headman of an inland village will get up and speak in this fashion:
“Not thus, oh, our chief; you go away, and your village will remain here as it is. Look, when you are here we come to see you. You sail away, we shall keep to our villages. When you return, we come again. Perhaps you will give us some betel-nut, some sago, some coco-nuts. Perhaps you will *kula* to us some necklace of shell beads.”
After these harangues are over, the canoes sail away in a body. Some of the women on the beach may weep at the actual departure, but it is taboo to weep afterwards. The woman are also supposed to keep the taboo, that is, not to walk alone out of the village, not to receive male visitors, in fact, to remain chaste and true to their husbands during their absence. Should a woman commit misconduct, her husband’s canoe would be slow. As a rule there are recriminations between husbands and wives and consequent bad feeling on the return of the party; whether the canoe should be blamed or the wife it is difficult to say.
The women now look out for the rain and thunder, for the sign that the men have opened the lilava (special magical bundle). Then they know that the party has arrived on the beach of Sarubwoyna, and performs now its final magic, and prepares for its entrance into the villages of Tu’utauna, and Bwayowa. The women are very anxious that the men should succeed in arriving at Dobu, and that they should not be compelled by bad weather to return from the Amphletts. They have been preparing special grass skirts to put