The Solomon Islands and Their Natives Part 13

[123] Exhibited in the British Museum Ethnological collection.

Caution is required in studying the modes of ornamentation of these islanders. The remark made by the Rev. Mr. Lawes, in reference to the women of the Motu tribe in New Guinea,[124] that they are glad to get new tattooing patterns from the printed calicoes, is equally applicable to some of the Solomon Island natives. On one occasion I was gravely informed by a native, as a fact likely to add to their interest, that some designs I was copying had this origin.

[124] Journ. Anthrop. Inst. vol. VIII., p. 369.

The Solomon Island songs, although often monotonous to the cultivated ear, appeared to me to be in consonance with the wild character of these islanders. Often when I have stopped to rest and enjoy a pipe in the midst of my excursions, it may have been beside a stream in the wood or on the edge of a tall cliff overlooking the sea, my native companions have sat down and commenced their monotonous chanting, which, discordant as it may have sometimes seemed to me, appeared to be in unison with my surroundings. Now raised to a high key, now sinking to a low, subdued drone, now hurried, now slow and measured, these rude notes recalled to my mind rather the sounds of the inanimate world around me, such as the sighing of the wind among the trees or the shrill whistle of the gale, the noise of the surf on the reef or the rippling of the waves on the beach, the rus.h.i.+ng of a mountain torrent or the murmuring of a rivulet in its bed. My thoughts at such times recurred to those unpolished ages in the history of nations when the bard attuned his melody to the voices of the waves, the streams, and the wind, and found in the mist or in the cloud his expression for the shadowy unknown. At no time have the poems of Ossian appeared to my mind to be invested with greater beauty than when I have been standing in solitude in some inland dell or on some lofty hill-top in these regions. The song of the bard of Selma, despite its ruggedness, on such occasions, appealed more powerfully to my imagination than many more finished verses, and seemed more in keeping with scenes that owed to man nothing, remaining as they had been for ages, Nature's handiwork.

Frequently whilst descending some steep hill-slope or whilst following the downward course of a ravine, my natives were wont to make the woods echo with their shouts and their wild songs. The natural impulse to make use of the vocal organs whilst descending a mountain is worth a moment's remark. Often I found myself involuntarily shouting with my savage companions, when their loud peals of laughter attracted my attention.

Some years ago, when visiting the Si-shan Mountains which lie behind the city of Kiukiang on the south bank of the Yang-tse, I remember listening to the cries of the Chinese wood-cutters as they returned in the evening down the narrow gorges that led to their homes. As their shouts died away in the higher parts of the mountain, the echo was caught by the wood-cutters below, and was answered back in such a manner that the men further down the gorges took up the cry.

[Ill.u.s.tration: WAR DANCE and CANNIBAL SONG.

_Tempo di marcia._

(Music)

Ko-pi-e-e Ko-pi-e-e ta-li Sor-si-o u-la mu-la ta-li Ko-pi-e-e-e Ko-pi-e-e-e ta-li Sor-si-o u-la mu-la ta-li

No. 2.

(Music)

No. 3.

(Music)

Li-li a-ma-lo-o Li-li a-ma-lo-o A- -ma-lo na-va-ka-ro ka-ro Si-si na-ka-ri-e.

NOTE.--The vowels to be p.r.o.nounced as follows: _a_ as in "tar," _e_ as in "obey," _i_ as in "ici," _o_ as in "so," _u_ as in "rule."]

The training of natives of these islands by the Melanesian Mission at Norfolk Island has shown that the compa.s.s of their voices and their ear for music are capable of much cultivation. When staying with Bishop Selwyn at Gaeta in the Florida Islands, I heard familiar hymn-tunes sung with as true an appreciation of harmony as would be found in the Sunday School of an English village, and sung by a congregation of natives of both s.e.xes, who, with the exception of their teachers, had never left their island.

During our lengthened sojourn in Bougainville Straits, we became very familiar with the popular tunes of the natives; and through the exertions of Mr. Isabell, I have been able to reproduce in this work three of the commonest airs.[125] The songs are usually sung in chorus, and a droning accompaniment is often introduced by some of the men which is especially well given in the second tune. There appear to be four or five common airs. All are short and most of them have refrains which are repeated over and over again. The first tune is a cannibal song and is sung at the war dances. Its words, as I learned from Gorai, the Shortland chief, are the address of a man to his enemy, in which he informs him of his intention to kill and eat him. The second tune, though not possessing words, is often sung or rather chanted by the men.

When sung by a number of persons, its wild music is to an imaginative mind very suggestive of the savage life. I have heard it sung by about forty men whilst pa.s.sing the night with them in the village of Sinasoro in Faro Island. The tambu-house, in which we were, was dimly lighted, and the natives were squatting around a wood-fire chanting their wild song in chorus, and terminating it in a fas.h.i.+on that sounded very abrupt to the white man's ear. The third tune is a pretty air which the men of the "Lark" used to play with the concertina in waltz time. The words, accompanying it, have a music of their own. I learned from the natives of Treasury Island that this tune was brought from Meoko (Duke of York Islands) not long since.

[125] Mr. Isabell was indebted for a.s.sistance to Mr. Tremaine of Auckland, N.Z.

The Pandean pipe is the musical instrument in common use amongst the natives of the Islands of Bougainville Straits. I did not notice it in St. Christoval and the adjacent islands at the other end of the group, where it is either not known or but rarely used. The distribution of this instrument in the Pacific is interesting. It is figured by D'Albertis in his work on New Guinea, and there are specimens in the British Museum Collection from Brumer's Island off this coast, as well as from the Admiralty Islands, the New Hebrides, the Tonga Group, and New Zealand. The instruments from all these localities are distinguished from the Solomon Island pan-pipe by the reeds being arranged in a single row and being of a much smaller size. They are also more neatly made.

Those used by the Treasury and Shortland natives are composed of a double row of from 6 to 8 reeds, the second row being merely added to give support to the instrument. The longest reed is usually a foot in length and three quarters of an inch in bore; whilst the shortest reed is about 5 inches long and rather less than half an inch in bore. Some natives prefer instruments having twice this length. The Pandean pipes, played at the public dances of Alu, are of very large size, the length of the longest reed of one which I measured being between 3 and 4 feet.

At such performances, the air is given by the smaller pipes; whilst the ba.s.s notes of the larger pipes form a droning but harmonious accompaniment. The music of these instruments, being in the usual contracted compa.s.s, is of a somewhat monotonous character. Those of Treasury Island are said to be only adapted for playing one tune, which is the second air given on the page. I learn from Mr. Isabell, who was interested in this matter, that the natives vary the number of reeds in the instrument according to the air it is intended to play. The musician accompanies his melody with a nodding of the head and a swaying of the body on the hips, movements which are anything but expressive and are in fact rather ludicrous.

Jew's harps of foreign manufacture are much in demand amongst persons of both s.e.xes and all ages throughout the Solomon Group. In the eastern islands they fas.h.i.+on them of bamboo, as in the New Hebrides and New Guinea;[126] but I did not observe any native-made instruments amongst the people of Bougainville Straits. The women of Treasury Island produce a similar though softer kind of music by playing, somewhat after the fas.h.i.+on of a Jew's harp, on a lightly made fine-stringed bow about 15 inches long. This is held to the lips and the string is gently struck with the fingers, the cavity of the mouth serving as a resonator... .

That school-boy's delight, the "paper-and-comb instrument," finds its counterpart in these islands. On one occasion, when I was enjoying a pipe and watching the surf on the south coast of Stirling Island, a young lad, who accompanied me, amused himself with some rude music by holding in front of his lips, as he hummed a native air, a thick leaf in which he had made a hole about half an inch wide, leaving the thin transparent epidermis intact on one side; the vibration of this thin membrane gave a peculiar tw.a.n.g to his voice.

[126] Mr. Mosely in his "Notes by a Naturalist" gives an ill.u.s.tration of a Jew's harp from the New Hebrides.

The drum in common use in the different islands we visited was made of a portion of the trunk of a tree, 8 to 10 feet long, hollowed out in its interior and possessing a slit in the middle. It is placed lengthways on the ground, and is struck by two short sticks. Similar drums are employed by the inhabitants of the New Hebrides[127] and the Admiralty Islands.[128] This pattern may therefore be described as the Melanesian drum. A kind of sounding-board, placed in a pit in the ground and struck by the feet of the dancers, is described in my account of the dances of these islanders (_vide_ page 144).

[127] "A year in the New Hebrides" by F. A Campbell, p. 108. The drums are placed erect in the earth.

[128] Mosely's "Notes by a Naturalist on the 'Challenger,'" p. 471.

As conches, the two large sh.e.l.ls, _Triton_ and _Ca.s.sis_ are commonly used. For this purpose, a hole is pierced for the lips on the side of the spire.

Dancing is performed on very different occasions in these islands.

Besides the war, funeral, and festal dances, there are others which partake of a lascivious character both in the words of the accompanying chant and in the movements of the hands and body. Whilst visiting the small island of Santa Catalina, I saw one of these dances performed by young girls from 10 to 14 years of age. An explanation of their reluctance to commence, which at first from my ignorance of what was to follow I was at a loss to understand, soon offered itself in the character of the dance, and evidently arose from a natural sense of modesty that appeared strange when a.s.sociated with their subsequent performance. There are, however, other dances, purely sportive in their nature. Of such a kind were some which were performed for my benefit at the village of Gaeta in the Florida Islands. About twenty lads, having formed a ring around a group of their companions squatting in the centre, began to walk slowly round, tapping the ground with their left feet at every other step, and keeping time with a dismal drone chanted by the central group of boys. Every now and then the boys of the ring bent forward on one knee towards those in the middle, while at the same time they clapped their hands and made a peculiar noise between a hiss and a sneeze: the chant then became more enlivening and the dancing more spirited. On the following day the women of the village took part in a dance which was very similar to that of the boys, except that there was no central group, and that they wore bunches of large beans around the left ankle which made a rattling noise when they tapped the ground at every other step with the left foot. Bishop Selwyn, to whom I was indebted for the opportunity of witnessing these dances in the village of Gaeta, informed me that in the Florida Islands, dancing is often more or less of a profession, troupes of dancers making lengthened tours through the different islands of this sub-group.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

During a great feast that was held in the island of Treasury, the following dance was performed. Between thirty and forty women and girls stood in a ring around a semi-circular pit, 5 feet across, which was sunk about 4 feet in the ground. A board, which was fixed in the pit about half way down, covered it in with the exception of a notch at its border. On this board stood two women, and as they danced they stamped with their feet, producing a dull hollow sound, to which the women of the circle timed their dancing, which consisted in bending their bodies slightly forward, gently swaying from side to side, and raising their feet alternately. All the while, the dancers sang in a spirited style different native airs. Now and then, a pair of women would dance slowly round outside the circle, holding before them their folded panda.n.u.s mats which all the performers carried.[129]

[129] The employment of a hole in the ground as a resonator does not appear to be common. Mr. Mosely in his "Notes by a Naturalist," p.

309, refers to a somewhat similar use of holes in the ground by the Fijians who place a log-drum of light wood over three holes and strike it with a wooden mallet.

I was present at a dance given on one occasion at Alu, preparatory to a great feast which was about to be held. Soon after sunset the natives began to a.s.semble on the beach, and when Gorai, the chief, arrived on the scene, between thirty and forty men arranged themselves in a circle, each carrying his pan-pipe. They began by playing an air in slow time, accompanying the music by a slight swaying motion of the body, and by alternately raising each foot. Then the notes became more lively and the movements of the dancers more brisk. The larger pipes took the part of the ba.s.s in a rude but harmonious symphony, whilst the monotonous air was repeated without much variation in the higher key of the smaller instruments. At times one of the younger men stopped in the centre of the ring, tomahawk in hand, and whilst he a.s.sumed a half-stooping posture, with his face looking upwards, the musicians dwelt on the same note which became gradually quicker and louder, whilst the dancing became more brisk, until, when the tip-toe of expectation was apparently reached, and one was beginning to feel that something ought to happen, the man in the centre who had been hitherto motionless, swung back a leg, stuck his tomahawk in the ground, and one's feelings were relieved by the dull monotone suddenly breaking off into a lively native air...

On another occasion, I was present at a funeral or mourning dance, which was held in connection with the death of the princ.i.p.al wife of the Alu chief. It will be found described on page 48.

I will conclude this chapter by alluding to a favourite game of the Treasury boys which reminded me somewhat of our English game of peg-tops. An oval pebble about two inches long is placed on a leaf on the ground. Each boy then takes a similar pebble, around which a piece of twine is wound; and standing about eight feet away, he endeavours in the following manner to throw it so as to fall on the pebble on the ground. The end of the twine is held between his fingers; and as the twine uncoils, he jerks it backwards and brings his pebble with considerable force on top of the other.

CHAPTER VIII.

CANOES--FIs.h.i.+NG--HUNTING.

IN the eastern islands of the Solomon Group there is a considerable uniformity in the construction of the canoe. "Dug-out" canoes are rarely to be seen, except in the sheltered waters of some such harbour as that of Makira, when they are provided with outriggers. In the case of the built canoes, outriggers are not employed, and, in truth, the general absence of outriggers is characteristic of this group. The small-sized canoe, which is in common use amongst the natives of St. Christoval and the adjacent islands, measures fifteen or sixteen feet in length and carries three men. The side is built of two planks; whilst two narrower planks form the rounded bottom. Both stem and stern are prolonged upwards into beaks which are rudely carved; whilst the gunwale towards either end is ornamented with representations both of fishes, such as sharks and bonitos, and of sea-birds. The planks are sewn together, and the seams are covered over with a resinous substance that is obtained from the fruit of the _Parinarium laurinum_ which is a common tree throughout the group. This resinous material takes some weeks to dry, when it becomes dark and hard.

Of the larger canoes, which are similarly constructed, I will take as the type the war-canoe. Its length is usually from 35 to 40 feet: its sides are of three planks; and the keel is flat, the stem and stern being continued upwards in the form of beaks. Native decorative talent is brought into play in the decoration of the war-canoe. Its sides are inlaid with pieces, usually triangular in form, of the pearl-sh.e.l.l of commerce (_Meleagrina margaritifera_); and the small and large _opercula_ belonging to sh.e.l.ls of the _Turbinidae_ with flat spiral discs produced by grinding down ordinary Cone-sh.e.l.ls (_Conidae_) are similarly employed. Along the stem and beak there is usually attached a string of the handsome white cowries (_Ovulum ovum_), or of the pretty white _Natica_ (_Natica mamilla_). In the island of Simbo or Eddystone, where these sh.e.l.ls are used in a similar manner to decorate the large canoes, the white cowry marks the canoes of the chiefs; whilst the _Natica_ sh.e.l.l decorates those of the rest of the people.

The pretty little outrigger canoes of Makira on the St. Christoval coast are only nine inches across; and the native sits on a board, resting on the gunwales of his small craft. From one side there stretch out two slender poles four or five feet in length and supporting at their outer ends a long wooden float which runs parallel with the canoe.

The war-canoes have the reputation amongst resident traders of being good sea-boats. They frequently make the pa.s.sage between Malaita and Ugi, traversing a distance of about thirty miles exposed to the full force of the Pacific swell. A similarly exposed but much longer pa.s.sage of ninety miles is successfully accomplished by the war-canoes of Santa Catalina, when the natives of this small island pay their periodical visits to a friendly tribe on the coast of Malaita.

Skilfully managed, even the smaller canoes, which carry two or three persons, will behave well in a moderately heavy sea. I frequently used them and had practical experience of the dexterity with which they are handled. On one occasion I was coasting along the west side of the island of Simbo in an overladen canoe; and there was just enough "lop"

and swell to make the chances even as to whether we should have to swim for it or not. It was astonis.h.i.+ng to see the various manuvres employed by my natives to keep our little craft afloat--now smoothing off with the blade of the paddle the top of the wave as it rose to the gunwale, now dodging the swell and taking full advantage of its onward roll, now putting a leg over each side to increase the stability of the canoe; by such devices, in addition to continuous baling, I managed to escape the unpleasantness of a ducking.

Although the larger canoes of the Solomon Islanders are apparently suited to the requirements of the natives, yet the want of an outrigger must be often felt, especially in making the unprotected sea pa.s.sages from one island to another. The natives of Bougainville Straits who, as referred to below, occasionally fit their war-canoes, when heavy laden, with temporary outriggers of stout bamboo poles, must evidently be aware of the deficiencies of their canoes, unless thus provided: yet for some reason or other they make no general use of this contrivance. Bishop Patteson in 1866 was surprised to see on the St. Christoval coast an outrigger canoe which had been built by the natives after the model of a canoe that had been drifted over from Santa Cruz some years before.[130]

He says that the natives found it more serviceable than their own canoes for catching large fish: yet in 1882 after a lapse of sixteen years, we found no signs of this style of canoe having been adopted by the St.

Christoval natives. It seems to me that the explanation of the outrigger canoe not being generally employed by the natives of these islands lies in the arrangement of the larger islands of this group in a double line enclosing a comparatively sheltered sea 350 miles in length, which is, to a great extent, protected from the ocean swell. Thus, the head-hunting voyages of the New Georgia natives to the eastward, which may extend to Malaita 150 miles distant, are entirely confined to these sheltered waters. The pa.s.sages between Malaita and the eastern islands, which I have referred to above, are, however, in great part exposed; but they are only undertaken in very settled weather.

[130] "Life of Bishop Patteson," p. 126 (S.P.C.K. pub.).

On account of the frequent communication which is kept up between the different islands of Bougainville Straits, where open-sea pa.s.sage of from 15 to 25 miles have to be performed, the larger canoes are in more common use and in greater number than in the eastern islands of the group. These large canoes vary in length between 40 and 50 feet, are between 3 and 4 feet in beam, can carry from 18 to 25 men, and are paddled double-banked. They are stoutly built with three lines of side-planking and two narrow planks forming the bottom of the canoe: all the planks are bevelled off at their edges and are brought, or rather sewn, together by narrow strips of the slender stems of a pretty climbing fern (_Lygonia_ sp.), the "asama" of the natives, which have the pliancy and strength of rattan. The seams are caulked with the same resinous material that is employed for this purpose in the eastern islands, and is obtained from the brown nearly spherical fruits of the "t.i.ta" of the native, the _Parinarium laurinum_ of the botanist.[131]

[131] The resin of this fruit is used for the same purpose in Isabel and probably throughout the group. It is similarly used in the Admiralty Islands. Narrative of the "Challenger," page 719.

The natives of Bougainville Straits do not decorate their canoes to any great extent; and in this they differ from those of St. Christoval, who, as I have remarked, ornament the prows and gunwales with carvings of fish and sea-birds, and inlay the sides with pearl-sh.e.l.l. The stems and sterns of the large canoes of Faro and of Choiseul Bay are continued up in the form of high beaks, which rise 12 to 15 feet above the water. I was at first at a loss to find the explanation of these high beaks, which give the canoes of Bougainville Straits such a singular appearance. In the narratives of the voyages of Bougainville and Surville who observed those high-beaked canoes, the former at Choiseul Bay in 1768,[132] and the latter at Port Praslin, in Isabel, in 1769,[133] we find the explanation required, which is, that these high prows, when the canoe is turned end on to the enemy, afford shelter against arrows and other missiles.