11.

introducing by this means a substance made of charcoal and some other materials.

The tattoo looks deep blue on the brown skin. The tattoo marks are done in a fixed order like in the Motu tribe, ¹) though apparently the order is not the same in the two tribes. The first tattoo, at an age of 4 - 5 is done in the lower abdominal region and round the valva both on the front and back of the body. Then the left hand and forearm are worked over; after that the right hand. Then the arms are covered with designs. Then, just before the swelling of the breasts this part of the body is tattooed. Then come the legs. The ornamenting of the face is connected with a small feast in which only women participate. Taro is brought into the house and the girl sleeps on it.

1) Cf. C.Gs. "Melanesian" p. 74.

The next day the girl's face is tattooed. In the afternoon the food is eaten.

The shoulders of a woman are tattooed after marriage.

The men never tattooed their faces or bodies.

The dress and ornaments varied with the occasion. Broadly one may distinguish three typical forms: the normal form of dressing, the mourning and the festive attire. In the case of the man the essential piece of clothing

ports instead of the stones.

After the food has been boiled the solid substance is distributed into wooden plates or baskets. The wooden plates are either round, flat and ornamented on the upper border with a scroll ornament. Those dishes called in Mailu

are manufactured in the Massim area where they are called

As a matter of fact the best specimens come from the Marshall Bennett's, but they are also manufactured by the Southern Massim. The other form of wooden plate is oblong and can be described as having the form of a boat. Those dishes called in Mailu Aboma are sometimes manufactured locally, but their real home seems to be Hood Bay, where they are made by the Kerepunu and Motu of Hanuawada, who do not make them themselves but trade them from the Hood Bay natives. They are called Motu Dihu. 1)

1)

The round wooden dishes do not wander as far as Hamabada, where their place is taken by the round earthenware plates called Kibo or of larger Ma'u and manufactured locally.

Besides the wooden dishes, baskets (called No'oboa) are used at times for dish-
ing out solid food. They are of a fairly rough quality, plaited of cocoanut

imposed on men going out to war, called Goby.

The mainland people had, for purposes of defence tree houses or platforms, I could not finally settle which, called Luni. The situation of the village perched invariably on tops of hills allowed the natives to control the approach to the village. In order to make this more effective, they built the tree fortifications on forked branches of the Eani tree. They used to keep plenty of spears and stones on them and in cases of need man women and children used to take refuge and throw a hail of missiles on their adversaries. The most effective way of attacking such a tree was to cut it down. There were on the average about four such houses in a well sized Eagi village (some 40 houses) The villages were also stockaded.

Another form of fighting must be mentioned: the rows and fights which seem to have been invariably associated with the feasts. Quarrels over pigs and women, and personal resentments took naturally an acute form at feast time when nerves were highly strung and passions on the alert. Unfortunately my informants left me with general assertions and I was not able to obtain any concrete instances.

The weapons in Mailu were identical with those of the coastal tribes in the Central Division. The heavy wooden spear made of a piece with the

has been split into a number of strips, it is inserted between two tapes of
native bark (Varu, the same as used for making native ropes). Those constit-
ute the top of the skirt. The bottom is cut into a straight line. Several
one
of such petticoats are worn on top of the other; the greater the gale, the more
petticoats are used so that a fully dressed native girl invariably brings about
the associations of a crinoline.

The women wear the same kind of armlets as the men.

MEALS AND FOOD. There is only one substantial meal in 24 hours. It is
eaten in the afternoon, at sunset, in the Valavitaá hours. What remains over
from this meal is left and eaten the next morning. But it does not constitute
a substantial meal and is eaten cold. There is no meal at midday. During the
period of the change of the S.H. trade wind into the N.W. monsoon, however, the
meal was eaten at midday. I was not able to find out the rationale of this
change of mealtime, but it was stated as a fact and I was able to ascertain it
by observation in December and January.

Nowadays a number of natives have served their terms as plantation boys,
or have been in contact with the Mission or served in some other form the white
man and the custom of eating substantially two or three times a day strongly
overshadows the old arrangement. I was, however, assured by all my informants

with his family's mourning duties. On the other hand, the spirit who is not
not personally interested in the proceedings must be invoked to play his part.

The role of both spirits seems anyhow a very impersonal one; they are merely
mechanical factors, bringing about, as an intermediate agency, the civil results
inherent to the breaking of the taboo. They have no initiative in dealing out
the punishment, nor is there anything left to their personal choice. On the
other hand a man violating the taboo would have no personal fear of the anger of
the spirit. The natives are in general very little afraid of ghosts, though
they dread darkness and its evil powers (comp. chnp. V. SS. 1 & 2.) The men
are afraid to break the taboo purely and simply on order not to lose their fish-
ing capacity and from any other point of view the personal insult to the spirit
and its annoyance would not apparently matter. No man would with full know-
ledge violate a taboo, either a NebuRU or a Gora - if he unwittingly does so,
the punishment strikes him with the same forms, without regard to his motives.
The culprit would however have no other direct social punishment to bear; he
would not be exposed either to
ridicule contempt or anger.

The Prima facie object of the Gora, as stated by the natives and apparent
in its most obvious function is to prevent the cocoanuts from being eaten and t
then to ensure a plentiful supply of nuts for the mortuary feasts. It must be