t their power is
gradually passing from them into the hands of the missionaries, they
only smoke more poisonous tobacco, expose themselves all the more to the
weather through the cheap fragmentary dress they have adopted, and so
the ravages of consumption are accelerated. Pious Christian women, who
have always given freely of their store to missionary causes, begin to
see that the results are not commensurate with their sacrifices--that
their charity, even their personal work among heathens, teaching them to
read and write and study the catechism, to cover their bodies with dress
and to love the arts of civilization, can avail little against the rum,
tobacco and nameless maladies legally or illegally introduced with
Christianity.

During one of M. Garnier's excursions into the interior he came across
one of the sacred groves where the natives bury their dead, if hanging
them up in trees can be so designated. His guides all refused to
accompany him, fearing to excite the anger of the manes of their
ancestors. He therefore entered the high grove alone. Numerous corpses,
enveloped in carefully-woven mats and then bound in a kind of basket,
were suspended from the branches of the trees. Some of these were
falling in pieces, and the ground was strewn with whitened bones. It
seems strange that this form of burial should be chosen in a country
where at least once a year there occurs a terrible cyclone that destroys
crops, unroofs houses, uproots trees, and often sends these
basket-caskets flying with the cocoanuts through the air.

In New Caledonia there are no ferocious beasts, and the largest animal
is a very rare bird which the natives call the kagon. When, therefore,
they saw the English eating the meat from beef bones they inferred that
these were the bones of giants, and naively inquired how they were
captured and what weapons of war they used. The confidence and
admiration of these children of Nature are easily gained, and under such
circumstances they talk freely and delight in imparting all the
information they possess. Among one of the tribes near Balarde, M.
Garnier noticed a young woman of superior beauty, and made inquiries
about her. This was Iarat, daughter of the chief Oundo. The hornlike
protuberances on her head were two "scarlet flowers, which were very
becoming in her dark hair."

[Illustration: IARAT, DAUGHTER OF THE CHIEF OUNDO.]

This poor little woman had a history. It is told in a few words: her
f