f Vao lies in
the rich, busy human life that fills the island. It is probably the
most thickly populated of the group, with about five hundred souls
living in a space one mile long and three-fourths of a mile wide; and
it is their happy, careless, lazy existence that makes Vao seem to
the stranger like a friendly home. Here there are houses and fires,
lively people who shout and play merrily, and after the loneliness
which blows chill from the bush, the traveller is glad to rest and
feel at home among cheerful fellow-men.

About seventy outrigger boats of all sizes lie on the beach. On
their bows they carry a carved heron, probably some half-forgotten
totem. The bird is more or less richly carved, according to the social
standing of the owner, and a severe watch is kept to prevent people
from carrying carvings too fine for their degree. Similarly, we find
little sticks like small seats fastened to the canoes, their number
indicating the caste of the owner. Under big sheds, in the shade of the
tall trees, lie large whale-boats of European manufacture, belonging
to the different clans, in which the men undertake long cruises to
the other islands, Santo, Aoba, Ambrym, to visit "sing-sings" and
trade in pigs. Formerly they used large canoes composed of several
trees fastened together with ropes of cocoa-nut fibre, and caulked
with rosin, driven by sails of cocoa-nut sheaths; these would hold
thirty to forty men, and were used for many murderous expeditions. For
the inhabitants of Vao were regular pirates, dreaded all along the
coast; they would land unexpectedly in the morning near a village,
kill the men and children, steal the women and start for home with
rich booty. European influences have put a stop to this sport, and
with the introduction of whale-boats the picturesque canoes have
disappeared from the water, and now lie rotting on the beach. Their
successors (though according to old tradition, women may not enter
them) are only used for peaceful purposes.

In the early morning the beach is deserted, but a few hours after
sunrise it is full of life. The different clans come down from their
villages by narrow paths which divide near the shore into one path for
the men and another for the women, leading to separate places. The men
squat down near one of the boat-houses and stretch out comfortably in
the warm sand, smoking and chatting. The women, loaded with children
and baskets, sit in the shade of the knobby trees w