his kind family until I should find an opportunity to
cross. I accepted all the more gladly, as this part of Malo was still
quite unknown to me. The population I found here is probably identical
with that which formerly inhabited the south shore of Santo. This
was interesting to me because of certain scientific details, though
on the whole the life was much the same as elsewhere in Melanesia,
with the Suque, etc. I collected a number of charms and amulets,
which the people sold willingly, as they no longer believed in their
power. Formerly, they were supposed to be useful for poisoning,
as love-charms, or for help in collecting many tusked pigs.

I also visited the neighbouring islands, and heard the gruesome story
of how the last village on Aore disappeared. The Aore people were for
ever at war with those of South Santo, across the Segond Channel. The
men of Aore were about sixty strong, and one day they attacked a
Santo village. Everyone fled except one man, who was helpless from
disease. He was killed and eaten up, and in consequence of this meal
thirty out of the sixty men from Aore died. The others dispersed among
the villages of Malo. In Aore, I had the rare sensation of witnessing
an earthquake below the surface. I was exploring a deep cave in the
coral banks when I heard the well-known rumbling, felt the shock, and
heard some great stalactites fall from the ceiling. This accumulation
of effects seemed then to me a little theatrical and exaggerated.

The next steamer took me to the Banks Islands, and I went ashore at
Port Patterson on Venua Lava. Here were the headquarters of a rubber
planting company; but the rubber trees had not grown well, and the
company had started cocoa-nuts. I had met Mr. Ch., the director,
before, and he took me in. The company owned a motor-launch,
which cruised all through the Banks Islands, visiting the different
plantations; this gave me a good opportunity to see nearly all the
islands. The sea is much more dangerous here than in the New Hebrides,
being open everywhere; and the strong currents cause heavy tide rips
at the points of the jagged coasts.

An excursion to Gaua was a failure, owing to bad weather. After
having shivered in a wet hut for four days, we returned to Port
Patterson only just in time; for in the evening the barometer fell,
a bad sign at that season, and the wind set in afresh. The launch was
anchored in a sheltered corner of the bay, near an old yacht and a
sch