[Note: this transcription was produced by an automatic OCR engine]

LIFE ON A PLANTATION 4I

meal—tinned meat, yams and bananas. Then the
foreman came in. Only a short time ago he was one
of the finest warriors in the interior of Malekula,
where cannibalism is still an everyday occurrence.
He, too, wears his hair short, only, according to the
present fashion, he lets the hair on his forehead grow
in a roll-shaped bow across the head. He is well
built, though rather short, and behaves with natural
politeness. His voice is soft, his look gentle and in
the doorway his dark figure shines in the lamplight
like a bronze statue.

Mr. Ch. tells him that the boys will have to
work all night, at the same time promising an en-
couragement in the shape of a glass of wine to each.
The natives’ craving for alcohol is often abused by
unscrupulous whites. Although the sale of liquor to
natives is strictly forbidden by the laws of the Condo-
minium, the French authorities do not even seem to try
to enforce this regulation, in fact, they rather impressed
me as favouring the sale, thus protecting the interests
of a degraded class of whites, to the detriment of a
valuable race. As a consequence, there are not a
few Frenchmen who make their living by selling
spirits to natives, which may be called, without
exaggeration, a murderous and criminal traffic.

Others profit indirectly by the alcoholism of the
islanders by selling liquor to their hands every
Saturday, so as to make them run into debt; they
Will all spend their entire wages on drink. If, their
term of engagement being over, they want to return
to their homes, they are told that they are still deep