y; but the sight
of her clumsy working was a constant source of amusement to us men,
very much less so to her mistress, to whom nothing but her sincere
zeal and desire to help could make up for her utter inefficiency.

It cannot be denied that the women from those islands, where their
social standing is especially low, are not half so intelligent and
teachable as those from places where they are more nearly equal to
the men; probably because they are subdued and kept in degradation
from early youth, and not allowed any initiative or opinions of their
own. But physically these women are very efficient and quite equal
to the men in field work, or even superior, being more industrious.

The feat of setting the table was accomplished in about an hour, and
we sat down to our simple meal--tinned meat, yams and bananas. Then
the foreman came in. Only a short time ago he was one of the finest
warriors in the interior of Malekula, where cannibalism is still an
everyday occurrence. He, too, wears his hair short, only, according
to the present fashion, he lets the hair on his forehead grow in
a roll-shaped bow across the head. He is well built, though rather
short, and behaves with natural politeness. His voice is soft, his
look gentle and in the doorway his dark figure shines in the lamplight
like a bronze statue.

Mr. Ch. tells him that the boys will have to work all night, at
the same time promising an encouragement in the shape of a glass
of wine to each. The natives' craving for alcohol is often abused by
unscrupulous whites. Although the sale of liquor to natives is strictly
forbidden by the laws of the Condominium, the French authorities do
not even seem to try to enforce this regulation, in fact, they rather
impressed me as favouring the sale, thus protecting the interests of
a degraded class of whites, to the detriment of a valuable race. As
a consequence, there are not a few Frenchmen who make their living by
selling spirits to natives, which may be called, without exaggeration,
a murderous and criminal traffic.

Others profit indirectly by the alcoholism of the islanders by selling
liquor to their hands every Saturday, so as to make them run into
debt; they will all spend their entire wages on drink. If, their
term of engagement being over, they want to return to their homes,
they are told that they are still deep in debt to their master, and
that they will have to pay off by working for some time longer. The
poor