Page:The Boy Travellers in Australasia.djvu/90

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"In the Feejee Islands it was tabu for brother and sister and first-cousins to speak together or eat from the same dish. Husband and wife could not eat from the same dish, and a father could not speak to his son if the latter was more than fifteen years old!

"The tabu was a very convenient police system, as any exposed property could be made safe by being tabooed. The chiefs and priests could tabu anything they chose; when a feast was about to come off