Page:The sexual life of savages in north-western Melanesia.djvu/492

 MORALS AND MANNERS

other's lice is to us decidedly unappetizing. But the native is equally disgusted when the European gorges himself on stinking cheese, or consumes undefined abomi- nations from tins j or when he unashamedly eats stingaree, wild pig or any other matters permitted only to people of the lowest rank. He is also shocked at the white man's habit of making himself temporarily imbecile or violent with gin and whisky. If, to an uneducated white man, Melanesian dress may appear inadequate, the strange custom prevalent among white women of reducing instead of adding to their dress for festive occasions is upsetting and indecorous to the native who meets it on his travels to European settlements.

Even now, when a more liberal and instructed policy directs the relations between native and European, it is well to remember these things 5 and to keep in mind that wisdom and good manners alike demand that we respect those feelings in other people which are dictated by their own cultural standards.

THE MORALS OF SEX

Before proceeding to a detailed consideration of the subject of this section, we will assemble and briefly re- state the relevant facts already in our possession, so that they may be presented to the reader in their proper per- spective. For the inter-relation of facts and the pro- portions they assume in native life are as important as, if not more so than, the isolated facts themselves, if we

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