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

ECONOMIC LIFE 207
stepped in sockets in the floor of the canoe, so that they projected
out over the sides. Generally one of these bamboos was more
or less upright, while the other formed a kind of gaff, and between
them a sail was hoisted by means of ropes. This sail was made
from a large number of pieces of that ï¬Åbrous growth which is
found at the base of the fruit of the coco-nut ; these were sewn
together to form a more or 1&5 triangular piece of matting,
with a. concave base. When hoisted the apex of the triangle
pointed downwards while the base was stretched between the
tops of the bamboo masts. To furl the sail the masts were
unstepped and brought parallel and close to each other. Like
other canoes found in the New Hebrides, the mumgk wala was a
vessel with a single outrigger. This, like the hull, was built for
strength, and the booms by means of which it was attached to
the hull were made from saplings of the Calophylum inophyllum,
which wood, owing to its circular grain, can stand great strains.
It has been necessary to write of the markets, the trading
journeys, and of the craft in which they were carried out, in the
past tense. How far the nisevei markets of the north-west are
still held we do not know, but inevitably the rapid depopulation
of the south and the concentration of the few survivors in Seniang
must have put an end to the markets held in the now desolate
districts in this part of Malekula. As for the nmmgk ze/ala and the
nimbembew, they are now things of the past, and to the past
also belong the overseas trading expeditions}
To~day the people still journey up and down the coast, as
for instance from Seniang to Lambumbu, but for this they use
small dug~out canoes or boats of European type, while for short
excursions close to the land they ï¬Ånd their rafts suflicient. These
rafts, called, as are the bamboo platforms on the nimbembew,
mzwangk ambu, were in days gone by the only small vessels which
the Malekulans of the south-west possessed, for the small outrigger
canoe which is found there to-day is a recent innovation and
was unknown even thirty years ago. They were, it is stated,
introduced by men who had been “ recruited " for labour in other
islands where such craft were common.“
1 Mr. Boyd of the Presbyterian mission informed Deacon that he had
been working at South-West Bay for thirty-one years and had never, even when
he ï¬Årst went out there, seen = canoe of the mmbamlmo v2.riety.—A. B. D.
s Sornervillc, writing in 1893 (1894. pp. 374-5), tells of small, roughly built
outrigger canoes with s platform on either side of the hull, which he regarded
as characteristic of South Malekula and of the islands lying between it and
Efate.—C, H. W.