Translation of Sable Noir.
A hundred isles set in the Southern Pacific--the New Hebrides: these are the background for this entrancing book. Henry Larsen, a naturalist of international repute, and his wife, May, set out to visit them with the idea fof collecting specimens for museums. They brought back much more--a vidi commentary on the people of a primitive race with whom they lived for two years. Black Sand, the volcanic ash of the archipelago, there is in plenty, but there is also the luxuriant green of the forests, and the ver-present richness fo the sea. There may still be the witch-doctor to be placated, but there is laughter and festivity, and a very real friendliness to these intruders of another race.
Chapters: The New Hebrides and the Past; Vila; Efate: The Green Island; Voyage in the Lakeleo; In the Coral Sea; Ambrym; Marum; The Nambas; Talsil and Manita; A Maze of Suspicion; The Papuan Pig; The Celebration of the 'Mage'; Gol-Gol and Kai-Kai; The Poison Man; Death among the Kanakas; Fangalen
