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

6 MALEKULA
very different from those of the people to the south, and
from time immemorial there seems to have been a traditional
antagonism between Mewun and Seniang which expressed itself
periodically in pitched battles on the strip of nowhere the Presbyterian mission now stands, and which lies
between the two districts. Inland from Mewun, lying east-north-
east of it, and apparently stretching across the mountainous
interior of this region, is the district called Laus by the
coastal people. Very little indeed is known about it or its
inhabitants, but their atï¬Ånities, both cultural and linguistic,
appear to be with the people of Mewun rather than with their
southern neighbours. It is said, indeed, that the people of Mewun
can understand the speech oi the men of Laus, although they
cannot understand or be understood by those of Seniang.
From Hook Point to Pacey Point the coastal country is now
and apparently always has been uninhabited. No villages have
ever been known here, and there is not a single coco-nut tree along
its whole extent. A large tract of country behind this coastal
strip is also said to be unoccupied by man, but it is somewhere
in this region, north-east of Mewun, that the territory called by
some of the natives Lnanmbuei is situated.
Between Pacey Point and Lamburnbu Harbour is the district
known as Lambumbu (but called Telag by the natives living to
the east of it) 1 of which Banggor is the most southerly and
Lambumbu the most northerly village. This district lies roughly
within :1 triangle of which the coast—line between Lamburnhu and
Pacey Point is the base, and a spot about two miles north—west oi
Sharp Peak is the apex. Unlike any other district of Malckula
it is devoid of hills.
The non-committal blank on the Admiralty chart inland
from Lambumbu Harbour might suggest that there is nothing
>'l'h= spelling of various place-names is sometimes different tmrn this in
other maps; in must cases that given in Drecnnr notes has been adopted,
but these are not always consistent as they were Written he various tlmï¬Åï¬Å and
from information obtained from diï¬Åerent soumes, Lambumhu LE called by its
own people Lamburnbu, While itseastern neighbours call it Thing, and its dialect.
Mwctnlang. It is not nlwil-ys certain wlierher two names denote two iliflerent
PLACES or whether they refer co one and the 88.1119 place, or whether the same
name is Used for B. district and tor a village in ehric district. A nriimrm arid
authoritative nomenclature would certainly have been presented ii Deacon had
been able to revise his rims. It has not been possible tn give the exact position
of llume-rous villages reicrred to in the can: and the boundaries of some areas IS
now indeterminable. Maps of Malekula are given by Miss L. E. Cheesnlan, 1933,
0.1., p. I96; less, p. 40.——A. c. H.
i