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

16 MALEKULA
history of Malekula as well as upon that of the Northern and
North-CENTRAL New Hebrides in general, will be discussed in a
later chapter. For purposes of convenience the division of this
island into the culture areas outlined above will be adhered to
and will be rnade the basis of the arrangement of the material
in the following pages.
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Tl-{E MALEKULAN Moos or LIFE
Although we can distinguish clearly betwecn the mat—skirt
and the fringe-skirt culture areas, as well as between subdivisions
of these, the general way in which the Malekulans live is every-
where much the same. The people dwell in small villages or
hamlets, which, though their ground-plans differ in certain
respects, always comprise a roughly circular dancing ground
with a club-house forrthe men somewhere at its edge, and a
number of dwelling huts, usually scattered rather irregularly,
near by. The principal occupation of the people is gardening,
for their diet is predominantly a vegetarian one, yarns being the
staple food-stufi. In the coastal villages, however, ï¬Åsh are caught
and shell-ï¬Åsh and crabs are collected, while everywhere wild pig
is hunted ; but the products of these activities are regarded as
tasty extras to the usual vegetable dish, never as the basis of a
meal. Apart from the wild pig little meat food is obtained from
the bush. Snakes and lizards are only eaten in times of scarcity,
and birds are shot for their plumage not their flesh.‘
Of domestic animals, the pig and fowl appear to have been
known to the Malekulans before the coming of the whites, and
they both play a considerable part in the life of the natives.
Cattle and goats have since been introduced by the Europeans,
but these have never been really taken up by the indigenous
inhabitants, and have not yet become an important factor in
their economic life. Dogs, on the other hand, which were also
introduced by the Europeans, are kept and are used to some
slight extent in hunting. It must be appreciated that the
importance of the domesticated pig and fowl does not lie primarily
in their being sources of food. Fowls indeed do not seem to be
eaten to any great extent, if at all, nor apparently are their
eggs, but like the wild birds they are chiefly valuable for their