CURIOUS SCREEN.

In a beautiful opening among the trees behind the village we saw an
extraordinary screen--named wows--the purpose of which, so far as we
could understand, had some connection with the memory of the dead. It
extended fifty-six feet in length, with a slight outward curvature, and
measured five feet and a half in height. It was formed of a row of poles
stuck in the ground, crossed in front by three horizontal strips of
bamboo, and covered with cross latticework. The bars of the screen were
daubed over with red paint, and hung with rows of spider-shells also
painted red. Some poles projecting above the others two to four feet had
painted jaws of the dugong and large conch shells (Fusus proboscidiferus)
fixed to the top, and numerous other dugong bones and shells were
scattered along the front. On the ground along the foot of the screen was
a row of stones painted with black and red in imitation of grotesque
faces, and to several of these the old man who acted as cicerone attached
the names of persons who were dead. In some the painting was
comparatively recent, and the stones appeared to have been placed there
singly at different periods to commemorate the death of the heads of
families of the tribe. We saw another of these curious funeral
screens--like the first one it was situated in a little glade in the
forest, but unlike it the front was covered or thatched with coconut
leaves, and it had a small door-like opening in the centre.

The natives must have left the island either on account of its being now
the turtling season, or else from the want of water. A small deep well
behind the village, apparently the only one in the place, was almost
entirely dried up. From the old man I procured the names of some of the
neighbouring islands, and also a few other Kulkalega words which are so
similar to those of the Kowrarega language as to corroborate Giaom's