, and the demand constantly 

 exceeds the available supply — so much so 

 that the well-known firm of Lever 

 Brothers have been buying up large 

 tracts of land in the British Solomons to 

 keep their factories supplied. 



The popular idea of the New Hebri- 

 dean, for a wonder, comes very near the 

 truth. He is supposed to be, and is, 

 treacherous, murderous, and vindictive. 

 He is to the full as sensual and indolent 

 as the Eastern Islander and lacks almost 

 every virtue possessed by the latter. He 

 is almost inconceivably clumsy and stupid 

 in a house or on a plantation ; almost de- 

 void of gratitude, almost bare of natural 

 affection ; ready to avenge the smallest 



slight by a bloody murder, but too 

 cowardly to meet an enemy face to face. 

 Yet there are a few things to say in his 

 favor. He is wonderfully honest- — so 

 much so that in the bush districts a coin 

 or a lump of tobacco found by the way- 

 side will never be appropriated by the 

 finder, but will be placed in a cleft stick 

 at the edge of the track, for the real 

 owner to take the next time he may 

 chance to pass that way; and if the pos- 

 sessor never returns, the "find" will re- 

 main where it has been placed until some 

 white man or some "civilized" native 

 from a plantation passes by and appro- 

 priates it. 



One of the strange things seen in one 

 village was the collections of boars' tusks 

 belonging to the chiefs. These were dis- 

 played on a long stand that exactly re- 

 sembled eight or ten bazaar stalls joined 

 together. There were some hundreds of 

 them placed in long rows — how many 

 exactly I had not time to count, as I 

 heard that the canoes were just coming 

 home from the mainland and I wanted to 

 be on the shore to meet them. Many of 

 the tusks were curved into a complete 



