The marriage laws are similar to those in the other islands; and pigs are often given to the parents in exchange for their daughter. The girl being chosen more often for her working capabilities than for her beauty.
The burial ceremony and disposal of the corpse vary considerably in the different islands, but since the introduction of Christianity they are changing {167} to the ordinary Christian burial. In Oceania the author says that in old days “In Efaté the body was carefully prepared for burial and then dressed. The burial was accompanied with much solemnity, and great wailing, and animals were slain in sacrifice to the dead at the grave. It was supposed that the spirits or essence of the animals slain would accompany the souls of the deceased to the spirit-world, the entrance to which was the westermost point of Efaté, at a place called Takituki.”
“In Malekula,” says Lieutenant Boyle T. Somerville, “a sort of mummy is made, of which specimens were brought to his ship by a white trader, who had procured them in exchange for a rifle at the conclusion of a ‘sing-sing.’ They are said to be the effigies of the chief, whose skull (the only portion retained of all his remains) formed the head. This is plastered with mud to represent a living face, a body of bamboo twigs and mud, highly coloured in black, white and red and purple stripes, forms the figure. On each shoulder a highly conventional face is moulded, looking to right and left respectively, and in each hand is a pig’s lower jaw.”
During Mr. Hardy’s travels in these islands, he came across a kind of graveyard where chiefs were {168} supposed to be buried underground, and a heap of stones and rocks marked the spots where they lay.
The skull-huts, already alluded to, show that this is still another form of burial—they are innumerable.
Rain-making is almost as universal as feeding, and every race has its rain-maker, who, for a consideration, will tap the cloudless sky and bring torrents of water down to quench the thirst of the dry earth. In the New Hebrides the rain-maker goes into the forest and there collects the branches of a certain tree, which he cuts into lengths and lays a dozen or so of them parallel to each other. He then takes another dozen and threads them through the parallel ones, forming a kind of flat basket-work hurdle. Over this contrivance he mutters prayers, and then buries it in a dried-up creek where the water should be running.
More incantations follow this proceeding, and then heavy stones and rocks are placed over the rain producer, and the inhabitants all wait for the rain, which, strange to say, generally comes.
THE STONE “DEMITS,” OR THE SOULS, WITH THEIR ATTENDANT WOODEN FIGURES, MALEKULA ISLAND, NEW HEBRIDES.
There is no lack of faith in these natives, and when once they have applied to the rain-maker they set to work to make preparation for the rain, which reminds me of an amusing anecdote I heard in {169} America. In Belmont there had been a tremendous drought, and the farmers were in such a fright that they unanimously decided to appoint a certain day on which rain should be prayed for. On the Sunday chosen, the farmers, their wives, and families rose early and started off to church. Just as one party were leaving home a little child of five or six years old suddenly sprang down from the buggy and cried out for them to wait a minute, as she disappeared into the house. Every one wondered what was the matter, and presently, when the child appeared carrying a great big carriage umbrella, they all burst into roars of laughter. “Why,” said the father, “you silly child, there’s not a cloud in the sky.”