[Illustration 49: A VILLAGE IN SANTO, NEW HEBRIDES In the foreground are seated two men, the one on the left with a bow. The women behind them have their heads shaved in the usual way, with only a mane down the top of the head. On the ground are ordinary native pots. The long poles in the thatch are for the purpose of keeping it from being blown off, and the poles in front are a defence against pigs and dogs, one of which is seen coming round the corner.] The natives themselves, taking them as a whole, {149} are better built and of a more striking appearance than those of the Solomon Islands. They resemble more nearly the Fijian type than any of the inhabitants of the sister islands. A peculiarity most noticeable in the villages is that there is greater cleanliness and order; the houses are mostly built in groups of four or five, and are low, broad, barn-like huts in which you have to climb up a few feet and down again in order to gain admittance to the living rooms. They are built on the ground and not on piles, and each group is surrounded by a coral wall on which are stuck long bamboo canes. These take root immediately, as the wall is built when the coral is soft, and present an interesting sight. The bamboo canes form a fine high fence, which, unfortunately, in time totally obscures the houses. A gap in the wall is left for the residents of these queer compounds to pass backwards and forwards. Between the houses and the wall a large cleared space is left where the pigs, the dogs, and the babies play. The interiors of the houses are not quite as pleasant or artistic. The whole place inside is blackened with smoke and soot, owing to the smoke from the fire having no proper outlet. The {150} fire is usually lit as near the door as possible, but as the doors are very low the smoke has first to fill the room before it finds its way out. The thatch being thicker than is usual there is very little room for escape in that quarter. Bamboo is used chiefly to build the frames on which to thatch the grass. Forked sticks of a stouter material bear the main weight of the roof, flimsy bamboo canes are bent right over the ridge pole about six inches apart, and secured to another stout pole near the ground, lathes are then run across the bamboo and lashed to them with fibre, and on this framework the outside of the house is made. The floors are covered with mats on which the natives squat by day and sleep at night. Screen mats also divide the interiors of the huts and cut off the sleeping apartments. A few cooking utensils and worn-out, soot-begrimed weapons are generally to be seen lying about, but beyond these articles and the natives themselves, nothing else takes up any room in these dark abodes. Each island has its own particular way of building a house, and those in Malekula are perhaps the best and most modern. Light is admitted to them through a window at the back, which is boarded up at night or in rough weather.