536 Transactions. — Miscelhnieous. 



absolutely necessary for "the survival of the fittest" under 

 adverse conditions. Amongst the lost arts which I believe 

 their language and myths indicate is that of communication 

 in a written language ; and it is to this branch of inquiry that 

 I shall confine myself in the present instance/'' 



If we look at the tattooing of a Maori as a mere piece of 

 ornamentation, I think we are regarding it as the child does 

 the fragment of the cinerary urn. Some patterns of tattoo- 

 ing have undoubtedly become mere ornament, but I trust to 

 be able to show a convergence of lines of evidence that will 

 prove that such was not the original intention of tattooing as 

 understood by the South-Sea Islander. Tattooing, as is well 

 known, is almost a world-wide practice: it was used by our 

 own ancestors up to the time of the Conquest, and in our 

 army and navy is still a common custom. It differs according 

 to the race, but it is divisible into two classes as to manner : 

 the method by scar-making, and the pattern by puncture. 

 The scar tattoo is generally used by savages — Africans, Papu- 

 ans, Australians, Negritos, &c. ; the punctured patterns by 

 Japanese, Malays, Nagas, and Pacific Islanders. In some of 

 the Polynesian Islands the tattoo is obviously copied from 

 natural objects ; thus, we are told that navigators found the 

 Easter Islanders tattooed with figures of hogs, although the 

 hog had become extinct locally years before. Even in New 

 Zealand it is said that fern-leaves tattooed upon the back 

 have been seen, although this must be a very rare case, as I 

 have never been able to find any person but one who has seen 

 such ornamentation.! The common tattoo in New Zealand 

 is highly conventional, and each part of the decoration is 

 named and fixed. We see some faces with less tattooing than 

 others, but, if the work has been properly done, it is all part 

 of a constant scheme, and the only difference is in the stage 

 arrived at when the work was discontinued. It has been 

 said, however, that it was possible to know the tattooing of one 

 face from that of another ; if that is the truth, the tattooing 



* Note from Anthro. Soc. Jour., Nov., 1891, p. 176, Professor F. Max 

 Miiller's address as President to the Anthro. Sec, British Association, 

 Cardiff, Aug., 1891 :— 



" Here, too, Buiisen's words have become so strikingly true that I 

 may be allowed to quote them : ' The savage is justly disclaimed as the 

 prototype of natural, original man ; for linguistic inquiry shows that the 

 languages of savages are degraded and decaying fragments of nobler 

 formations.'" 



He quotes Herbert Spencer ("Open Court," No. 205, p. 2896) thus : 

 " There are sundry reasons for suspecting that existing men of the lowest 

 type forming social groups of the simplest kind do not exemplify men as 

 they originally were ; probably most of them, if not all, had ancestors in 

 a higher state." 



t Among the illustrations prepared for the " Ancient History of the 

 Maori," by the late John White, may bo seen such tattooing. 



