1890.] Prof, Haddon on Manners, &c. of Torres Straits Islanders. 145 



WEEKLY EVENING MEETING, 

 Friday, May 23, 1890. 



The Right Hon. Earl Percy, F.S.A. Vice-President, in the Chair. 

 Alfred 0. Haddon, Esq. M.A. M.E.I.A. 



PROFESSOR OF ZOOLOGT' IN THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF SCIENCE, DUBLIN. 



Manners and Customs of the Torres Straits Islanders. 



It is not my intention this evening to attempt a special study of any 

 particular institution or series of customs, nor even to discuss the 

 ethnological affinities of the natives inhabiting the islands of Torres 

 Straits. 



The comparative study of institutions and customs has led 

 to brilliant suggestions, and has especially thrown light upon obscure 

 facts in our own culture, and given a new significance to observances 

 which, because they are of every-day occurrence, are passed by 

 without comment. This field of inquiry is one which has only 

 recently been systematically tilled, but it promises a rich harvest of 

 unexpected results. 



The detailed study of a single tribe or natural assemblage of 

 people has great interest, as it puts one in touch with such varied 

 subjects as the physical, mental, and moral characters of the people ; 

 and the tracing out of their affinities requires wide study and careful 

 comparisons. A patient research of this kind always opens up 

 questions of wider import than the initial inquiry. 



Neither of these methods will occupy us to-night, as I wish to 

 present before you as vivid a conception as I can of some of the 

 manners and customs of a people small in number but rich in interest. 

 We will consider, therefore, neither a composite image of savages in 

 general, nor of rude customs, but the particular habits of a disappear- 

 ing people, who, thirty years ago, were naked, unknown savages, who 

 to-day are British subjects, and who in a very few years will have 

 lost the last remnants of their individuality, and possibly ere long 

 will practically cease to exist — at all events as a distinct people. 

 The dissolving views which I shall exhibit this evening are a fit 

 emblem of the facts which they illustrate. 



My anthropological inquiries in Torres Straits may not inaptly 

 be compared with the methods of the palaeontologist, especially in 

 his study of the more recent fossils. Amongst such fossils we find 

 some representatives of existing forms, others slightly different from 

 those we are accustomed to, others again which are quite dissimilar, 

 and often of these only disconnected fragments may remain, and it 

 takes great patience and careful piecing together to restore the 



Vol. XIII. (No. 84.) L 



