. Women of all nations, a record of their characteristics, habits, manners, customs and influence; . on the death of her husband. In the New Hebrides widows were usuallysmothered or strangled, so that theymight continue their wifely ministrations totlieir husbands in the next world. Theprocess had to be effected as soon as theman was dead, and the wifes body buriedwith that of her husband, otherwise theirspirits might miss each other on their wayto the land of the dead. A conical cap,made of spiders web, which was used forsmothering the New Hebridean widows, isillustrated on p. io8. The women
. Women of all nations, a record of their characteristics, habits, manners, customs and influence; . on the death of her husband. In the New Hebrides widows were usuallysmothered or strangled, so that theymight continue their wifely ministrations totlieir husbands in the next world. Theprocess had to be effected as soon as theman was dead, and the wifes body buriedwith that of her husband, otherwise theirspirits might miss each other on their wayto the land of the dead. A conical cap,made of spiders web, which was used forsmothering the New Hebridean widows, isillustrated on p. io8. The women were byno means anxious to escape their fate,even where escape was provided by aid ofthe missionaries, and the fear of reproachprobably restrained any show of natural MELANESIA 107 reluctance. This would be interpreted as asign of unfaithfulness on the part of thewife, if not as a proof of her implication intlie death of her husband, and she preferred A man is not considered to have at-tained complete manhood in this worlduntil he has taken to himself a wife;and the same holds good of the WAITOVA, NEAR LEVUKA. ot the women have plastered their hair with lime. r!iohi:t\iph by Miiii death at the hands of her family (generallyher son) to a life of dislionour and the riskof death at the hands of her husbandskinsfolk. In Fiji widow-strangling is consideredessential from the native point of view,for the following reason, described by theRev. Lorimer Fison. When he is dead he has to start on his way to spirit-land, and some distance from „... the starting place stands a Fijian , Justification tree by the wayside, and at for Widow. this tree he has to throw the Murder. whales tooth with which his kinsfolk have provided him. No matter how good his aim, he is sure to miss if his io8 WOMEN OF ALL NATIONS friends have not strangled a womanto follow and tend him. If he hits thetree, he smiles a smile of satisfaction andgoes on his way; if he misses, he pro-
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