MELANESIA AND ITS PEOPLE. 183 
taro in the districts on the hills, and this food carries the people over 
the hunger times of the summer months. A yam garden is a sight 
worth seeing; the ground is kept perfectly clear of weeds (this is the 
women’s share of the work), the yam vines are trained up long poles 
and then run along strings which are tied from pole to pole. ‘The vines 
are of various shades of green, and when the leaves are dying they turn 
red in color and are very beautiful to look on. 
Breadfruit grows readily, and the trees have two crops a year, one 
coming opportunely during the summer. The canarium (almond) 
bears rine the winter months, July and August. ‘The nuts are put 
into cane baskets and are smoked ready for storing. The coconut 
is in bearing all the year through. The tree is at its best at the 
coast and just above high-water mark. The large islands of the 
eastern Solomons—Malaita, Guadalcanar, San Cristoval, and Ysabel— 
have comparatively few coconuts, and the only extensive coconut 
plantation on Malaita is along the coast at Sa‘a, at the southeast end 
of the island. The scarcity of coconuts is largely owing to the fact 
that the trees thrive best near the sea, but owing to fear of raids the 
majority of the people on these large islands live away from the coast 
and so can not grow the trees in any quantity. - 
Of so-called tropical fruits Melanesia has but few indigenous vari- 
eties. Of the common native fruits by far the most important is the 
coconut, and one is inclined to question whether any more wonderful 
fruit than the coconut grows on this earth! ‘The fruit is obtainable 
all the year round; it is nutritious whether eaten in the green stage 
or when it has begun to sprout and is ready for planting. ‘The ripe 
nut is generally scraped and strained, and the resultant white juice, 
the only real coconut milk, is boiled in the half shell and mixed as a 
paste with grated yams or taro. What is commonly known as coconut 
milk, the fluid in the dry nut so dear to the hearts of children in Euro- 
pean countries, is never drunk by Melanesians, but if opportunity 
offers is poured into a basin and put by for the animals to drink. 
The oil of the coconut is extracted by the old-time process of stone 
boiling. Needless to say, dried or smoked coconut (copra) is by far 
the greatest article of export from Melanesia to-day. Ceylon used to 
be reckoned the planters’ paradise so far as growing coconuts was 
concerned, but coconut plantations in the islaiids of the Solomons 
come into bearing quicker than in any other part of the world; the 
nuts are as good as the big Samoan nuts (indeed seed nuts have been 
imported from Samoa), the rainfall is abundant, and hurricanes are 
almost unknown. The oil is extracted from the copra and goes to make 
some of our best soaps. ‘The shell of the nut is used by the natives 
to make cups and bottles, and since it contains oil it burns fiercely in 
the fire. From the outer covering of the nut both ropes and mats are 
made—the coir of commerce (coir, like copra, is a Singhalese word); 
