306 RECORDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MITSEUM. 



the occipital edge being chequered with black spaces. From the 

 arm-holes onwards the cuirass is open at both sides, with overlaps 

 of the tergal shield forwards over the ventro-thoracic shield. The 

 margins of the former have large coir loops, through which the 

 lacing for drawing the two flaps together passes. This lacing is 

 made fast in the centre of the ventro-thoracic shield, each lace 

 being composed of two plaited parts, ending in a free twisted end. 

 The neck or cervico-clavicular opening is pentagonal, and follows 

 the arched outline of the shoulder-pieces. All the diamond-shaped 

 figures are made of human hair. The height of the tergal shield 

 is three feet two inches, the ventro-thoracic is eighteen inches and 

 a half, the width across the shoulders seventeen inches, and the 

 depth across the cervico-chxvicular opening nine and a half inches. 

 The circumfei'ence around the overlap is three feet nine inches, 

 and the weight seventeen pounds. The execution of the knitting 

 is remarkably good, and tiie general characters are a combination 

 of those of the two corselets described last year. 



7. — Ancestral Drum, or Gong. 



The Rev. F. Paton, of Mallicollo, New Hebrides, forwarded 

 to the Museum one of the Ancestral Drums met with in parts 

 of that island, similar in many respects to another received 

 from the Kev. T. Watt Leggatt a year or two ago. The 

 present drum (PI. xlix.) is a log seven feet four inches long, 

 of teak wood, and in its reduced state two feet six inches in 

 circumference. The slit-like aperture is two feet seven inches 

 long, and one and a quarter inches in width, swelling out a little 

 at the extremities ; it is rather nearer the lower than the upper 

 end of the drum. The interior is hollowed out to a shell for the 

 length of the aperture, but the ends of the drum are solid. The 

 front of the upper part of the drum is carved to represent a 

 grotesque human face, with large staring eyes and prominent 

 nostrils, very lateral in position. 'Jhe nose is in relief, the 

 remainder of the face intaglio; the nose and cheeks are red, the 

 eyes with the irides blue, and the pupils white, the nostrils blue. 

 The face is surmounted by a kind of head-dress, with above it 

 two leaf-like ornaments, one on each side. 



This drum represents one of the two types of upright drum, being 

 planted in the ground, and is evidently ancestral in character, of the 

 same type as that presented by the Rev. T. Watt Leggatt already 

 referred to. The latter was from the village of Aulua, jNIallicollo, 

 and in forwarding it the Reverend donor supplied the following in- 

 formation, which, I have no doubt, equally applies to Mr. Paton's 

 gift : — "These drums, made of teak-wood ( Na-ka-mu ) are carved 

 into the conventional figure of a deceased ancestor (Temes), by 

 men who make such their profession, and then purchased by any 

 man who wishes to add to his importance. The latter then erects it 



