FACULTY IN ABORIGINAL EACES. 71 



training. From the days of Giotto, the shepherd boy, to those of Thorwaldsen, Wilkie, and 

 Turner, art is not only seen to be a direct and exceptional gift of nature, but it is frequently 

 the product of a singularly partial intellectual development. Leonardo da Vinci and 

 Michael Angelo are examples of men of rare and comprehensive genius, who sought in art 

 the form in which to give expression to their many-sided powers. But, on the other hand, 

 instances are not rare of artists like Thorwaldsen or Turner, who, except within the range 

 of their own special art, seemed exceptionally defective iu the exercise of ordinary mental 

 powers. The same is true of races as of individuals. Some show an aptitude for art 

 wholly wanting in others, who nevertheless equal or surpass them in more important 

 equalities. The testhetic faculty may, indeed, be described as curiously capricious iu its 

 manifestations. The Papuans of New Guinea and of New Caledonia, a race of Negrillos, 

 in some points presenting analogies to the Australian, are nevertheless remarkable for a 

 seemingly instinctive ingenuity and aptitude for art. Mr. Wallace describes them as con- 

 trasting with the Malay race in the habitual decoration of their canoes, houses, and almost 

 every domestic utensil, with elaborate carving. The Fijians, who are allied to this 

 Negrillo race, present in many respects an unfavorable contrast to the true Polynesian. In 

 their physiognomy and whole physicial aspect, they are inferior to other island races 

 of the Pacific ; and are further notable for reiDulsive habits, and a general condition of 

 social and moral degradation. But th<?ir ferocity, and the cruel customs in which they so 

 strikingly dilfer from the Malays, are Adces of a vigorous race. They have freqviently been 

 observed to indicate energy capable of being directed to useful ends ; as is the case with 

 the Maori cannibals of New Zealand, and was seen of old in the Huns and the Northmen 

 of Europe, whose descendants are now among its most civilized nations. It is obvious, at 

 any rate, that the savage vices of the Fijians are perfectly comjiatible with considerable 

 skill in such arts as pertain to their primitive condition. Their musical instruments are 

 superior to those of the Polynesians, and include the pan-pipe and others unknown in the 

 islands beyond their range. Their pottery exhibits great variety of form ; and some of 

 the vessels combined in groups present a curiotrs correspondence to familiar examples of 

 Peruvian art. Their fishing-nets and lines are remarkable for neat and skilful work- 

 manship, and they carry on agriculture to a considerable extent. "Indeed," remarked the 

 ethnologist of the United States Expedition, in summing up the characteristics of the 

 Fijians, " we soon began to perceive that the x^eople were in possession of almost every 

 art known to the Polynesians, and of many others besides. The highly-finished workman- 

 ship was unexpected, CA^erything being executed until recently, and even now for the 

 most part, without the use of iron. In the collection of implements and manufactures 

 brought home by the Expedition, the observer will distinguish in the Fijian division 

 something like a school of arts for the other Pacific islands." 



All this has to be kept in view, in any attempt to gauge the intellectual development, 

 or determine the degree of civilization of the palaeolithic draftsmen and carvers of the 

 Garonne. One of the scenes introduced by M. Figuier, in the fanciful illustrations of 

 his " L'Homme primitif," represents a group of artists, such as, except for their costume, 

 might have been sketched from the students of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. Their mode of 

 work was probably much more akin to the intermittent labours of the Indian, whose 

 elaborately sculptured pipe is thrown aside, and resumed again — often after prolonged 

 intervals — before it receives the finishing touch. But thoirgh the drawings and the carv- 



