THE NEW HEBRIDES 
453 
drawback to their settlement, as from November to 
April the weather is often unsettled, and hurricanes not 
uncommon. The fauna is little known, but there appear 
to be no indigenous terrestrial mammals except rats, and 
the variety of the birds is far less than in the Solomon 
Islands and New Caledonia. The exploitation of minerals 
has not been taken in hand, but copper, iron, and nickel 
have been found. 
The inhabitants of the New Hebrides vary very 
considerably from island to island, and show distinctly the 
hybridism of the race. In some places—as, for example, 
Pele and Yele, two small islets close to Sandwich Island, 
and in Aoba or Lepers' Island—there are true Polynesians, 
tall, light-coloured, and with almost straight hair; but the 
rest of the natives are dark-skinned and woolly-haired 
people, who, although without the pronounced Papuan 
features, are undoubtedly of that stock. Many of the 
customs are purely Papuan. They use bows and arrows, 
pierce the nostrils, enlarge the ear lobes, paint their faces 
in stripes, use the moxa, and have “ gods ” with the 
features identical with similar carvings in New Guinea. 
In character they are excitable and treacherous, and 
cannibalism, though now less frequent, was at one time 
a universal practice. The houses vary much in con¬ 
struction, some being round like those in New Caledonia, 
others consisting of a roof only, coming down nearly to 
the ground. The villages are often fortified with stone 
walls, and in some places each house also, thus forming 
a network of palisades. A curious series of gigantic 
drums are used in some islands, these instruments being 
formed from hollowed tree-trunks of various heights and 
sizes, with a narrow longitudinal slit down the front. 
They are carved in the shape of human beings, and 
implanted in the ground, and are used on the occasion of 
