688 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



having figures worked upon them with differently colored bark 

 and beads of small shells. Placed one upon another, these boxes 

 are good substitutes for cupboards and chests of drawers, while 

 a strong, roughly made timber chest, provided with a clumsy 

 lock of iron or brass, contains the family treasures, jewels, heir- 

 looms, weapons, and emblems. An assemblage of huts or houses 

 forms a village. The villages are surrounded by walls of coral, 

 and are for the most part situated on the sea-shore. 



Each village has an allotment of land, the boundaries of which 

 are established by the chiefs. Here the native may fell his tim- 

 ber, cultivate a garden, or cut down the sago-palm, which fur- 

 nishes his principal food. The cocoanut-trees, however, are re- 

 garded as general property, and are under the guardianship of 

 chiefs, without whose orders not a nut may be plucked till har- 

 vest-time. Then, on a day appointed for this purpose, the whole 

 village will set out to gather them, when each one will receive a 

 number proportioned to his rank and station. 



When a native child is strong enough to assist his parents in 

 their daily occupation, he has to accompany them to the garden, 

 the boat-building yard, or some other place of general work. 

 Children of from three to five years of age may be seen occupied 

 in trying their skill in carving ornamental figures such as are 

 used for the figure-heads of boats, or in cutting out vessels and 

 rigging them, or the boys will assist their fathers at the building 

 of a boat or a house. Although they are without all proper 

 drawing materials, the artistic and constructive talent is almost 

 universally manifested among them. The children are seen try- 

 ing their skill by drawing, on a smooth, flat surface of fine sand, 

 houses, animals, steam and sailing boats, and I have been always 

 struck by the symmetry of their work. The children are deemed 

 marriageable at fifteen years of age, but arrangements for mating 

 the female children are made as soon as may be after their birth. 



When disputes relating to boundaries arise between different 

 villages, each of the quarreling districts elects a person and com- 

 mits him to the judgment of the god, who, it is believed, will let 

 the party in the wrong die within three months. If no harm be- 

 falls either party after the lapse of that time, the land in dispute 

 is divided equally. 



The chief talent of the natives is for boat-building. The sym- 

 metrical construction of their vessels, large and small, would as- 

 tonish a European ship-builder, and is the more remarkable as 

 they have nothing but the most roughly shaped tools. All the 

 tools are made by natives of Teor. In nearly every village we 

 find a smith established, who is employed from morning till night 

 melting rusty nails in a charcoal-fire, which is kept burning by 

 means of a primitive pair of bellows moved by the operator's 



