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

THE SANTA CRUZ ISLANDS 285

was considered very daring, and the limit of per-
missible investigation. However, with the help of
Mr. M., who was practically a “citizen” of one
of the villages, I succeeded in taking some photo-
graphs of women; but only the oldest dowagers and
some sick girls presented themselves, and among
them I saw the most repulsive being I ever met,——
an old shrivelled-up hag. At sight of such a creature
one cannot wonder that old women were often accused
of sorcery.

It is surprising how much inferior physically the
women of Nitendi are to the men. The men are
among the best made people I ever saw, while the
women are the poorest. The dress of the women
consists of large pieces of tapa, worn around the
hips'and over the head, and a third piece is some-
times used as a shawl. Tapa is not made at Graciosa
Bay, but inland; it is often painted in simple but
effective geometrical designs.

The majority of the population lives near the
sea; I was credibly informed that there are hardly
any people inland. The Santa Cruzian is a “salt-
‘water man,” and there is a string of villages all along
the coast. The inhabitants of the different villages
keep very much to themselves, and their territories
are separated by a strip of forest, and on the shore
by high stone walls leading far out into the sea.
On the whole, the two thousand people in the bay
live very quietly, certainly more so than the same
number of whites would without any police. It is
not quite clear in what respect our civilization could