PART I • BRITISH NEW GUINEA

• I • Chiefly historical—Concerning certain discoverers, their aims and ambitions—The story of New Guinea, the Solomons and New Hebrides, and some things that might be altered•3

• II • New Guinea natives—Port Moresby and its two native villages—Huts on poles and trees—Native superstition and its result on two tribes•13

• III • Natives who grow crops of hair—A word or two about the women—Duties of married women—How they carry their babes, and the philosophy of childhood•25

• IV • Concerning love and grief—How love is made in New Guinea, and some of the charms used to ensure love and constancy—The grief of a New Guinea widow•37

• V • Some native dances and queer costumes—Novel blackmailing methods—Woman’s vanity and a censured dance•48

• VI • Outrigger Canoes, their appearance and construction—The famous Lakatois—How the natives catch their fish; and a few words about fish that climb trees—A trip down the coast, and an unpleasant experience•57

PART II • THE SOLOMON ISLANDS

• VII • South Sea traders good and bad; their ups and downs—Nicolas the Greek—The Mambare river massacre—Some queer creatures with queerer ways—“A fitting end to a wasted life”•71

• VIII • Natives who have had no chance; their villages without streets and their curious huts—The tambu and canoe houses—An unlucky trader•84

• IX • Solomon Islands—Ingova’s head-hunters—How whole tribes were wiped out—Savage invasions and clever tactics•94

• X • Clothes and the men—Love of adornment—Natives who are not keen on eating—Methods of cooking their food—Betel-nut chewing•104

• XI • Some clever ways of catching fish—How the bonito is landed—Native nets—Pig-hunting—The sly opossum and the crocodile•113

• XII • A curious religion—Burying the dead, and some graveyards—Dances and music—Native artists and how fire is made•124

• XIII • What “hope” is to the Solomon islander—The use of the evil eye•134

PART III • THE NEW HEBRIDES

• XIV • Islands that are advancing rapidly—Native houses with modern improvements—A horrible method of getting rid of the old men, and other burial ceremonies•143

• XV • Ancestor worship the religion of the New Hebrides—Temples and strange figures, and some sacred dances•153

• XVI • Concerning witchcraft—More about burials—The gentle art of making love—The rain-makers•163

• XVII • Native clothing and ornaments—Their arts and industries, their canoes and weapons, and their way of fishing•172

• XVIII • The cultivation of copra—The labour traffic when slavery really existed, and the traffic in natives of to-day•183

• XIX • A short sketch of the missionary work in the South Seas—Concerning John Williams, James Chalmers, and others•193

SKETCH MAP OF THE SOUTH SEA ISLANDS•204

INDEX•205