88 SCIENCE PROGRESS. 



exercise ; in both aspects it is largely practised by the 

 Papuans proper ; the Melanesians do not appear to dance 

 much, and then only for amusement. Religious dancing is 

 not practised. 



A classification and description of various kinds of 

 dances in Torres Straits is given by Haddon (1893). 

 Romilly (1889, p. 88) says: "In the south-eastern archi- 

 pelago dances are very rare, nor have I ever seen one. 

 Such dances as there are are only performed after a feast, 

 no superstitious importance is attached to them ; . . . but 

 to the westward, in the Gulf of Papua, symbolic dances are 

 constantly performed. . . . Each man is dressed to repre- 

 sent some bird or fish, and the dresses they appear in are 

 marvels of ingenuity and construction. The shark is a very 

 favourite symbol, as are also wild ducks and geese." A 

 Motu dance is described on p. 54, and by Stone (p. 193), 

 who also describes one at Hula (p. 195) and says : " Among 

 the Motu the unmarried of both sexes join in the dance, but 

 among the Kerapuno only the men " ; but women dance 

 close by at Kalo on some occasions [Arch. Rev., 1890, p. 

 149), and Bevan (1890, p. 128) on an islet close by Dufaure 

 Island saw men and women dancing surrounded by imita- 

 tive children. Romilly notes (p. 60) a war-dance at Cloudy 

 Bay. Chalmers (1887, p. 181) compares Motu and Motu- 

 motu dancing customs. 



Social organisation is very simple in British New 

 Guinea, there is no priestcraft or statecraft. In Torres 

 Straits I discovered totemistic clans, which, however, ap- 

 peared to be of diminishing importance, nothing of the 

 sort has been described from elsewhere. The people are 

 grouped into villages, and in some cases the inhabitants of 

 various villages recognise one another as belonging to the 

 same tribe. In the Port Moresby district members of the 

 Koitapu and Motu tribes may live in apposition but not in 

 fusion in the same village. Throughout the whole of the Pro- 

 tectorate chieftainship in the true sense of the term is absent ; 

 a man may acquire personal power through bravery, wealth 

 or some other cause, but it is not hereditary, and even so 

 these so-called "chiefs" have very little influence even 



