46 Director's Animal Report. 



the human attributes are probably in the majority; but then, the 

 gods of Olympus were at times very human! The extreme height 

 is 38 inches. 



The last specimen in this interesting collection to which I shall 

 call attention is a well-carved figure in such an opisthotonic pos- 

 ture as to suggest that it was a boat figure or figure head. The 

 closed eyes, however, militate against that theory, and except 

 through the large ear borings (the right-hand one is broken away) 

 there seems no means of attaching the uncomfortable figure to any 

 support. There is, however, a portion of fresh cut surface between 

 the shoulder blades which may be the place from which a cleat has 

 been broken or removed. The buttocks are prominent, but the 

 coccygeal process is prolonged into a rudimentary tail. The 

 wide-spread legs (in one the thigh, in the other the lower leg is 

 longer) would perhaps be the posture of a dance, but the closed 

 eyes — altogether the chubby and rather attractive figure is a 

 puzzle. The fingers are well done and the nails are very distinct; 

 the right thumb and a portion of the adjoining forefinger have 

 been broken off. The small determined mouth contrasts strangely 

 with the enlarged nostrils: if the hair is intended it can onlj- be 

 wool. No. 11.572, from Big Bay. Figs. 19, 20. 



In such a collection as this it is easy to call attention to pub- 

 lished accounts of similar things when such accounts exist, but 

 there are always questions that a student of ethnology wislies to 

 ask of the native makers themselves, that he cannot find in the 

 accounts of travelers or even of missionaries who have for 3 ears 

 resided among these primitive peoples. I have seen such a dish 

 used in such a way in Java, but what right have I to record that 

 a similar dish is used in the same way and for the same purpose 

 on the island of Ambrym? We know so little of the woods used 

 to fashion into dishes or images, dance clubs or paddles, and if I 

 were on the shores of Ambrym I could probabl}- persuade some 

 capable person to point out to me the tree from which this club or 

 that dish had been cut. Again one could see how the dishes were 

 used, and how the dances conducted and the many slight but im- 

 portant questions that an unscientific collector would never think 

 of asking, but which often make the difference between knowledge 



and ignorance concerning a specimen. 



[86] 



