nesian neighbors, their purity of descent. One of the difficulties of communicating with the natives is due to the immense variety of languages, which renders it impossible to obtain the services of an interpreter likely to be of use in more than a single district. This difficulty has seriously impeded the work of the missionaries of the Presbyterian Church who labor in the islands from Ambrym southward, and of the Anglican Melanesian Mission, who have taken spiritual charge of the northern islands, the Banks group, and the Solomons. The necessity of confronting this difficulty has been advantageous to linguistic science, for the Rev.Dr.Codrington, of the Anglican Mission, has recently published a learned work on "The Languages of Melanesia." As a rule, white men and natives communicate with each other by means of a very singular jargon, like the "pigeon English" of China, known as "sandal-wood English," or the "bêche de mer lingo," designations which explain its origin. Bearing in mind who the devisers of this dialect were, it is not surprising that a prominent characteristic should be the frequent interpolation into a sentence of exceptionally vigorous profanity. This the native linguist utters without a suspicion of its being improper. A few phrases, without the ingredient just mentioned, will convey an idea of what the jargon is. "That fellow man he no good" = "That is a bad man." "That fellow woman Mary belong a me" = "That woman is my wife." "Big fellow yam he stop Tanna" = "Large yams grow in Tanna." This "pigeon" is the universal mode of communication between white men, except missionaries, and islanders throughout the southwestern Pacific, and is used by both Englishmen and foreigners. I have even heard the oath administered to Melanesian witnesses in a French court of justice at Noumea in the following terms: "Me talkee true, me no tell lie, me no gammon; me," raising the right hand to the sky, "swear." At many places even this imperfect method of conversing is unknown; but so intelligent and such adepts in gesture-language are the natives that they understand and make themselves understood by a stranger much more thoroughly than the inexperienced would expect.
At the time of my visit there were, including the wives and children of the missionaries, between eighty and a hundred white residents in the group. There are probably now fully a hundred in all. Aneiteum is completely Christian, and the natives are among the most devout of believers. A more attentive congregation than that attending the church at Port Inyang it would be impossible to meet with. The members carry with them to worship small libraries of devotional works, which require bags and baskets for their conveyance. On other islands progress has been made—progress with which the missionaries themselves are dissatisfied, but which appears very surprising to a stranger, who can discern the difficulties of the situation. As a rule, a missionary establishment consists of the clergyman and his wife, and
