The dress worn by the men of these islands is generally of the scantiest description. A narrow band of cloth, worn like a T bandage, often constitutes their only garment. In some islands visited by traders, waist-cloths are worn. Often, however, and especially amongst the bush tribes, the Solomon Islander presents himself as guiltless of clothing as did our original parents. The dress of the women varies considerably in different islands of the group. The married women of St. Christoval and the adjacent small islands wear the scantiest of fringes, which cannot be dignified by the name of dress: whilst the unmarried girls dispense with clothing altogether. In the Florida Islands, the women are more decorously clad, and wear a longer fringe. In the eastern islands, however, the influence of the missionary and the trader have caused a more general employment by the women of the “sulu” (a large coloured handkerchief), which is fastened around the waist, and is very becoming. The women of the islands of Bougainville Straits commonly wear the “sulu;” but they frequently discard it for a time, as when they are wading on the reefs, and then they are content with an improvised apron of long leaves (“bassa”), the stalks of which are passed under a narrow waist-band. On one occasion at Alu, when arriving at the beach after one of my excursions into the interior of the island, I came upon a party of women who were bathing in the sea. They at once came out of the water, and began to interrogate my guides, having first provided themselves in the most unabashed manner with temporary aprons of fern fronds and the leaves of trees. They then gathered round me to learn where I had been, and what I had been doing; and after I had satisfied their curiosity, I sent them away, highly pleased with some tobacco and beads.

The men of these islands are always very anxious to become the possessors of European articles of clothing, such as shirts, coats, hats, etc.; but the happy owners seldom don them except during the visit of a ship, when they strut about clad in some solitary garment, such as a shirt or a waistcoat, or often only a hat. I had often some difficulty in preserving my gravity when I met some sedate individual, as naked as on the day when he was born, wearing a round hat on his head, and carrying his shirt on his arm. The fortunate possessor of a shirt usually regards it as a kind of light overcoat, to be worn on especial occasions; and in some islands the possessors seem to prefer carrying their shirts on their arms wherever they go. A few men, who have these articles of clothing, never take them off after they have begun to wear them. Such a practice, however, is quite opposed to the usual cleanly habits of these islanders. Whilst we were in Bougainville Straits, three natives were employed on board as interpreters, who were dubbed by the men, Jacket, Waistcoat, and Trousers, as they used to wear a suit between them. On one occasion, when I had induced some Faro men to take me in their canoe to an island some distance away, I was amused at the appearance of my crew, to whom I had previously given shirts. We were, for all the world, like a party of nigger-minstrels. Following the waggish advice of the quartermaster, the natives turned up their large collars. Off we started, and the sight of their serious countenances, half buried in their collars, was too much for my gravity: but when we landed, and my men proceeded in a dignified manner to disembark, they looked so ludicrously sedate in their long-tailed shirts, that I roared with laughter.

The most picturesque of the personal ornaments of the natives of the eastern islands is a frontlet of the handsome white cowries (Ovulum ovum). About a dozen of these shells, rather small in size, are strung together, and bound across the forehead. A single shell is sometimes worn on the front of the leg just below the knee. Many men possess large crescent-shaped plates of the pearl shell found in these seas, and which they wear on the breast. Resident traders, such as Captain Macdonald at Santa Anna, have largely supplied the natives with these ornaments. Necklaces made of the teeth of dogs, porpoises, fruit-bats, and phalangers (Cuscus), are commonly worn. The seeds of the Coix Lachryma are also employed for this purpose. Various articles are used as necklace-pendants, such as Bulla shells, the pretty Natica mamilla, beans, the hard palate of a fish (probably a ray), and other things. One native was very proud of a fragment of a willow-pattern plate, which he had smoothed off and ground down to a convenient size for his necklace.

Shell armlets[112] are in general use, and their number and size frequently denote the rank of their owner. Those most prized are fashioned out of the thickest part of the shell of Tridacna gigas towards the hinge. On one occasion, in the island of Simbo, I had an opportunity of observing the tedious process of making these Tridacna armlets: A hole is first bored through the solid thickness of the shell, and in it is inserted a piece of hoop iron, with one edge roughly jagged, after the fashion of a saw. This is worked with the hands, and after much labour the ring is sawn out of the shell. It is then rubbed down and polished with sand. On account of the tedious nature of the process of making them, these Tridacna armlets are much prized by their possessors. Amongst the numerous articles employed in trading with these natives is a very good imitation of this armlet made of tough white porcelain, and valued at about half a dollar. Smaller armlets are also cut out of large shells belonging to the genera Trochus and Turbo. The shell armlets of these islanders are often first placed on during youth, or at the first attainment of manhood; and, as the wearer grows older these ornaments become too small to pass over the elbow, and are permanently worn. Armlets are also made of native shell-money worked into patterns. Sometimes a couple of curved boar’s-tusks are joined together for this purpose. Excluding the shell armlets, those most frequently worn are made of what is commonly known as “dyed grass.” This material, however, consists, for the most part, of the strips of the vascular tissue of ferns, belonging to Gleichenia and other genera, which are neatly plaited together in patterns (vide page 281.) The prettiest specimens of this work are to be obtained at Savo. The same plaited armlets are worn by the Admiralty Islanders.[113] In some parts of New Guinea, strips of rattan are worked in with this material.[114] ... In the Solomon Islands, armlets are usually worn on the left arm. The native usually carries his pipe or his tobacco tucked inside them. They are often worn very tight, especially in the case of the plaited armlets, which actually constrict the limb.

Nose ornaments are not commonly worn in the eastern islands, though the nasal septum is generally pierced by a hole for the appendage which may be of tortoise-shell, bone, shells, &c. Youths keep the hole patent by retaining in it a small piece of wood of the thickness of a lead pencil, and between one and two inches in length. The tip of the nose is frequently pierced by a small hole about half an inch deep, in which a small peg of wood is sometimes placed which projects beyond the nose and gives the face an odd appearance.

The lobes of the ears are perforated by holes, which by continual distension become of the size of a crown-piece and often larger. In some islands, as in Santa Anna, a disc of white wood 1¹/₂ to 2 inches in diameter is placed in these holes. Sometimes they are kept in shape by the insertion of a shaving of wood rolled into a spiral; but more frequently they are left empty. Singular uses are made of these holes in the lobes of the ear, pipes and matchboxes being sometimes placed in them. On one occasion, Taki, the Wano chief, came on board with a heavy bunch of native shell-money hanging from each ear, a sign of mourning, as he informed us, for a recently deceased wife. In some instances, more particularly amongst the elder men, the pendulous loop formed by the distended hole in the lobe becomes severed and hangs in two pieces. I am told that when these loops break, the two parts are readily joined by paring the torn surfaces obliquely and binding them together.

The natives of the islands of Bougainville Straits pay less attention to personal decoration than do those of St. Christoval and the adjacent islands. The large Tridacna armlets are not often worn, the small shell armlets being those generally preferred, and as in the case of those worn in the eastern islands, their number indicates the rank and wealth of the wearer. The plaited arm-bands described on page 132 are frequently worn. Armlets made of trade beads are favourite ornaments of the women: when visiting the houses of the chiefs, I have sometimes found their wives employed in this kind of fancy-work, small red, blue, and white beads being tastefully worked together in the common zig-zag pattern. Here, as in the eastern islands, the septum of the nose is pierced by a hole, but I rarely saw any ornament suspended from it. The women of Treasury Island, however, sometimes wear in this aperture a tusk-like ornament, 1¹/₂ to 2 inches long, which is made from the shell of the giant clam. Occasionally I have observed clay pipes carried in this perforation in the nasal septum. Here, also, the lobes of the ears are pierced by large holes, and in the older men they hang in loops 2 to 3 inches in length.

The men of Simbo (Narovo Island) streak their countenances with lime, whilst the boys of Treasury Islands sometimes paint their faces around the eyes with the red ochreous earth that they employ for staining the hair. The young lads of Faro occasionally adorn their faces with silvery strips of a fish’s swimming-bladder which they plaster on their cheeks.

In the matter of personal decoration I should observe that the men usually wear the plumes, not that the women dislike decorations, but because they do not often have the opportunity of wearing them. If a trade necklace or some similar ornament is given to a woman, it will very soon be observed adorning the person of her husband. An incident of this sort particularly annoyed me on one occasion in the island of St. Christoval; but I might as well have tried to persuade a pig that it was a glutton as have attempted to convince a native that such a transaction was ungallant. In some islands it is the custom for the husband on the occasion of a festival to load his favourite wife with all his worldly wealth in the form of the native bead money; and, as at Santa Anna, the wives of the headmen parade about the village thus heavily attired and presenting such a picture of “portable property” as would have gladdened the heart of Mr. Wemmick himself. This shell-money, to which I have frequently referred in this work, and which is so often employed in personal decoration, consists of small pieces of shells of different colours shaped and strung together like beads. In the eastern islands, this money is largely derived from the natives of Malaita. Six fathoms of it are said to be sufficient for the purchase of a pig. The same kind of money is used by the inhabitants of the Admiralty Islands, New Ireland, New Guinea, and the New Hebrides. In the last two localities it is worked into armlets.[115]

The men of the Solomon Islands are very fond of placing in their hair a brightly-coloured flower such as that of Hibiscus tiliaceus, or a pretty sprig, or the frond of a fern. My native companions in my excursions rarely passed a pretty flower without plucking it and placing it in their bushy hair; and they were fond of decorating my helmet in a similar fashion. Sometimes one individual would adorn himself to such an extent with flowers, ferns, and scented leaves, that a botanist might have made an instructive capture in seizing his person. In addition to the flowers placed in his bushy mass of blackish-brown hair, he would tuck under his necklace and armlets sprigs and leaves of numerous scented plants, such as Evodia hortensis and Ocymum sanctum. He would take much pleasure in pointing out to me the plants whose scented leaves are employed in the native perfumery, most of which are of the labiate order, and are to be commonly found in the waste ground of the plantations. The women seldom decorate themselves in this manner. Those of Bougainville Straits make their scanty aprons of the leaves of a scitamineous plant named “bassa” which, when crushed in the fingers, have a pleasant scent.

The fondness for decorating the person with flowers and scented herbs has been frequently referred to by travellers in their accounts of the natives of other parts of the Western Pacific. Mr. George Forster tells us that the people of Tanna and Mallicolo in the New Hebrides place inside their shell armlets bunches of the odoriferous plant, Evodia hortensis, together with the leaves of crotons and other plants.[116] We learn from Mr. Macgillivray,[117] and from Mr. Stone,[118] that the natives of the south-east part of New Guinea are similarly fond of decorating themselves with flowers and scented leaves which they place in the hair and inside their armlets and necklaces.

Tattooing is practised amongst both sexes in many islands; but the process differs from that ordinarily employed in the circumstance that the pigment is frequently omitted, and for this reason the marks are often faint and only visible on a close inspection. In this manner the natives of St. Christoval and the adjacent islands have their cheeks marked by a number of shallow grooves arranged in a series of chevron-lines, and differing but little if at all from the general colour of the skin. On the trunk the lines are of a faint blue hue, and here a pigment is more frequently used. The process, as employed in the island of Santa Anna, consists in deeply abrading the skin with such instruments as a piece of a shell, the flinty edge of the bamboo, the tooth of a large fruit-eating bat (PteropidÆ), or even by the long finger-nails. The older lads have to submit themselves to this operation before they obtain the rights of manhood; and I was informed that during its progress they are kept isolated in a house and fed on the blood of a certain fish (?). After it is completed, they are at liberty to marry, and they are allowed to take part in the fighting and in the fishing expeditions.

Tattooing is not generally practised amongst the people of the islands of Bougainville Straits. I only observed it in a few instances, more particularly amongst the women, when it resembles that which has been above described. A party of men from the village of Takura on the coast of Bougainville, whom I met on one occasion, had their faces marked with shallow linear grooves of much the same colour as the skin, which commenced at the “alÆ nostri,” and, curving over the cheek-bones, terminated above the eyebrows. These lines were more distinct than those which mark the faces of the natives in the eastward islands, although they were probably produced in a similar manner. Another pattern of tattooing, which may be described as a branching coil, is to be found in the representation of the head of a native of Isabel Island, which was obtained from a mould taken in D’Urville’s expedition in 1838.[119] Some men of the districts of the Uta Pass and Urasi on the north coast of Malaita, whom I met on one occasion, had their faces marked with a double or a single row of blueish dots commencing on the cheek-bones and meeting on the forehead.

In the place of tattooing, the inhabitants of the islands of Bougainville Straits ornament their bodies with rows of circular and somewhat raised cicatrices which are usually about the size of a fourpenny piece and about a third of an inch apart. In the case of the men, the shoulders, upper arms, and chest are thus marked: a double row of cicatrices commences on the shoulder-blade of either side, and crossing the upper arms near the apex of the insertion of the deltoid muscle these rows arch over the armpits and meet at the lower part of the sternum. The chiefs and their sons often have an additional row of these marks. Although this is the common fashion, one sometimes meets men who have the cicatrices confined to the chest or to the shoulders, or to only one side of the body. Amongst the women, the shoulders, upper arms, and breasts are similarly marked as shown in the engraving here given, and in addition they have these rows of cicatrices across the inside of the thigh. A triple row across the left breast distinguished the principal wife of the chief of Treasury Island. This method of ornamenting the body with raised cicatrices, which I also observed in the case of the party of Takura natives above referred to, would appear to be a sign of manhood and womanhood, as it is not to be found amongst the younger of either sex. With regard to the mode of producing these marks, I could only ascertain that they were made by placing the powdered dust of touchwood on the skin and then igniting it. To produce such a permanent and indelible cicatrix, I should think it probable that means were employed to convert the burn into a festering sore. The light colour of these scars would appear to indicate that no pigment is used in the process. I should remark that this custom of raising the skin in cicatrices, especially on the shoulders, breasts, and thighs, is very prevalent among the Papuans of the south and south-west coasts of New Guinea.[120] Mr. Mosely describes the same method of ornamenting the body as he observed it amongst the men of the Admiralty Islands.[121]

It may be here noticed, that the practice of circumcision is apparently not to be met with in these islands, except, as observed by Dr. Codrington, in the pure Polynesian settlements,[122] with which, however, I did not come into contact.

I have previously described the modes of wearing and of decorating the hair (pages 116, 134), and can only make a few remarks here. In some islands, as at Ugi, the young boys have the entire scalp shaven with the exception of two tufts on the top of the head. Then again, at the other extreme of life, it is often the custom for old women to assist the natural falling-off of the hair and remove it altogether. As a sign of mourning, the hair may be trimmed, cut close, or shaved off.

The Solomon Islander often carries his comb stuck in his bushy hair. As shown in the figure in this work, the comb in common use throughout this group resembles very much in pattern and mode of workmanship that which is in use in parts of New Guinea, the Admiralty Islands, the Tonga Group, and other islands of the Western Pacific. The combs of different islands may vary somewhat in details, but they belong all to this pattern, being usually made of a hard dark wood, the teeth consisting of separate pieces either bound tightly or glued together by a kind of resin. The handles and upper parts are often prettily decorated with the plaited “dyed grass,” so-called (vide, page 132). An excellent coloured illustration of an Admiralty Island comb is to be found in the official narrative of the cruise of the “Challenger.” In the islands of Bougainville Straits, the native often carries in his hair an instrument of three prongs rudely fashioned out of bamboo, as shown in one of the figures. It is used as much for scratching the head as for combing the hair.

Head-coverings are rarely to be found in this group, except in Bougainville and Bouka. A native of Treasury showed me a singular conical hat which he had brought from Bouka. It really was a double hat, one inside the other, the inner hat being made of the leaf of the “kiari,” a species of Heliconia, and the outer of the fan-shaped leaf of the “firo,” a palm of the genus Licuala. A band of the so-called plaited “dyed grass” encircles the base and keeps the hat on the head. A similarly shaped hat but smaller and shorter, and made of the leaf of the “kiari,” was worn by some Bougainville natives from the village of Takura, whom I met in Fauro Island. It was placed towards the back of the head; and as it covered only a small portion of the crown, it was evidently more ornamental than useful. In addition, these natives wore a little bunch of feathers on each temple. Their appearance in this grotesque head-dress was rather ludicrous.

It is a remarkable circumstance that although the Solomon Islanders, as a rule, wear no protective covering for the head, the carved figures of their tambu-posts are usually represented with very European-looking hats. These carved tambu-posts have various uses (vide, page 32). In a similar manner in Bougainville Straits, the hat is to be noticed in the case of the little wooden figures which are fastened on the stems of canoes as protective deities. ...... Where these islanders first obtained their idea of a hat of this shape is a matter for speculation. It may have been originally suggested by the hats of the Spanish soldiers three centuries ago, who by means of their musketry seldom failed to make a lasting impression of their visit during the six months spent by the expedition in the group.

Sunshades in the form of a peak of plaited grass bound to the forehead and projecting over the eyes are occasionally worn by the natives of Bougainville Straits, whilst fishing in canoes, in order to protect their eyes from the sun’s glare on the water. In Ugi, these sunshades are sometimes worn on gala days. They did not, however, appear to be in constant use in any part of the group which we visited.

The common decorative pattern employed by the natives of the islands that we visited was the chevron line. It is the pattern used in tattooing the face in the eastern islands; and it is represented in alternating hues of red, white, and black, on the fronts of tambu-houses. It is rudely cut on the outer border of the small shell armlets of St. Christoval, and ornaments the cooking-pots and drinking-vessels of Bougainville Straits. (See Illustration.) In some of the shell armlets a continuous lozenge or diamond-shaped design is produced by the arrangement of the chevron lines as shown in the woodcut. The advance from this design to the disconnected lozenge pattern is then but an easy gradation. These chevron lines are often curiously transformed. The Z pattern of inlaid mother-of-pearl, which is shown in the illustration of the canoe-god, is apparently but a broken chevron line. On the heads of the Treasury spears fantastic patterns are cut out in which the chevron design is adapted to the human skeleton (See illustration). ..... I may here add that the bamboo boxes used for the betel lime are ornamented with rectilinear patterns (scratched on their surfaces) which resemble those used in ornamenting the similar lime boxes of New Guinea, Borneo, and Sumatra.[123] The ornamental dance-clubs of Bougainville Straits exactly resemble the clubs from New Ireland and possess those singular distorted representations of the human face which characterise New Ireland ornamentation.

Caution is required in studying the modes of ornamentation of these islanders. The remark made by the Rev. Mr. Lawes, in reference to the women of the Motu tribe in New Guinea,[124] that they are glad to get new tattooing patterns from the printed calicoes, is equally applicable to some of the Solomon Island natives. On one occasion I was gravely informed by a native, as a fact likely to add to their interest, that some designs I was copying had this origin.

The Solomon Island songs, although often monotonous to the cultivated ear, appeared to me to be in consonance with the wild character of these islanders. Often when I have stopped to rest and enjoy a pipe in the midst of my excursions, it may have been beside a stream in the wood or on the edge of a tall cliff overlooking the sea, my native companions have sat down and commenced their monotonous chanting, which, discordant as it may have sometimes seemed to me, appeared to be in unison with my surroundings. Now raised to a high key, now sinking to a low, subdued drone, now hurried, now slow and measured, these rude notes recalled to my mind rather the sounds of the inanimate world around me, such as the sighing of the wind among the trees or the shrill whistle of the gale, the noise of the surf on the reef or the rippling of the waves on the beach, the rushing of a mountain torrent or the murmuring of a rivulet in its bed. My thoughts at such times recurred to those unpolished ages in the history of nations when the bard attuned his melody to the voices of the waves, the streams, and the wind, and found in the mist or in the cloud his expression for the shadowy unknown. At no time have the poems of Ossian appeared to my mind to be invested with greater beauty than when I have been standing in solitude in some inland dell or on some lofty hill-top in these regions. The song of the bard of Selma, despite its ruggedness, on such occasions, appealed more powerfully to my imagination than many more finished verses, and seemed more in keeping with scenes that owed to man nothing, remaining as they had been for ages, Nature’s handiwork.

Frequently whilst descending some steep hill-slope or whilst following the downward course of a ravine, my natives were wont to make the woods echo with their shouts and their wild songs. The natural impulse to make use of the vocal organs whilst descending a mountain is worth a moment’s remark. Often I found myself involuntarily shouting with my savage companions, when their loud peals of laughter attracted my attention. Some years ago, when visiting the Si-shan Mountains which lie behind the city of Kiukiang on the south bank of the Yang-tse, I remember listening to the cries of the Chinese wood-cutters as they returned in the evening down the narrow gorges that led to their homes. As their shouts died away in the higher parts of the mountain, the echo was caught by the wood-cutters below, and was answered back in such a manner that the men further down the gorges took up the cry.

The training of natives of these islands by the Melanesian Mission at Norfolk Island has shown that the compass of their voices and their ear for music are capable of much cultivation. When staying with Bishop Selwyn at Gaeta in the Florida Islands, I heard familiar hymn-tunes sung with as true an appreciation of harmony as would be found in the Sunday School of an English village, and sung by a congregation of natives of both sexes, who, with the exception of their teachers, had never left their island.

During our lengthened sojourn in Bougainville Straits, we became very familiar with the popular tunes of the natives; and through the exertions of Mr. Isabell, I have been able to reproduce in this work three of the commonest airs.[125] The songs are usually sung in chorus, and a droning accompaniment is often introduced by some of the men which is especially well given in the second tune. There appear to be four or five common airs. All are short and most of them have refrains which are repeated over and over again. The first tune is a cannibal song and is sung at the war dances. Its words, as I learned from Gorai, the Shortland chief, are the address of a man to his enemy, in which he informs him of his intention to kill and eat him. The second tune, though not possessing words, is often sung or rather chanted by the men. When sung by a number of persons, its wild music is to an imaginative mind very suggestive of the savage life. I have heard it sung by about forty men whilst passing the night with them in the village of Sinasoro in Faro Island. The tambu-house, in which we were, was dimly lighted, and the natives were squatting around a wood-fire chanting their wild song in chorus, and terminating it in a fashion that sounded very abrupt to the white man’s ear. The third tune is a pretty air which the men of the “Lark” used to play with the concertina in waltz time. The words, accompanying it, have a music of their own. I learned from the natives of Treasury Island that this tune was brought from Meoko (Duke of York Islands) not long since.

The Pandean pipe is the musical instrument in common use amongst the natives of the Islands of Bougainville Straits. I did not notice it in St. Christoval and the adjacent islands at the other end of the group, where it is either not known or but rarely used. The distribution of this instrument in the Pacific is interesting. It is figured by D’Albertis in his work on New Guinea, and there are specimens in the British Museum Collection from Brumer’s Island off this coast, as well as from the Admiralty Islands, the New Hebrides, the Tonga Group, and New Zealand. The instruments from all these localities are distinguished from the Solomon Island pan-pipe by the reeds being arranged in a single row and being of a much smaller size. They are also more neatly made. Those used by the Treasury and Shortland natives are composed of a double row of from 6 to 8 reeds, the second row being merely added to give support to the instrument. The longest reed is usually a foot in length and three quarters of an inch in bore; whilst the shortest reed is about 5 inches long and rather less than half an inch in bore. Some natives prefer instruments having twice this length. The Pandean pipes, played at the public dances of Alu, are of very large size, the length of the longest reed of one which I measured being between 3¹/₂ and 4 feet. At such performances, the air is given by the smaller pipes; whilst the bass notes of the larger pipes form a droning but harmonious accompaniment. The music of these instruments, being in the usual contracted compass, is of a somewhat monotonous character. Those of Treasury Island are said to be only adapted for playing one tune, which is the second air given on the page. I learn from Mr. Isabell, who was interested in this matter, that the natives vary the number of reeds in the instrument according to the air it is intended to play. The musician accompanies his melody with a nodding of the head and a swaying of the body on the hips, movements which are anything but expressive and are in fact rather ludicrous.

Jew’s harps of foreign manufacture are much in demand amongst persons of both sexes and all ages throughout the Solomon Group. In the eastern islands they fashion them of bamboo, as in the New Hebrides and New Guinea;[126] but I did not observe any native-made instruments amongst the people of Bougainville Straits. The women of Treasury Island produce a similar though softer kind of music by playing, somewhat after the fashion of a Jew’s harp, on a lightly made fine-stringed bow about 15 inches long. This is held to the lips and the string is gently struck with the fingers, the cavity of the mouth serving as a resonator. ... That school-boy’s delight, the “paper-and-comb instrument,” finds its counterpart in these islands. On one occasion, when I was enjoying a pipe and watching the surf on the south coast of Stirling Island, a young lad, who accompanied me, amused himself with some rude music by holding in front of his lips, as he hummed a native air, a thick leaf in which he had made a hole about half an inch wide, leaving the thin transparent epidermis intact on one side; the vibration of this thin membrane gave a peculiar twang to his voice.

The drum in common use in the different islands we visited was made of a portion of the trunk of a tree, 8 to 10 feet long, hollowed out in its interior and possessing a slit in the middle. It is placed lengthways on the ground, and is struck by two short sticks. Similar drums are employed by the inhabitants of the New Hebrides[127] and the Admiralty Islands.[128] This pattern may therefore be described as the Melanesian drum. A kind of sounding-board, placed in a pit in the ground and struck by the feet of the dancers, is described in my account of the dances of these islanders (vide page 144).

As conches, the two large shells, Triton and Cassis are commonly used. For this purpose, a hole is pierced for the lips on the side of the spire.

Dancing is performed on very different occasions in these islands. Besides the war, funeral, and festal dances, there are others which partake of a lascivious character both in the words of the accompanying chant and in the movements of the hands and body. Whilst visiting the small island of Santa Catalina, I saw one of these dances performed by young girls from 10 to 14 years of age. An explanation of their reluctance to commence, which at first from my ignorance of what was to follow I was at a loss to understand, soon offered itself in the character of the dance, and evidently arose from a natural sense of modesty that appeared strange when associated with their subsequent performance. There are, however, other dances, purely sportive in their nature. Of such a kind were some which were performed for my benefit at the village of Gaeta in the Florida Islands. About twenty lads, having formed a ring around a group of their companions squatting in the centre, began to walk slowly round, tapping the ground with their left feet at every other step, and keeping time with a dismal drone chanted by the central group of boys. Every now and then the boys of the ring bent forward on one knee towards those in the middle, while at the same time they clapped their hands and made a peculiar noise between a hiss and a sneeze: the chant then became more enlivening and the dancing more spirited. On the following day the women of the village took part in a dance which was very similar to that of the boys, except that there was no central group, and that they wore bunches of large beans around the left ankle which made a rattling noise when they tapped the ground at every other step with the left foot. Bishop Selwyn, to whom I was indebted for the opportunity of witnessing these dances in the village of Gaeta, informed me that in the Florida Islands, dancing is often more or less of a profession, troupes of dancers making lengthened tours through the different islands of this sub-group.

During a great feast that was held in the island of Treasury, the following dance was performed. Between thirty and forty women and girls stood in a ring around a semi-circular pit, 5 feet across, which was sunk about 4 feet in the ground. A board, which was fixed in the pit about half way down, covered it in with the exception of a notch at its border. On this board stood two women, and as they danced they stamped with their feet, producing a dull hollow sound, to which the women of the circle timed their dancing, which consisted in bending their bodies slightly forward, gently swaying from side to side, and raising their feet alternately. All the while, the dancers sang in a spirited style different native airs. Now and then, a pair of women would dance slowly round outside the circle, holding before them their folded pandanus mats which all the performers carried.[129]

I was present at a dance given on one occasion at Alu, preparatory to a great feast which was about to be held. Soon after sunset the natives began to assemble on the beach, and when Gorai, the chief, arrived on the scene, between thirty and forty men arranged themselves in a circle, each carrying his pan-pipe. They began by playing an air in slow time, accompanying the music by a slight swaying motion of the body, and by alternately raising each foot. Then the notes became more lively and the movements of the dancers more brisk. The larger pipes took the part of the bass in a rude but harmonious symphony, whilst the monotonous air was repeated without much variation in the higher key of the smaller instruments. At times one of the younger men stopped in the centre of the ring, tomahawk in hand, and whilst he assumed a half-stooping posture, with his face looking upwards, the musicians dwelt on the same note which became gradually quicker and louder, whilst the dancing became more brisk, until, when the tip-toe of expectation was apparently reached, and one was beginning to feel that something ought to happen, the man in the centre who had been hitherto motionless, swung back a leg, stuck his tomahawk in the ground, and one’s feelings were relieved by the dull monotone suddenly breaking off into a lively native air. .. On another occasion, I was present at a funeral or mourning dance, which was held in connection with the death of the principal wife of the Alu chief. It will be found described on page 48.

I will conclude this chapter by alluding to a favourite game of the Treasury boys which reminded me somewhat of our English game of peg-tops. An oval pebble about two inches long is placed on a leaf on the ground. Each boy then takes a similar pebble, around which a piece of twine is wound; and standing about eight feet away, he endeavours in the following manner to throw it so as to fall on the pebble on the ground. The end of the twine is held between his fingers; and as the twine uncoils, he jerks it backwards and brings his pebble with considerable force on top of the other.