486 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the women. Having few wants, blest with a climate in which the 

 rudest methods of cultivation produce abundance of food for their 

 use, they ought to be a happy and contented race, and no doubt, 

 were security to life more assured, they would be. But a man 

 would as soon think of going to his garden of a morning without 

 his spear and tomahawk as an Englishman would of wearing his 

 hat in church. The greatest distinction a native can earn is to 

 have taken a life, and it matters not whether it is an old woman 

 surprised working in her yam-patch, or a man surprised and killed 

 in the bush, the glory is just as great. Such a thing as a square, 

 stand-up fight between equal numbers I never heard of. This 

 renders them suspicious in the presence of strangers ; always 

 ready for treachery themselves, they are constantly suspecting it 

 in others. Having given them a bad character in their dealings 

 with one another, I must in justice say that my own relations with 

 them were throughout of the most friendly character. 



The shark is held in high veneration among certain of these 

 natives, and notably upon the island of Savo. The Savo natives 

 say that their island was made by the shark, who carried the stones 

 there and planted yams and cocoanuts, and put upon it men and 

 women, and the bird known as the megapode. The megapodes 

 increased so rapidly that they began to make havoc by digging in 

 the yam-patches. The men went to the shark and asked him to 

 take the megapodes away. This was done, but now the men 

 missed the megapode's eggs, which are a favorite article of food 

 with them. They accordingly went again to the shark and asked 

 him to bring the birds back, but to confine them to one place. 

 This request was also complied with. The result may be now 

 seen : the megapodes lay their eggs on two large open patches of 

 sandy ground, which are several acres in extent, and nowhere else 

 on the island. These laying-grounds are fenced off into small 

 divisions for different owners, and I am told that several thousands 

 a day are taken out of them. I myself bought eighteen eggs for 

 the value of three-halfpence when calling there. 



The sharks at Savo grow to a great size and are extremely 

 bold. At the time of a child's birth the mother decides whether 

 it belongs to the land or the water. If to the latter, it is thrown 

 into the sea at death, with all the property it may have accumu- 

 lated during life. If the mother declares it belongs to the land, 

 it is buried ashore, the property also being buried with it, which, 

 strange to say, is always found to have been stolen a few days 

 afterward by the devil. 



These natives believe in the power of some of their number to 

 produce rain, while I met with a belief in the existence of a man 

 in the moon, which was related to me by a native of Aola, named 

 Muri Lau. 



