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

LOLOWAY—MALO-~THE BANKS ISLANDS 261

the bright, starlit sky, on board the softly rocking
launch, wrapped me in a feeling of safety and coziness
I had not enjoyed for a long time.

Along the steepest path imaginable I climbed
next morning to the mountain’s edge. The path
often led along smooth rocks, where lianas served as
ropes and roots as a foothold; and I was greatly
surprised to find many fields on top, to which the
women have to climb every day and CARRY the food
down afterwards, which implies acrobatic feats of no
mean order.

Ureparapara was the northernmost point I had
reached so far, and the neighbourhood of the art—
loving Solomon Islands already made itself felt.
Whereas in the New Hebrides every form of art,
except mat-braiding, is at once primitive and de-
cadent, here any number of pretty things are made,
such as daintily designed ear-sticks, bracelets, neck—
laces, etc.; I also found a new type of drum, a
regular skin—drum, With the skin stretched across one
end, while the other is stuck into the ground The
skin is made of banana leaves. These and other
' points mark the difference between this people and
that of the New Hebrides. As elsewhere all over
the Banks group, the people have long faces, high
foreheads, narrow, often hooked, noses, and a light
skin. Accordingly, it would seem that they are
on a higher mental plane than those of the New
Hebrides, and cannibalism is said never to have
existed here.

My collections were not greatly enriched, as a