personal matter of human
intercourse. It's the one point of private conduct about which we're all
at home most sensitively anxious not to meddle, to interfere, or even to
criticise. We think such affairs should be left entirely to the hearts
and consciences of the two persons concerned, who must surely know best
how they feel towards one another. But I remember having met lots of
taboos among other barbarians, in much the same way, to preserve the
mere material purity of their women--a thing we at home wouldn't dream
of even questioning. In New Ireland, for instance, I saw poor girls
confined for four or five years in small wickerwork cages, where they're
kept in the dark, and not even allowed to set foot on the ground on any
pretext. They're shut up in these prisons when they're about fourteen,
and there they're kept, strictly tabooed, till they're just going to
be married. I went to see them myself; it was a horrid sight. The
poor creatures were confined in a dark, close hut, without air or
ventilation, in that stifling climate, which is as unendurable from heat
as this one is from cold and damp and fogginess; and there they sat in
cages, coarsely woven from broad leaves of the pandanus trees, so that
no light could enter; for the people believed that light would kill
them. No man might see them, because it was close taboo; but at last,
with great difficulty, I persuaded the chief and the old lady who
guarded them to let them come out for a minute to look at me. A lot
of beads and cloth overcame these people's scruples; and with great
reluctance they opened the cages. But only the old woman looked; the
chief was afraid, and turned his head the other way, mumbling charms
to his fetich. Out they stole, one by one, poor souls, ashamed and
frightened, hiding their faces in their hands, thinking I was going to
hurt them or eat them--just as your nieces would do if I proposed to-day
to take them to Exeter--and a dreadful sight they were, cramped with
long sitting in one close position, and their eyes all blinded by the
glare of the sunlight after the long darkness. I've seen women shut up
in pretty much the same way in other countries, but I never saw quite so
bad a case as this of New Ireland."

"Well, you can't say we've anything answering to that in England," Frida
put in, looking across at him with her frank, open countenance.

"No, not quite like that, in detail, perhaps, but pretty much the same
in general principle,