198 RECORDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEDM. 



for a bnndred years, certainly not in living memory. I have 

 never seen a complete Mallicollan pot, and it is a lost art." -^ 

 Tliis is clearly one of those cessations that Avould come under 

 Dr. W. H. R. Rivers' term, " the disappearance of a useful 

 art." 29 



There are numerous pieces, and most of them much worn. 

 With the exception of about three of those in vphicli any 

 decoration is visible, the motive is very peculiar nnd quite 

 new to me from any part of the South Pacific. The motive 

 in question resembles, more than anythincr else, tlie scale 

 armour of a palasoniscid fish. The individual scales very 

 roughly laid on in simple overlapping oblique series (PI. 

 xxxiv., fig. 2, PI. XXXV., fig. 2, PI. xxxvi., fig. 3), are more or 

 less imbricate, and at times assume a tear-like outline (PI. 

 xxxiv., fig. 3, PI. xxxvii., figs. 2, 3). This is the predominant 

 motive, but one small fragment has a few parallel groovings 

 (PI. xxxiv., fig. 4). The largest piece is evidently derived from 

 a large plain cooking pot, similar both in colour and texture 

 to those of Port Moresby, and one form of Admiralty Island 

 pot. Other than this, the " fish scale " pattern predominates 

 with one exception. In this, the most elaborate of all the 

 potsherds, there is a central V-shaped figure, with lateral 

 oblique gi'ooves, deflected on either side, and there again 

 bordered by horizontal lines of longitudinal V or V-shaped 

 fret (PI. XXXV, fig. 3). 



The only article 1 know of on New Hebridean pottery is a 

 short note by the Rev. J. Noble Mackenzie,^*^ who said though 

 its manufacture is now (1901) confined to a few isolated spots 

 on the west of Santo, there is evidence to show that it was 

 in times past made on other islands of the Group, as similar 

 pottery pieces to that of Santo have been dug up in several 

 islands to the south. 



One naturally turns first, for comparative purposes, to the 

 neighbouring island of Espirutu Santo, commonly known as 

 " Santo," but on twenty-four pots from there examined there 



"8 Letter dated 18th March, 1903, addressed to Mr. S. Sinclair, Secretary, 

 Australian Museum. 



29 Rivers— Brit. Assoc. Report for 1912 (1913), p. 598. 



*« Mackenzie— New Hebrides Magazine, No. 4, 1911, p. 21. 



