Perth Amboy evening news., 1921-12-23
Learn One New Thing Every Day

BULLETINS By THE
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY

"A proposal of the French So
ciety of the New Hebrides to sell to
Australia their concessions in the
islands which form a large Y in the
South Pacific, north of New Zeal
and and west of Fiji, recalls the
strange rites over the shark, which
the native men of Ranno Island bury
annually in their 'Sing-Sing' or cere-
mony grounds" says a bulletin of
tho National Geographic Society
from its Washington, d. c. beadquar-
tiers.
1.-THE Inhabitants of this interest
ing archipelago, composed of IL
large and 100 smaller islands, be-
lieve in witchcraft and all sorts of
signs and omens, particularly in the
spirits of their departed ancestors
and in gods which are thought to be
incorporated in certain stones or
animals. Every village has it's danc-
inG-ground. Here the natives meet
in moonlight nights and perform
wild and fantastic antics to the
booming of their deep drums, some
OF which six feet or more in height
and carved from the trunks of
trees, are capable of making terrible
noises.
Honor Chiefs i'm Efigy
One fantastic rite among them
IS the memorializing of their chiefs
in efigy. A crude statue of clay
and fibre representing the flesh and
lair of the chief as he looked in
real life, is made, his actual skull
being used for the framework of
the head, and around this the fes-
tivitieS take place.
For. years the natives of the is-
lands were the prey of the Black
birders,' or labor pirates, because
they are generally considered more
industrious and sturdier of build
than the average kanaka. They are
reputed to rave cannibalistic ten
denotes, to be tr~eacherous and of
uncertain temper, facts probably
cue in some to the treat
r1ent to which they were subjected
by these traders. They are of Me-
lanesian stock, below the medium in
stature, and ~accentuate the ugliness
in their broad, black faces and re-
ceding foreheads by sticking CO.
conut fiber in their hair and adorn-
ing their ears and fiat noses with
rings. They pride themselves upon
their weapons-spears, clubs. bows
and poisoned arrows-some of
which are beautiful in design and
elaborate in pattern.
Forty Skirts Denote Patricians
"The women hold a degraded po-
sition among them, the wives of the
more important. members of the
r'.ce increasing the number of the
skirts which they wear at one time
as an indication of their rank, the
'pooh-bah's' wife wearing as many
Of 40 of them. The better halt
OF a man is sometimes buried alive
with her husband upon his death.
"Quiros, the Portuguese navigator
in 1906, was the first white man 70
see the rugged outline of the coast
of the islands, which rise abruptly
out of the deep sea in the hurricane
zCne of the tropics. Believing he
Continent which was at that time
the dream of navigators, Quiros may
be compared to Columbus who
thought he had found a route to
India when he sighted the palm
fringed shores of the West Indies.
HE called his discovery Aus
tcalia del Espiritu Santo. which has
been shortened by traders to Santo
ara is applied to the largest island
of the group. Some of the other
large mountainous and partly vol
canic islands are Ambrym. Annatam,
Aurora, Api, Pentecost. Eron1anga.
Mallicollo and Tanna, the home of
the great lighthouse of the South
ern Isles Hanna volcano, which
bursts forth brilliantly every three
or four minutes.
Isle of Monstre Fruits
Countless streams cut Santo,
which is "a miles long and 80 miles
wide. into broad, fertile valleys.
From its shores and those of the
neighboring islands tons of copra
are sent to Sydney, Australia and
shipped from there to soap-makers
the world over: Coffee, cocoa and