THE SAVING OF VANISHING DATA. 227 



remain for an indefinite period in the condition in which they now exist and as 

 they have existed for ages past, with little or no change, to be investigated at 

 leisure at any future time. On the surface of the earth, however, animals and 

 plants and races of men are perishing rapidly day by day, and will soon be, like 

 the Dodo, things of the past. The history of these things once gone can never 

 be recovered, but must remain forever a gap in the knowledge of mankind. 



The loss will be most deeply felt in the province of anthropology, a science 

 which is of higher importance to us than any other, as treating of the develop- 

 mental history of our own species. The languages of Polynesia are being rap- 

 idly destroyed or mutilated, and the opportunity of obtaining accurate informa- 

 tion concerning these and the native habits of culture will soon have passed 

 away. 



Many other naturalists besides Moseley have been impressed with 

 the need there is for the study of native races, indeed most of the 

 zoologists who have traveled afield have turned their attention to anthro- 

 pology, in the broadest sense of the term and not a few have partially, 

 or even entirely, relinquished the study of zoology for that of anthro- 

 pology. The reason is to be sought not only in the interest of the 

 study of man, but in the conviction that the opportunities for that 

 study are fast slipping away and fastest in those countries where the 

 most important results are likely to be obtained. 



In many islands the natives are rapidly dying out, and in more 

 they have become so modified by contact with the white man and by 

 crossings due to deportation by Europeans, that immediate steps are 

 necessary to record the anthropological data that remain. Only those 

 who have a personal acquaintance with Oceania, or those who have care- 

 fully followed the recent literature of the subject, can have an idea of 

 the pressing need there is for prompt action. No one can deny that it 

 is our bounden duty to record the physical characteristics, the handi- 

 crafts, the psychology, ceremonial observances and religious beliefs of 

 vanishing peoples ; this also is a work which in many cases can alone be 

 accomplished by the present generation. 



How often have I, when questioning the younger men about their 

 old custom, been told, ' Me young man, me no savvy, old man he savvy, ' 

 and so it was. Even a quarter of a century of contact with the white 

 man will cause the attenuation or disappearance of old customs, the 

 memory of which is retained only by a few old men ; when these die the 

 full knowledge of the old cults dies too. 



I often wonder what the ethnologist of the future will think of us. 

 The Tasmanians have entirely disappeared and we know extremely 

 little about this primitive people. Howitt, Tison, Spencer, Gillen and 

 Walter Eoth have done memorable work among the Australians, but 

 if these few men had not labored how much should we really know 

 about the meaning of the social and religious observances of a rapidly 

 vanishing people? 



