376 CARNEGIE INSTITUTION OF WASHINGTON. 



in Sumatra at a period which it is not difficult to synchronize with 

 the fifth century before the Christian era (the migration of Arishtan 

 Shar), possessed a metal culture and probably had already passed 

 from the chalcolithic to that of iron or even of the milder steels. 

 With the possession of the better weapon the Malayans wrote upon 

 the historj^ of the Proto-Polynesians in Indonesia the same sort of 

 record which the Armenoid culture of the bronze knife wrote upon 

 the stone age in Europe. 



The possession of this linguistic material from Sissano has made 

 it feasible to devote particular attention upon a most important 

 detail in the discovery of the migration tracks. When the first results 

 of these studies were presented in ''The Polynesian Wanderings" 

 the hypothesis was advanced, and supported by no inconsiderable 

 evidence, that out of Indonesia two migration tracks of the earliest 

 folk movement were discoverable. One of these was considered to 

 have followed the northern coast of New Guinea, thence through the 

 Solomon Islands to Nuclear Polynesia, the Samoa Stream sufficiently 

 identified by its terminus ad quern in the Pacific. The other, simi- 

 larly distinguished as the Viti Stream, was considered to have followed 

 in Indonesia the southern chain of islands from Java to Timor Laut, 

 thence by way of Torres Straits to the New Hebrides and to an ulti- 

 mate destination in Fiji and by convection within Nuclear Polynesia 

 to a junction with the other migration of the race. The critical 

 point in establishing this Viti Stream, the Samoa Stream not being 

 disputed by our authorities, lies in the language stations in the Gulf 

 of Papua. The crux of the problem inheres in this question: Was 

 this great mass of Polynesian speech in the Gulf of Papua brought to 

 the Motu and kindred New Guinea folk directly by migrants advanc- 

 ing eastward by way of the easy route through Torres Straits, or did 

 it derive from the northern stream by reverse coastwise voyaging 

 after reaching the eastern point of the island? In this study this 

 critical point has been investigated with great care and evidence has 

 been massed to the proof of the former hypothesis of the Torres 

 Straits migration, for it has been established that the Polynesian 

 material in the languages of the Gulf of Papua could not have derived 

 from the northern stream and that it must have arrived directly from 

 Indonesia through the southern, or Torres Straits, exit of migration. 

 This final point satisfactorily established, these studies now pass 

 from the problems of the early migrations to the more intensive study 

 of the Polynesian speech as we now find it in use over a wider extent 

 of the earth's surface than has been reached by any language family 

 until the discovery of modern means of communication. 



At present attention is concentrated upon the mass of manuscript 

 material of Samoan myth and tradition in the preparation of the 

 dictionary of that language. During the year I have put into final 



