[74] The information in this chapter was collected by the Commission on the Native Decrease (1891), of which the author was a member.
[75] Thus, John X. marries Mary O. They have two children, male O. and female O. (belonging to the mother's group). These marry female X. and male X. (father's group). Their children would be X.'s and O.'s respectively, following their mothers, and, if of opposite sex, could intermarry, although public opinion regards the union as improper in consequence of the near relationship of the parents.
[76] Du Chaillu, Trans. Ethn. Soc., N.S., Vol. I, p. 321.
[77] Smithsonian Report, 1866, p. 315.
[78] De Mor., Germ., XX., quoted by Sir John Lubbock.
[79] We find it stated by Dr. Codrington that there is a remarkable tendency throughout the islands of Melanesia towards the substitution of a man's own children for his sister's children and others of his kin in succession to his property; and this appears to begin where the property is the produce of the man's own industry.
[80] Quoted by Sir John Lubbock, Origin of Civilization.
[81] In these degenerate days the tombe are worn by many unmarried girls who have no right to them.
[82] I remember a high chief in Fiji, who had married a Tongan girl, complaining bitterly of the invasion of his privacy by the bride's aunt, who insisted upon officiating as a witness, and relating with glee how, in the small hours, he had forcibly bundled the old lady out into the night.