MELANESIA AND ITS PEOPLE. 187 
Another point as to which incorrect ideas exist is the question of 
cannibalism. Doubtless cases of anthropophagy occurred in many 
of the Melanesian islands, but it was never characteristic of the people 
as a whole, and the man-eating propensities of the Fijian people could 
never be predicated of the whole people of any single group in the 
sphere of the Mission. So local and confined is the practice that, 
while portions of one island regularly follow it, other portions of the 
same island hold it in abhorrence, as is the case on Malaita. Joseph 
Wate, of Sa‘a, a reliable witness, assured me that the Tolo peoples of 
Malaita were cannibals, but his own peoples were not, nor were the 
shore peoples of Big Malaita. The latter were fish-eaters, and those 
who lived on a fish diet did not practice as a regular thing the eating 
of human flesh. Cannibalism is the regular practice on San Cristoval, 
but is held in abhorrence on Ulawa. Yet the belief in cannibalism is 
so firmly fixed that one reads in the reports and books of the Mission 
that the two Reef Islanders who were held captive at Port Adam in 
Bishop John Selwyn’s time were being fattened up and kept for eating, 
whereas in all probability they were regarded as “‘live heads” (lalamoa 
mort) and kept for killing, should any necessity arise when a victim 
would be demanded, as, ¢. g., at the death of any important person 
in the place, or they might be sold to anyone looking for a person to 
kill. The bodies after death would be buried. 
THE CLEANLINESS OF NATIVES. 
To bathe daily is the common practice of most Melanesians, but the 
bath is taken in the afternoon and usually after the day’s work in the 
garden is over. [he Melanesian never dreams of having a dip in the 
morning, as we whites do, and to the unthinking his failure to do so 
might seem to argue want of proper cleanliness. But, as Dr. Guppy 
says, these people are far more susceptible to a rise or fall in the tem- 
perature than we are, and he quotes Darwin as noticing that the 
Patagonians when over a fire were streaming with perspiration, whereas 
the white men with thick clothes on were enjoying the pleasant 
warmth. Soa Melanesian likes to bathe when the day is warm; on 
days when the south wind is blowing—a strong wind with cloudy 
days—bathing is not much indulged in. 
Since these people wear no clothes and have no seat but the ground 
and take their rest on mats laid either on or just above the floor, and 
always with a fire going beside them, their bodies soon show the dirt, but 
it is a great mistake to imagine that they allow their bodies to go dirty 
or are slack about bathing. | A man or woman with fever will abstain 
from washing (even in cases of strong fever it never occurs to anyone. 
to sponge the patient) and to bathe is a sign of convalescence. Ifa 
person stays about a house and is evidently unwashed, one may take: 
it for granted that he or she is indisposed. 
