216 president's address — section f. 



at present in many cases it is difficult to discern what is the original 

 enstom, and how it has been developed or extended and enlarged by 

 later customs. 



This seems to me to be the case in Australia. Totemism has been 

 connected here with other customs, and especially with the secret 

 societies ; whereas in Melanesia the totem customs, and all that be- 

 longed to them, have kept clear of the secret societies. Of these we 

 find a great number all over Melanesia, some of them being very old, 

 as the Buri of the northern Solomon Island ; others being comparatively 

 recent inventions, as the Duk-duk of the Gazelle Peninsula and Duke 

 of York Island, a society not yet a hundred years old. But all these 

 societies, young or old, are based on one foundation, the carrying out 

 of sorcery, the initiating and instructing in it, and the tendency to create 

 for its members a chance of superior living by terrifying the women 

 through all kinds of superstitious fears, causing them to keep away 

 from the meetings of the society members, and to supply them with 

 abundant food in order that the anger of the spirits who are supposed 

 to confer with the men might be avoided. 



There can be no doubt that the secret societies are institutions of a 

 much later date than the totem. The latter is unquestionably one of 

 the oldest institutions of man, and it is no wonder that in later ages 

 it was enlarged upon and ornamented with a great deal of by-play, 

 which has in reality little to do with the original institution. 



The native of to-day is a very practical being ; primitive man 

 unquestionably was very much like him, and his customs and institu- 

 tions had always, as they have up to the present day, a practical pur- 

 pose. What higher practical purpose could primitive man have than 

 to keep his tribe strong and vigorous, able to procure abundant food, 

 and able to defend itself against enemies ? His thoughts would natur- 

 allv be centred on these questions, and as a strong and vigorous 

 offspring was of the greatest interest to the welfare of his tribe he would 

 of course devise ways and means to procure such offspring. In Me- 

 lanesia we see that up to the present day this is the sole object of what 

 we call totem, and I have no doubt that in Australia it was the same 

 in the beginning. 



I have been thinking sometimes that the great similarity in customs 

 between Australians and Melanesians might be the result of a common 

 origin. There are certainly many customs that are actually the same 

 in both divisions, and it is remarkable that this similarity occurs, not 

 so much in the leading custom, but in all sorts of small by-play that 

 winds itself round the institution like an ornamental border round a 

 picture. At present, however, we have to leave this an open question. 

 The works of Spencer, Gillen, and Howitt show us the way in which 

 we may be able to solve it ; but as yet we know very little about the 

 Pacific races, and especially the Melanesians. It is, therefore, to be 

 hoped that persons hving in the Islands, especially missionaries of the 

 various denominations, who come into closer contact with natives 

 than any other settlers, would take up the question and follow the 

 example of the Australian anthropologists who in so able and masterly 

 a manner have shown the way. 



I 



