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

40 WITH NATIVES IN THE WESTERN PACIFIC

table. It seemed to give her the greatest trouble,
and the deep distrust with which she handled the
plates found eloquent expression in queer sighs and
mysterious exclamations in her native tongue, in
resigned shakes of the head and emphatic smacking
of the lips. She was a crooked bush—woman from
the north of Malekula, where the people, especially
the women, are unusually ugly and savage. A low
forehead, small, deep-set eyes, and a snout-like
mouth gave her a very animal look ; yet she showed
human feeling, and nursed a shrieking and howling
orphan all day long with the most tender care. Her
little head was shaved and two upper teeth broken
out as a sign of matrimony, so she certainly was no
beauty; but the sight of her clumsy Working was a
constant source of amusement to us men, very much
less so to her mistress, to whom nothing but her
sincere zeal and desire to help could make up for her
utter inefficiency.

It cannot be denied that the women from those
islands, where their social standing is especially low,
are not half so intelligent and teachable as those
from places where they are more nearly equal to the
men; probably because they are :subdued and kept
in degradation from early youth, and not allowed any
initiative or opinions of their own. But physically
these women are very efficient and quite equal to
the men in field work, or even superior, being more
industrious.

The feat of setting the table was accomplished
in about an hour, and we sat down to our simple