which existed in its early stages, and it may be asked whether the terms of relationship would not undergo some change in such a case; whether, for example, the sons of the same father by two mothers would not be distinguished from the sons of the same father and mother. The answer is that no difference is made. A man's wives, if he should have many, must all be sogoi, of the same side of the house, calling one another sisters, and calling each the other's children hers, whether they were married to the same man or had different husbands. This does not however shut out altogether the relationship of step-father and mother. A man who has a son by one of his wives who is dead, does not bring in a step-mother to the boy if he adds another to his living wives; the woman would come in as another mother, and the boy would take no notice. But if a woman with children loses her husband, and becomes the wife of a man who is not 'near' to her previous husband, being of course sogoi but with no recent blood relation, the man will come in as step-father, and the term usur, successor, is applied to him, the connexion being called usur-gae, bond of succession. A looser connexion than this is enough to make an usur as when a boy's father has had a wife, not the mother of the boy, who after becoming a widow marries another man; the boy will take liberties with the man as having come into his father's place; he will take yams from his garden. When a step-father sneezes the step-son will cry out, Matia revereve gam o sulate! a sneeze to draw out a worm for you! the notion being that the former husband has a certain grudge against his successor, and sends a worm from a point of land on which ghosts congregate.
Where, as in Florida and the neighbouring parts of the Solomon Islands, the divisions of the people are three, four, or six, and where a man may have a wife or wives from any one of them but his own, it would seem likely to be more difficult to keep accurate count of the various degrees of relationship in which people stand to one another; and it is probable that, though the native system is precise in following every step and connexion, the people do in fact content themselves com-
