Manchester Memoirs, \ol. Ixi. (iQi/), No. i». / 



In the Banks Islands no definite warfare seems to be carried 

 on.-^ 



The old communities of Polynesia, New Zealand, Tonga, 

 Samoa, Tahiti, Hawaii, Nme, and so forth, were warlike. At 

 the head of the community was a sacred chief; then came a 

 nobility who governed and fought; then commoners, and some- 

 times slaves. The nobility went to a special land of the dead, 

 while the commoners usually died outright, and had no future 

 lifc.'^^ Human sacrifices were common. The chief occupation 

 of the men m New Zealand was. warfare, the more desirable 

 parts of the land of the dead being reserved for great warriors, 

 who spent their time in fighting, which was only interrupted 

 by feasts.^" 



Students are agreed that the ancestors of the Polynesians 

 were immigrants. Dr. Rivers has given good reason to believe 

 that head-hunting and the institution of chieftainship were in- 

 troduced into Melanesia by people who, he supposes, arrived 

 there later than the previous immigrants, who had penetrated 

 still more widely into Melanesia; also that the wave of culture 

 which brought in head-hunting did not reach the New Hebrides 

 or the Banks Islands. 



The conditions in the Pacific therefore suggest that the 

 institutions connected with warfare, sacred chiefs, nobles who 

 are warriors, and slavery, were brought into Oceania. This 

 would explain the pacific nature of the peoples of the interior 

 of New Guinea, for the migrants would have missed them; 

 also that of the Tikopians, for they have no hereditary warrior 

 class, and no war chiefs. 



The social constitution of Peru under the Incas was some- 

 what similar to that of the Polynesians.. Ai the head of the 

 State was the Inca, a sacred being, descended from the sun. 

 He was the chief priest of the sun-cult, and also the head of 

 the army. Then came nobles of royal blood, who held all the 

 chief offices in the State, and the chief military commands. 

 After death the Inca returned to the sun, and warriors went 

 to the heavenly plains. Human sacrifices were made on the 

 death of an Inca.^^ 



The Aztec of Mexico had a social organisation " similar 

 in its principal features to that of ancient Egypt." The king 

 was at the head of the State, as the representative of the sun- 

 god. Then came the hereditary aristocracy, whose principal 

 occupations were governing and warfare. Below them were 

 the commoners, and finally slaves. HuiPxan sacrifices took 

 place on an immen.se scale. 60,000 victims were slaughtered 

 on the occasion of the dedication of a new temple to the war 



20. Rivers, op. cit., 11., i:.p. 86, lod, 452: T., p. 320- 

 27. Letourneau, op. cit., p. 259. 



22. Jo>'ce, op. cit.. p. 176; Letournenu, p. 250. 



23. Letourneau, " Sociology," p. 470; Prescott, '" Conquest of Peru," 

 Cha]:). I-III. ; Trior, •' Primitive Culture," II., pp. 301-2. 



