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

VAO IO 7

digged alive out of the grave, where his relatives
had buried him, thinking him old enough to die.
This is not a rare occurrence; sometimes the old
people themselves are tired of life and ask to be
killed.

What has preserved the old customs so well on
Vao is the aversion of the natives to plantation work.
But one day, while I was there, a ship rode at anchor
off the coast, and a member of the French survey
party landed, collected all the men on the beach, and
told them that unless there were thirty men on board
that evening, the whole tribe would be driven out of
the island, as the island belonged to the French
' company. This was, to say the least, extremely
doubtful ; moreover, it would never have been feasible
to expropriate the natives in this summary way.
They were furious, but, unprotected as they were,
they had to obey, and in the evening nearly all the
young men assembled on the beach and were taken
away in whale-boats, disappearing in the mist and
darkness of the night. The old men and the women
remained behind, crying loudly, so that the terrible
’ wailing sounded sadly over the sea. Even to the
mere spectator it was a tragic moment when the tribe
was thus orphaned of its best men, and one could not
help being revolted by the whole proceeding. It was
not womanish pity for the men who were taken off to
work, but regret for the consequent disappearance of
immemorial forms of tribal life. Next day the beach
was empty. Old men and women crossed over to
the yam-fields, the little children played as usual, but