It seemed that these
savages were continually at war with one another, and the boom of the
great wooden war drums was always sounding somewhere in the group. It
was from prisoners taken in battle that men were provided for cannibal
feasts, hence there was never lacking a cause for quarrel. The
prisoners were kept in a compound, where they were fattened for the pot
and killed when wanted.
These islanders were industrious in their own way. They built
comfortable houses, and made excellent pottery capable of withstanding
the heat of fire when used for cooking. Their boat-builders constructed
sea-going canoes capable of travelling long distances. They also made a
delicate cloth from the bark of the mulberry tree, upon which they
printed from wooden blocks patterns of great elegance. Their spears and
clubs also showed much taste in their construction and ornamentation.
The women made fishing nets of coconut fibre, with which they captured
an abundance of fish. The tribes on the different islands kept up a
system of barter with one another, exchanging commodities, the making
of which was their hereditary occupation. A son followed the occupation
of his father, and for him to have followed any other occupation would
have been regarded as an offence against ancestors.
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