other land. The boundaries between
what is regarded as the preserve of one community, within which its
members may hunt and fish, clear for garden purposes, cut timber, and
collect fruit, and that of an adjoining community are perfectly well
known. The longitudinal boundaries along the valleys are almost always
the rivers and streams, which form good boundary marks; but those
across the hills and ridges from stream to stream are, I was told,
equally defined in the minds of the natives, though no artificial
boundary marks are visible. These boundaries are mutually respected,
and trouble and fighting over boundary and trespass questions are,
I was told, practically unknown, the people in this respect differing
from those of Mekeo.

A community comprises several villages, the number of which may vary
from, say, two to eight. But the relationship between all the villages
is not identical. There is a clan system, and there is generally more
than one clan in a community. Often there are three or more of such
clans. Each clan, however, has its own villages, or sometimes one
village only, within the community, and two clans are never found
represented in any one village, [56] or any one clan spread over two
or more communities.

Fig. 3 is a diagrammatic illustration of a typical Mafulu community,
the circles representing villages of one clan, the squares those of
another clan, and the triangle being the sole village of a third clan.

I have said that the entire community is for many purposes a composite
whole. In many matters they act together as a community. This is
especially so as regards the big feast, which I shall describe
hereafter. It is so also to a large extent in some other ceremonies
and in the organisation of hunting and fishing parties and sometimes
in fighting. And the community as a whole has its boundaries, within
which are the general community rights of hunting, fishing, etc.,
as above stated.

But the relationship between a group of villages of any one clan
within the community is of a much closer and more intimate character
than is that of the community as a whole. These villages of one
clan have a common _amidi_ or chief, a common _emone_ or clubhouse,
and a practice of mutual support and help in fighting for redress
of injury to one or more of the individual members; and there is a
special social relationship between their members, and in particular
clan exogamy prevails with them, marriages between