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

282 WITH NATIVES IN THE WESTERN PACIFIC

The men are never seen without bows and
arrows of large and heavy dimensions. Like all
the belongings of the Santa Cruzians, the arrows
show artistic taste, being carefully carved and painted
so as to display black carving on a white and red
ground. The points of the arrows are made of
human bone.

I bought one of the excellent canoes made by
these people, and often crossed the lovely, quiet
bay to visit different villages. The natives take
great care of their canoes, and make it a point of
honour to keep them spotlessly white, which they
do by rubbing them with a seaweed they gather
at the bottom of the ocean.

On approaching a village it requires all the skill
of the native not to be dashed by the swell against
the reefs. A narrow sandy beach lies behind, and
then a stone terrace 6 feet high, on which the
gamal is built. Generally there was great excitement
when I landed, and the men came rushing from all
sides to see me. They were not hostile, only too
eager for trade, and I had to interrupt my visits
for a week and trade only at the house where I
was staying, so as to give them time to quiet down.
This helped matters a little, although, until the day
I left, I was always the centre of an excited mob
that pulled at my sleeves and trousers and shrieked
into my ears. I was always cordially invited to
enter the gamals; these were square houses, kept
very clean, with a fireplace in the centre, and the
floor covered with mats. As usual, the roof was