The Melanesian As He Really Is

A Character Study by the Late Rev. Maurice Prater, Who Died Last Year After a Lifetime of Missionary Service in the New Hebrides.

IF you take the South Seas slowly and deliberately, you may come to learn something of the races that inhabit them; and to know them is to under stand many pages of their history.

I thought I knew all that was to be known about these people during my first twelve months among them. They appeared to be quite simple and unso phisticated. I was sure that as soon as I was master of their language, I should find them easy to read and still more easy to handle.

I did not know half as much about them after three or four years, and the longer I lived among them the less con fident I became. Now, after nearly forty years among the natives of the New Hebrides, I realise that there is still a great deal to learn, and that I should require another lifetime to learn all.

Simple and childlike one moment, art ful and intriguing the next, the native is complex in his simplicity and artless in his scheming and duplicity. Often behind the apparently simple statement of one you detect a hidden meaning, and then when you suspect a sinister motive be hind the speech of another you find it is not there. Tantalising, yet engaging.

crafty yet guileless, suspicious yet con fiding, they confound all your precon ceived ideas, provoke all your senses, and call for all the patience that is in you.

Kindly And Courteous

rE world knows them as savages, but they are kindly and courteous, with a natural charm of manner befit ting their fabled home. There are some outstanding characters among them, such as one can find in any race, and such men and women are regarded by their fellows with the deference every where paid to talent and superior stature. There is a natural refinement about these folks, dignity and politeness being conspicuous features whether in dealing with one another or with Euro peans.

At times this politeness can be highly exasperating when, for fear of giving offence, they are economical of truth and are reluctant to give a straight answer.

You put a question to a native and the first thing he does is not to state what he thinks, but to discover the sort of answer you want. Watching your countenance and tone of voice, he will try and find out what you think about it yourself. Should you have an open mind he is not afraid to speak, but if you maintain a sphinx-like silence, he refuses to commit himself and takes refuge in a subterfuge, answering, “Whatever you say yourself.”

This reserve is a great stumbling-block to free intercourse and reciprocal rela tions between the two races. Doubtless it arises from a fundamental difference in outlook and upbringing: the one obeys written laws, the other tribal customs.

But when unfettered by convention, natives are not sycophants by any means.

They express their minds freely, and give constructive views on the subject under review, showing confidence in themselves and their capabilities. Such men are to be found everywhere, and are excellent material to work with.

Stoical Children

NATIVES are naturally cheerful, and not easily turned from the even tenor of their ways. Children of nature and of the sun, they live on the sunny side of life and are never dejected for long by adversity or sorrow. They enjoy life to the full, untroubled with the care of yesterday and heedless of what to-morrow may bring. Even after a night of wailing, when stricken with grief, they soon regain their gaiety of spirit. Death is marked by unrelieved and bitter mourning, when the men, with stolid mien, and the women, with violent lamentations, give way to implacable grief. Yet it is not long before you see the mourners resuming the daily routine of life and chattering as gaily as before.

As babies, they are far more solemn and staid than white children. They do not cry nearly so much, and will endure discomfort without a murmur.

Wrapped up in a blanket upon their mother’s back, with only their woolly heads appearing over her shoulder, they will travel for hours with the scorching sun beating upon them. Under the fierce heat the tiny heads toss and roll from side to side without a word of complaint from the little mites. Under such an ordeal white babies would kick and scream.

At play they are less noisy and lack

the bounding spirits and tireless energy of white children. With spleens enlarged from constant malaria, they clasp their hands over their fat, distended stomachs and stare like graven images at passers by. But as soon as babyhood is left behind, and they are set free from the pampered care of their mothers and the village matrons, they, in company with the young life of the village, grow up cheerful as the birds and happy as the day is long.

A Born Dramatist

rE native is 'by nature unsceptical and, from his earliest contact with Europeans, this trait has made him the prey of every unscrupulous adven turer that crossed his path.

Coupled with this natural characteris tic is another which makes him an easy victim for exnloitation. He is a born dramatist. “All the world’s a stage, and men and women merely players.” Noth ing throws him off his balance like the lure of the fantastic, and he is at the mercy of any garrulous man of fortune.

Travellers from overseas soon learned to take advantage of this weakness, and would snin all sorts of grotesque fairy tales. The most absurd and impossible stories were accepted with question; indeed, the more improbable and fan tastic the tale, the greater the likelihood of obtaining credence.

With such a capacity for being duped, Pacific Islanders have provided a happy hunting ground for all kinds of rogues, from blackbirders to pirates. Reacting to this trait in the native character, the South Sea Islanders have produced more soldiers of fortune than any other part of the world. Bully Hayes was a product of the South Seas.

Easily Duped

AN adventurer from America, with a flair for the fantastic and theatri cal, landed on the island of Am brim, New Hebrides, with a consignment of grog. The natives had only shortly before taken a pledge to abstain from intoxicating liquors and the exploiter soon recognised that he was going to have difficulty in disposing of his wares.

Bargaining on the credulity of his cus tomers. he hit upon a novel device and electrified the natives by exhibiting on the door of his tent a proclamation from the President of the United States giv ing him authority to sell, and the natives permission to buy as much grog as they panted. The unsophisticated islanders accepted the notice at its face value and were at once converted from passive resisters into active customers and agents. As soon as the stock was cleared, the Yankee made a hurried departure, leaving his dupes, poorer, sadder and wiser men.

Prey To Recruiters

RECRUITERS from overseas visited the New Hebrides islands, and from them the young men heard of the wonderful lands just over the sky-line, and the fortunes that awaited them there. Living in a drab and lonesome world, they were excited beyond mea sure and welcomed the opportunity of escape from the monotony of their hum drum existence.

On the impulse of the moment, at the beck of an unknown wanderer, they left their homes in great numbers and embarked on what turned out to be in many instances either a wild goose chase or a mad adventure. The early history of native contact with Europeans is a chronicle of one long series of ruinous escapades and outrages.

Conscientious traders who reside in the Islands and refuse to countenance such methods are placed at a great dis

advantage in their dealings with the natives. They are no match for the wild romancers to whose promises and programmes there is no limit. Though they c?eTu.l?y^rt h e OP naTives e is 10 a ng m enace th to which they are continually exposed.

And, unfortunately, though the natives have been taught dearly-bought lessons, they never remember for long. The stage is set always for the man of fortune; and the next one who comes along, with another version of the same old story, offering rivers of rum and mountains of sugar, is sure of a welcome and of the readiness of the natives to embark on a new venture. But every act of the drama ends in the same way, and the natives leave the stage the dupes of the travelling showmen.