et. Then a pack of dogs
announce our arrival, threatening us with hypocritical zeal. A few
children, playing in the dirt among the pigs, jump up and run away,
then slowly return, take us by the hand and stare into our faces. At
noon we will generally find all the men assembled in the gamal making
"lap-lap." Lap-lap is the national dish of the natives of the New
Hebrides; quite one-fifth part of their lives is spent in making
and eating lap-lap. The work is not strenuous. The cook sits on the
ground and rubs the fruit, yam or taro, on a piece of rough coral or a
palm-sheath, thus making a thick paste, which is wrapped up in banana
leaves and cooked between stones. After a few hours' cooking it looks
like a thick pudding and does not taste at all bad. For flavouring,
cocoa-nut milk is poured over it, or it is mixed with cabbage, grease,
nuts, roasted and ground, or occasionally with maggots. Besides this
principal dish, sweet potatoes, manioc, bread-fruit, pineapples,
bananas, etc., are eaten in season, and if the natives were less
careless, they would never need to starve, as frequently happens.

The men are not much disturbed by our arrival. They offer us a log to
sit on, and continue to rub their yam, talking us over the while. They
seem to be a very peaceful and friendly crowd, yet in this district
they are particularly cruel and treacherous, and only a few days
after my departure war broke out. The gamal is bare, except for a
few wooden dishes hanging in the roof, and weapons of all kinds, not
in full sight, but ready at any moment. We can see rifles, arrows and
clubs. The clubs are very simple, either straight or curved sticks. Old
pieces are highly valued, and carry marks indicating how many victims
have been killed with them: I saw one club with sixty-seven of these
marks. In former years the spear with about two hundred and fifty
points of human bones was much used, but is now quite replaced by
the rifle. The bones for spear-points and arrow-heads are taken from
the bodies of dead relatives and high-castes. The corpse is buried in
the house, and when it is decayed the bones of the limbs are dug out,
split, polished and used for weapons. The idea is that the courage and
skill of the dead man may be transmitted to the owner of the weapon,
also, that the dead man may take revenge on his murderer, as every
death is considered to have been caused by some enemy. These bones
are naturally full of the poisons of the corp