ALL EXCHANGED

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 6, Issue 40, 19 January 1943, Page 6

ALL EXCHANGED

NEW IDENTITY TAKEN HEAD-HUNTERS' PRACTICE The Solomon native, somewhat misgoverned i,n the past, little heard of beyond his: own islands, ancl often supposed to be low in the mental scale, has certain traits which suggest that in one or two matters lie is wiser than those Avho exploit and despise him. True, he is still, when he gets the clianee, a determined head-hunter, he resists white domination and is a head-aching problem to the best of missionaries. But lie seems to have a Avay of occasionally going straight to the point, where; the white man stumbles and hesitates (writes Beatrice Grimshaw in the Sydney Morning Herald). Few of the conquering race, men or women, have, not at times cherished futile longings to be. someone else? to change lots and lives with So-and-So. But the Solomon Islander, among certain tribes, does: not. content himself with dreaming. When the desire to "get away from it all" takes possession of him he acts. Arrangements are made to changc lives with a man from another parti of the island on which lie lives, or perhaps from a different island altogether. Names are exchanged. Property is handed over, and wives, willing or not, may be included in the bargain. Number one for all practical poses becomes number two, and vice versa. It is against all native etiifquette to refuse recognition of such a change; good manners demand that the names and the characters of the two men should be kept Ave.ll in mind and not confused in. their new identities. One is. Two and Two is One, and it is dangerous to forget it. A few years ago a visiting scientist decided to make such a change. He Avas about to undergo the necessary ceremonies, had already taken

his native name, ancl was preparing to settle down in the village of. the other man when the Government stepped in and forbade the bargain because it was likely to lower the prestige of the white race: if a white man actually lived as a native, and, besides, the other party might claim inconvenient rights. The student of anthropology therefore lost what he considered the chance, of his life.

Golden Bullets In another matter altogether the Solomon Islander has shown vision and common sense. He lias sturdily opposed gold, prospecting on the grounds, expressed in, pidgin English, "ib make no good for me." And he knows the value of gold. Malaita, most -warlike and least tameable of the islands, has kept a reserve of sovereigns ever since the last war and used them from time to time to buy (strictly prohibited) cartridges at the rate, it has been whispered, of a pound each. But he is not going to have his island "developed'" if he can stop it, gold or no gold. The Malaita man's knack of changing "the wildest dreams of Ke.w" into "the facts of Kratmandu'" is still further exemplified by his attitude towards that bane of. civilisation, the tax collector. We have all at times; longed to murder him. Only Malaita has actually done it. The first, attempt at the. collection of a head tax in that island resulted in the murder of the collector, unfortunate Mr Bell.. True, the Government punished the "rash act 5 ' and continued to collect taxes with the help of an armed force. But the Malaita man had carried out the white, man's unfulfillable dream. Safe Conduct Safe conduct -through opposing forces has also had his attention. Tribe against tribe, and village against village, trouble is always going on in Malaita and the surrounding islands. Nevertheless, the native needs to travel about, and finds it inconvenient, when he is not on murder bent, to run the risk of sudden death at the hands of hostile neighbours. A safe conduct pass is therefore used among many tribes. It is a piece of shell carving, very neatly done, which represents a circular sun rising from a recumbent' crescent moon. This, signifying "one day and night," allows the bearer to claim safe conduct for that space of time, but no longer. After the rising of the second sun is open season for strangers. Bolli sides may clfj iin the use of the pass in local warfare —a convenience that many white, troops, would well like to en-

joy at the present time, It is unlikely, however, that, the Solomon Islander has tried, the free pass on the Japanese invader; he is no fool. The writer owned one. of these jmsses for some time; it was presented by an old chief, who claimed to be too civilised to need it any longer. The return present by request was a largq tin of, jam. AViser, perhaps, than might be supposed, the Solomon Islander takes sips of civilisation here and there as he wants it, refusing deeper draughts. Burns Philips' store in Tulagi has had. strange tales to tell in the past. "Is that a Malai'ta man?" I asked, when, soon after reaching Tulagi. I was buying stores for a boat trip. "Yes," indifferently answered the salesman. "A proper head-hunting: bloke, and a dashed nuisance. He comes in here to buj r records for his gramophone." "'What do they like?" I asked, intrigued by this vision of a headhunting family sitting round its gramophone, with a row of raw heads drying in the roof above. "Harry Lauder, mostly, and jazz. But they're not too particular." "What's that man buying now?" "Him?" .Vanishing cream. They nearly always take a pot of it back to the hills when they come down." "But what for?" "They think it great sorcery to rub it on and see it disappear." The head-hunter threw a glance of contempt at me and stalked out, jangling his beads and shells. He had a packet of gramophone records and a jar of well-advertised vanishing cream in his bag. He had paid cash for both. He had also bought some marmalade and rubbed it well into his hair before he left. Nobody asked him why and. nobody put up the prices. You do not. argue with head-hunt-ers who pay cash. You would rather not be taken for a tax collector.