Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 14, 1903.djvu/278

 252 The Natives of New Caledonia.

majesty, rising sometimes to forty or fifty feet. The only house approaching to it in size is the men's council-room/

In some places the respect paid to a chief is extraordinary, the ordinary men and all the women never allowing them- selves to come within his sight. In the old days, if a woman met a chief by chance, and could not conceal her- self, she was killed. A chief's mother must merely leave the path and turn her back as he passes. The killing of women for such ceremonial offences has been mainly put down by the French, but the chief's women will beat the unlucky offender. I have heard, on the authority of an European eye-witness, of the killing of a native man for an accidental breach of decorum in the presence of a chief. (A Roman emperor is said to have been infinitely more lenient.)

There are three classes in a tribe :

1. The Chief and his family, even the women being held in respect.

2. Landowners.

3. The Landless.

But, practically, the chief is first, and the rest are nowhere. Of cannibalism I have spoken in the sad case of my poor cook. In general I think that the introduction of pigs has helped to undermine the custom. The old men still speak with zest of the ancient practice. Even in Lifu, where the missionaries have really done good, one fine old man spoke

' I do not find in Mr. Atkinson's papers any exact account of what constitutes a chief, beyond hereditary real property. The sorcerers are apt to accumulate and transmit wealth. They are of more intelligent appearance, he says, than the bulk of the tribesmen, and are capable of rain-making, sun-making, and wind-making. This last feat is performed by ceremonies which involve the chewing of certain herbs, and ejecting the juice from the mouth, nose, and ears, in the desired direction. Mr. Atkinson found the son of a sorcerer, though very young, expert in these performances, and believed that sorcery was probably hereditary. But the sorcerer and the chief, at present, are certainly not identical, though magic may have been one source of the wealth of chiefs, and of their power. iNIoncelon found war-chiefs ( ZbzV^rtc/^ in Gaelic, •'The Caftain of Clanranald "') subordinate to the real chief. — A. L.