[43] There is apparently no corresponding ceremony among the Koita natives (Seligmann, Melanesians of British New Guinea, p. 72), nor among the Roro people (Id., p. 256), and I do not believe there is any such in Mekeo.

[44] I do not think these pigtails are used as ornaments by the Roro and Mekeo people, though Dr. Seligmann says that a Koita bridegroom wears them in his ears on his wedding day (Melanesians of British New Guinea, p. 78).

[45] Dr. Stapf, to whose inspection I have submitted two of these combs, said they were made of palm-wood—­split and shaped pieces from the periphery of the petiole or stem of a palm—­and that the material used for binding the teeth of the combs together was sclerenchyma fibre from the petiole or rhizome of a fern.

[46] These earrings are, I think, sometimes found in Mekeo; but they have all come from the mountains.

[47] See note on p. 27 as to the way in which these plates have been produced.

[48] Only the two ends of the pattern have been copied, the intermediate part being the same throughout, as is shown.

[49] I am unable to state the various forms and varieties of these vegetables, but I give the following native names for plants of the yam, taro, and sweet potato types:—­Yams include tsiolo, avanve, buba, aligarde, vaule, vonide, poloide and ilavuide.  Taros include auvari, elume, lupeliolu, kamulepe, ivuvana and fude.  Sweet potatoes include asi, bili, dube, saisasumulube and amb’ u tolo (this last name means “ripe banana,” and the reason suggested for the name is that the potato tastes rather like a ripe banana).

[50] Dr. Stapf says the wood is that of a rather soft-wooded dicotyledonous tree (possibly urticaceous).

[51] The Chirima boring instrument figured by Mr. Monckton (Annual Report for June 30, 1906) is rather of the Mafulu type, but in this case the fly-wheel, instead of being a flat piece of wood, appears to be made of a split reed bound on either side of the upright cane shaft.

[52] Hammocks are also used in the plains and on the coast, but only, I think, to a very limited extent; whereas in the mountains, of at all events the Mafulu district, they are used largely.

[53] I had a considerable quantity of impedimenta, and unfortunately my condition made it necessary for me to be carried down also; and I had great difficulty in getting enough carriers.

[54] Compare the differently shaped mortar found in the Yodda valley and described and figured in the Annual Report for June, 1904, p. 31.

[55] The practice of destroying the pigs’ eyes in the Kuni district is referred to in the Annual Report for June, 1900, p. 61.

[56] This is subject to the qualification which arises from the fact (stated below) that a member of one clan who migrates to a village of another clan retains his imbele relationship to the members of his own old clan, although he has by his change of residence obtained a similar relationship to the members of the clan in whose village he has settled.