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a long wooden spear and a club, and the addition of a little red paint to his cheeks and forehead, you have a good idea of some of the Tana chiefs at the present day. This singular custom is worthy of being specially noticed and noted. Dr. Livingstone found something like it in the interior of Africa. Speaking of the Banyai, he says: "As they draw out their hair into small cords, a foot in length, and entwine the inner bark of a certain tree round each separate cord, and dye the substance of a reddish colour, many of them put me in mind of the ancient Egyptians."—(Travels in South Africa, p. 624.)

The Tanese pierce the septum of the nose, and insert a small piece of wood or reed horizontally, but not so as to project beyond either nostril.

They are fond of ear-rings also, but not of the usual tiny trinket description. They must have a great tortoise-shell article, half an inch wide, and two, three, or four inches in diameter. Nor are they content with one of these dangling on each side; they have half a dozen of them sometimes, of various sizes, in one ear. The weight of such things enlarges the apertures fearfully: a child's hand might pass through some of them.

They do not tattoo; cutting or burning some rude device of a leaf or a fish on the breast, or upper part of the arm, are other modes of ornament.

The women are pretty well covered with their long girdles, hanging down below the knee. They

wear them occasionally also over the shoulders. They are made from the rolled and dried fibre of the banana stalk, are very soft, and at first sight look like hemp.

But, alas for the men. They make a little bit of matting or rag of any kind suffice. With this they form an ugly-looking oblong bundle, the receptacle as well of anything small which happens to come in the way-such as beads, fish-hooks, or tobacco. The whole is tied tightly together, by several turns of hair-cord, and one end pulled up through the belt in front. They strut about in this disgusting costume, and criticise the Eromangans and others as if they thought their own æsthetics of dress were of the highest order.

They wear some ornament round the neck. Beads are in repute, and the larger the better. But there is nothing of which a chief is fonder for a necklace than three large whale's teeth, on three separate strings, and dangling horizontally on his breast. They often tack on to the necklace a few locks of the hair of a deceased relative.

Armlets are also common. They are made of the cocoa-nut shell, in sections of half an inch wide, and rudely carved. They wear one, two, three, and sometimes half a dozen of these on either arm, close above the elbow, and from them they suspend their spear-thrower and sling.

Their weapons are clubs, bows and arrows, and

spears. They sling a stone, throw a spear, and shoot an arrow, with great precision. They are also expert at throwing a stone called a kawas, which you often see in their hands. It is about the length of an ordinary counting-house ruler, only twice as thick, and that they throw with deadly precision when their victim is within twenty yards of them. The men go about armed. When at work in their plantations their arms are never out of sight, and at night they sleep within reach of their club. Even the little boys must have their tiny clubs, and spears, and bows and arrows, and always go about ready for a quarrel.

The Pandean pipe, with seven or eight reed pipes, varying in length, is used at Tana and other parts of the New Hebrides.

At the first glance one concludes that the Tanese must live in a state of perpetual war. This is actually the case. Among the heathen tribes war is the rule, peace the exception. They were fighting during five out of the seven months I lived among them in 1841, and I should think that is a fair average of the way in which they have lived from time immemorial. There is ample proof there that war is the enemy of civilisation and the element of savage life. We were never able to extend our journeys above four miles from our dwelling at Port Resolution. At such distances we came to boundaries which were never passed, and beyond which the people spoke a different dialect. At one of these boundaries actual war would be going on ;

at another, kidnapping and cooking each other; and at another, all might be peace; but, by mutual consent, they had no dealings with each other. Their fighting

is principally bush skirmishing; they rarely come to close hand-to-hand club fighting. When visiting the volcano one day the natives told us about a battle in which one party which was pursued ran right into the crater, and there fought for a while on the downward slope inside the cup! But few fall in their daily skirmishes. Many, however, are cut off after lingering for weeks under fatal wounds.

When the body of an enemy is taken, it is dressed for the oven, and served up with yams at the next meal. Captain Cook only suspected they were cannibals; there is no doubt about the thing now. They delight in human flesh, and distribute it in little. bits far and near among their friends, as a delicious morsel. I recollect talking to a native one day about it, and trying to fill him with disgust at the custom, but the attempt was vain. hearty laugh at what he no weakness, and added: "Pig's you, but this is the thing for us ;" and, suiting the action to the word, he seized his arm with his teeth, and shook it as if he were going to take the bit out! It is different on some other islands, but at Tana cannibal connoisseurs prefer a black man to a white one. The latter, they say, tastes salt! They regard, however, as "fish" all who come in their way, as the

He wound up all with a doubt considered my flesh is very good for

sequel to massacres of white men there has amply proved.

In Eastern Polynesia the rule has been that in a group of four, seven, or ten islands within sight of each other we have found but one dialect, and the people having a good deal of intercourse, not only with each other on the same island, but also with the various islands of the group. They had their quarrels and their wars, at times, but they made up matters after a while, and went on again in harmony. In going westward, however, among the Papuan tribes of the New Hebrides, we find ourselves in a totally different region, all split up into the most hostile isolation. Take, for example, four of the southerly islands of the group, viz., Tana, Eromanga, Futuna, and Aneiteum, all within sight of each other; we find a totally different dialect on each, and books which may be printed for the one will be quite useless to the other. Even on the same island we find two and three different dialects. Take, for example, the numerals of the three dialects which we found on Tana alone, as specimen of the isolation and differences which prevail :

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