The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1881-04-02
0hin9s AbrOad.
NEW CALEDONIA.

A rev acts a00Lt the feople o. UaS CoaHuJ'
The New Caledouiaus believe that GER
tain magical or fetish stones increase
the fertility of the soil. Mos, magic, me
dieval or savage, is based on the doctrine
that ike affects ike. The Kanekas there.
fore SOW, with yams or taros, stones in the
shape of vans or taros. In the same way,
When they 60 hunting or fishing, they rub
their spears aud hooks with stones which
resemble the creatures they wish to cap
ture. The fetish s,eues arc discovered by
their happy owners in the following way.
A native walks alone, stunning the paths
of meu. till be hears a low cooing or twiI-
teridg, for ghosts twitter in New Caledonia
as they do 10 the Hades Of Homer. He
hunts on the spot where the sound IS heard,
and in due time discovers the stone.
Sorcerers are called in jpst as in other and
more civilized lands; the priest blesses the
fields. The black fellows, however, do not
trust entirely to magic. They collect sell
with great industry to form their plania-
tions, aud so acquire q recognizable right
IN the land. Not weed is to be seen on
their plots. Il is pretty to watch the men
delying on the hillside, and loosening the
proper sort Of earth, while the women be-
low collect the humps Of soil, crumble them,
aud spread them on the garden, and the
little naked children play or sleep under
the shade Of large tree That the plan
tatious may not be riaed BY iudoleut tribes
men, a strict taboo is placed upon them.
In the cultivation of taro irrigation is ne
eessary, aud streams Of water are directed
along the various terraces on the sides Of
the hills. These terraces sometimes ex-
/ tend for miles, and thousands Of tons Of
earth must have been moved in making
them. The aqueducts are carried over i'm
mense distances; the water is led across
ravines in followed logs and over the large
valleys in raised earthen aqueducts. New
/ Caledonia is covered with traces Of ancient
aqueducts, and i: may be inferred either
that the land was more Populous and pros
porous than it is today Or that plantations
were allowed to lie fallow when the soil
was in danger Of exhaustion.
Ii must not be supposed that the New
I Caledoniaus are entirely given up to til
lage. They are fond Of dress, which, in
the case of the men, is purely decorative.
A dandy wears bright red flower stuck
behind his ear, as did the daBdies Of Queen
Elizabeth's time, but then he wears scarce
/ " anything else. The skirts Of the women
are scanty, but the western are shocked by
the niggardly costume ofthe eastern ladies.
A good deal of time is occupied in the
process of tauooiDg. The women are the
artists. Armed with the branch Of a
thorn tree and small mallet, they tap the
priekles on the part Of the skin where the
pattern is TO appear. When this process
is ended they rub in pangent decociiOn,
the effect Of which is to make the warrior
scream and dance with pain. When there
is no tattooing to be deue, and when no
village gives one of the dances or pellew
/ pelews, the tribes pass their hours in bath
ing or in smoking over the FIRE If the
ira seller traces stream up its course into
the bush he may come upon a pleasant
sight enough.
Forty or fifty natives may be dabbling
about in the clear shallow water, frighten-
ing the "silver eyes Ga fish not unlike the
trout or grayling,) while other men on the
bank pelt their friends with golden-skinned
oranges These fruits are pretty to look
at, but TOO bitter to be pleasant to the taste.
a little lower down the rivulet the women
and children make a separate group, The
water breaks 10 jets ofsiIver on their limbs
Of bronze The old men are squattiug in
the soft grass in the shade of the palm
trees. At other times you find men patch
ing canoes, sewing up the hole as shoe
maker cobbles boot. The rest carve or
naments out of shells or make fishing nets;
and occasionally you come on tribe burn
ishing its weapons of war. Each warrior
has a piece of slate-hke stone, and by a
most laborious process of rubbing itagainst
another stone, he forms it into the egg-like
pellets, reminding one of similar Greek
missiles, which the Kauekas throw from
their slings.
When the spears are sharpened, the bull
lets DO lished and war declared, the New
Caledonians are not very keen fighters.
They like the chance of fighting another
day, and they are more accomplished as
freebooters than as soldiers Just as the
men are not brave, so the women are not
chaste. There seems, however, to be moth
ing like polyandry, though the ideas Of
martial revenge are such as might have
been learned from the novels Of NJ. Charles