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their garden, flowers stuck in their hair, father with a 
palm-leaf basket of yams and a bunch of bananas slung 
from a bamboo pole across his shoulder, mother with a 
basket of pawpaws and children with sticks of sugar cane. 
Some people keep pigs, which are housed in bamboo sties 
and fed on young coconuts, and some have game fowls. 
Both are probably only eaten on festive occasions. W* 
saw one goat tethered and there were numerous dogs 
which seemed to live mainly on sardines washed, up on 
the beach. 
Along the shore in front of the villages is a fring- 
ing reef about 100 yards wide. When the tide is low the 
water is often black with small fish about six inches long 
— so-called sardines. The younger members of the family 
take bamboo spears with about a dozen prongs the size 
of large nails bound to one end, plus an enamel wash 
basin, and wade out amongst the fish. Almost every cast 
of the spear yeilds several fish, which are transferred to 
the basin floating on the water beside the fisher. Fresh 
fried sardines make a delicious dish. Sometimes sharks 
come swimming in over the reef after the sardines, but 
they and the natives do not molest each other and there 
are enough sardines for all. The reef on the east shore 
of Mer is famous for its corals, but we did not have an 
opportunity to visit it at a suitable tide. Running out 
from the north and east shores of Mer in a series of huge 
► loops arc banks, about three feet high, of loosely piled 
basalt boulders. These are ancient fish traps, built in 
some past era and still used during the monsoon season. 
There are similar traps at Darnley. 
The only other relic of ancient times that we saw 
was on Dauar. The natives had recently found, buried 
in the sand, a huge white bird skilfully carved from a 
niggerhead of Porites coral, and had placed it near one 
of their wells.. The head was missing but the well-shaped 
body (about 2ft. bin. high), in spite of some weather- 
ing, showed firm carving of wings and tail feathers, a 
crescentic necklet baud and a broad line down its 
back. They did not know its history — ‘‘God belong olden 
time, not of our people”. Jt may represent the Torres 
Straits pigeon of which smaller carved figures have been 
described from other islands. There is nothing in 
accounts of their folk-lore and former customs that seems 
referable to this figure. 
The houses of Mer are set on stumps three or four 
feet high. The framework is of bamboo, the floor of 
split bamboo, the walls of plaited coconut palm-leaf and 
