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

ECONOMIC LIFE I89
and to ward off evil-minded ghosts who may wish to do the
plants harm ; and further that some men possess special stones
which they plant in their gardens to ensure a proliï¬Åc yield (cf.
Magic). There are, also, certain tahus which must be observed
towards the gardens, particularly towards those wherein the
plants are still young. For instance, they may not be entered
by a menstruating woman, nor by the husband of such a woman,
nor by any man who has the previous night had sexual intercourse.

Fm. 7. A property mark, naghorghw, set up to protect coon-nuts from thieves.
(After a rough sketch by the author.)
Frsz-um;
In Malekula, as in many other Melanesian islands, the sea-
shore, aswell as the bush, is divided up as the property of certain
clans. Reefs and prominent objects on the coa,st~line mark
the boundaries of the ï¬Åshing areas of the coastal villages.
There are only the very scantiest data concerning the methods
by which ï¬Åsh are caught, and there is unfortunately no informa-
tion at all about the sociological background of such activities.