Page:The sexual life of savages in north-western Melanesia.djvu/227

Rh An informant in Teyava, in a similar discussion, made several statements of which I adduce the two most spontaneous and conclusive ones. "Copulation alone cannot produce a child. Night after night, for years, girls copulate. No child comes." In this we see again the same argument from empirical evidence; the majority of girls, in spite of their assiduous cultivation of intercourse, do not bring forth. In another statement the same informant says: "They talk that seminal fluid makes child. Lie! The spirits indeed bring [children] at night time."

My favourite informant in Omarakana, Tokulubakiki, on whose honesty, goodwill, and dispassionate reflection I could always rely, when I wanted a final test of my information, gave a clear, though somewhat Rabelaisian, statement of the native point of view:—

"Takayta,itokayvivilaitalagila We copulateshe gets upwomanit runs out

momona—iwokwo." seminal fluid—it is finished.

In other words, after the traces of sexual intercourse have been removed, there are no further consequences. These sayings are trenchant enough, as were those previously quoted; but, after all, an opinion is a mere academic expression of belief, the depth and tenacity of which can best be gauged by the test of behaviour. To a South Sea native, as to a European peasant, his domestic animals—that is, his pigs—are the most valued and cherished members of the household. And if his earnest and genuine conviction can be seen anywhere, it will be in his Rh