CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTORY.

Groups of Melanesian Islands. Connection to the East and West. Discovery. Spanish, French, and English discoverers. Native and geographical names of the islands. Identification. Condition at the time of discovery. Native views of the discoverers. Geology. Volcanoes. Coral. Reef islands. Lakes. Waterfalls. Zoology . . . . . . . . . pp. 1–19

CHAPTER II.

SOCIAL REGULATIONS. DIVISIONS OF THE PEOPLE. KINSHIP AND MARRIAGE CONNECTION.

Ethnology and origins. Division of the people into exogamous classes social groups where members must marry someone from outside their own group, or kindreds, with matrilineal succession original: "Succession through the Mother". Absence of tribes. Exceptions in the eastern Solomon Islands. Regulation and restriction of sexual intercourse. Incest. Guest-wives. Division into two kin groups. Banks Islands: families and adoption. New Hebrides now known as Vanuatu. The question of communal marriage. Evidence from language. Blood relations. Multiple divisions in Florida and Bugotu. Prohibited things or taboos original: buto. Totems. Customs at Ulawa. The shifting dominance of the Florida kema clans or social divisions. The relationship between a nephew (sister’s son) and his maternal uncle (mother’s brother). The Banks Islands system of relationship: within the kindred, the family, and by marriage. Pedigree of a Mota family. Step-fathers. Terms of relationship in Florida. Systems where descent follows the father. Social reserve. Avoidance customs social taboos regarding how certain relatives must avoid one another in the Banks Islands. The practice of avoiding names as common words. New Hebrides . . . . . . . . . . 20–45