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In walking hand in hand with us, in cuddling closely to us on the 
trails, there is always a self-consciousness in the kids, sometimes even a 
mockery, and if they do not mock us, they mock each other. 
The villages are totally traditional in construction and the houses 
are marvelous. With low walls, roofs to within 3 feet of the ground, and 
crawl-in entrances and fully coconut frond matted floors, they are beautiful 
within and without. The massive hand-hewn frames on which they are con- 
structed are excellently wrought, the workmanship is neat and expert, and 
the houses have all withstood the hurricanes, unlike the houses of the Banks 
and Torres. We soon decided to go to the far side of the island, near to 
the lagoon, where the first hief of the island, Te Ariki Kofika, lives , 
to start work there. Near the dispensary, at Matautu village, we met the 
second chief, Te Ariki Tafoa. A group of a dozen boys from this anchorage 
side of the island came with us but no one spontaneously carried our gear, 
and Judy and Frangoise were even carrying large boxes before I returned 
to the dispensary and specifically requested aid in carrying the supplies. 
Then few of those I admonished joined us and carried well. 
Two teen agers have latched on to me and have been my closest associates 
on Tikopia thus far: Ralph Wycliffe Ritia (Ridia) of Botikorokoro village, 
who is 16 years old and has done standard 4 in school on Tikopia and not 
been off the island but speaks good English and Mathew Taro of Botifareata 
village who has lived for over seven years with his family on Rossell Island 
but has had only two years of schooling, "because no one could pay the 
school fees", he claims. It is quite obvious that school here on Tikopia 
is not taken very seriously and the great majority of children do not go 
at all. Those who do go are far behind children in many Melanesian islands 
and few speak good Pidgin or English. In addition to Mathew and Ralph, 
other boys from our anchorage side of the island who have clung to me all 
day are Walter Furitofi (of 12 to 14 years of age) from Rafae’a village, 
Solomon Atu, 11 years, from Botikorokoro and Steven Linden Fria, 13, also 
from Botikorokoro. 
At Botisafarea we went quickly to the first Chief's house and the child- 
ren staying discretely behind, we were motioned to enter. We entered to 
find a very formal reception, the chief squatting with great dignity 
on the matted floor with his translator before him, and adorned with beau- 
tiful white floral lae around his neck and white flowers behind each ear, 
to set off his straight, stif:^ long grey-white hair. His immense house 
was a regal reception hall and we all bowed and shook hands from our squat- 
ting positions and squatted before him. I explained to him our mission and 
he approved and offered us help and hospitality and invited us to start 
working. We spent about an hour in his presence, and then retired to set 
up our blood collection at the church at Botisafarea beside which a large 
tree gives fine shade. Here the situation of assembling the children and 
community was far harder than in Melanesian villages. Children ran off, 
others refused to come, and when only some fifty were at hand I distributed 
venules and we started collecting blood specimens. It went smoothly enough, 
but those not assembled tended to withdraw further rather than arrive to 
participate, and in assembling them more fled than came voluntarily. In 
