6 Perry, An Ethnological Study of Warfare. 



among the Kayan is of importance m relation to their head- 

 hunting. 



Who are the "children of the sun" who took the first 

 Bontoc head ? The traditions of Indonesia tell of the coming 

 into various places of people who claimed to be descended from 

 the sun. These "children of the sun" produced a tremendous 

 cultural upheaval in Indonesia.^^ Our knowledge of Indonesia 

 is still scanty, but such facts as we have show that the " children 

 of the sun " formed a chiefly class in several places. The social 

 organisation in these places consists of sacred chiefs, nobles 

 who are warriors, commoners and slaves. These chiefs and 

 nobles are descended from the sky, and they return there at 

 death, while the commoners go elsewhere. It is an invariable 

 belief in Indonesia that the descendants of these immigrants 

 go to the sky, and the only commoners who can go to the sky 

 after death are warriors. It is the prerogative of sky-descended 

 people to return to the sky at death, and the fact that warriors 

 alone of the commoners share this privilege is suggestive of the 

 relationship between warfare and these immigrants. 



In referring their head-hunting to the sky people, the 

 Bontoc are making a claim in accordance with the results of 

 the examination of the influence of the "children of the sun" 

 in Indonesia, for it can be shown that head-hunting has been 

 introduced by these people into Indonesia. Such an explana- 

 tion accounts satisfactorily for the pacific nature of the Punan ; 

 they have not learned the practice of warfare because they have 

 not acquired the requisite social organisation. 



It is now conceded that cultural influences have moved from 

 Indonesia into Melanesia. Dr. Rivers, m his great work.^'^ has 

 given good reason to conclude that migrations (not necessarily 

 of any considerable numbers) have produced profound changes 

 in the cultures of the peoples of Melanesia. In this region 

 hereditary chiefs and slavery are found in those parts where 

 warfare is constant: the western Solomons, Fiji, and New 

 Caledonia. The social organisation of Fiji consists of sacred 

 chiefs, war chiefs, commoners, and slaves. Only those who 

 die a violent death can gain admittance to the land of the 

 dead. Human sacrifices formerly were common in this island. ^^ 

 In New Caledonia a sacred chief is found at the head of each 

 tribe. He is a priest rather than a chief, and when he dies it 

 is said that " the sun is set.'' Then comes a warrior aristocracy, 

 then commoners and slaves.-^^ In the rest of ^lelanesia no 

 hereditary chiefs are found, and there are no aristocracy or 

 slaves. Dr. Rivers has found no record of any serious fighting 

 in Tikopia, although the people have hereditary sacred chiefs. 



16. I propose shortly to put forward a detailed examination of the 

 effects of these people upon the indigenous cultures of Indonesia. 



17. Op. cit. 



18. Joyce, of. cit., pp. 127, 131. 



iQ. M.' Glaumont, Rev., d'ethnographie, VII.. 1S8S, pp. 75, 12Q. 



