146 



NATURE 



[March 30, iji i 



pretations, but the historians mostly seem to prefer to 

 wait yet awhile before adopting his system definitely. 

 We hope that Prof. Garstanjf will make further 

 discoveries in the Hittite lands, and can wish him no 

 better luck than that he may speedily render his pre- 

 sent book obsolete and out of date, H. H. 



MELANESIANS AND POLYNESIANS.' 



THE veteran missionary who writes this book lived 

 for more than twenty years on the islands of the 

 Pacific, at the time— a generation ago— when the 

 peoples of the western Pacific were scarcely known, 

 when 



"... Old and New 



Weltered upon the border of the world." 



Much of his time was spent in New Britain, more 



in Samoa, and the natives of these places are the 



people whom he means when he speaks of Mela- 



part of the book, that dealing with Melanesia, .> 

 obvious that Dr. Brown has given us a record 

 what he himself saw or was tuld during the 1j\c 

 years he spent in New Britain, but with the excep- 1 

 tion to be presently noted he has made no atteinot u\ 1 

 correlate his own observations with those <•! 

 observers, nor does he supplement them by c( 

 injf the work of others, even when thev deal with the 

 very ceremonies he describes. Thus it comes about 

 that the value of one of the most interesting < 

 in the book, that dealing with secret soci< 

 lessened, for though it gives an account of the Duk- 

 duk, no mention is made of Parkinson's work. On 

 the other hand. Dr. Brown has not hesitated to avail 

 himself of information given him by colleagues, or 

 when necessary to seek their assistance. 'l*hese re- 

 marks indicate the scope of the work and its Hinily- 

 tions, which will be felt by few except r --'- • 

 working at the history of the Pacific. 





i \ 



/■.-•\tV.",V 



nesians and Polynesians. Dr. Brown has also visited 

 the New Hebrides, Santa Cruz, New Ireland, New 

 Hanover, New Guinea, and the atolls of Ontong, 

 Java, and the Tasinan group. In the introduction the 

 author disclaims " pet theories " ; nevertheless he gives 

 us (pp. 15-17) the theory as to the origin of the Mela- 

 nesian and Polynesian races, which he published in 

 the Journal of the Anthropological Institute in 1887. 

 Much water has flowed under the bridges since then, 

 and it is at least a pity that Dr. Brown does not 

 discuss (except briefly in the concluding chapter) some 

 of the facts which do not support his view's. 



A certain looseness of terminology, most pronounced 

 in the pages referred to, also crops up in other parts of 

 the book. Considering especially the most valuable 



1 " Melanesians and Polynesians," their Life-histories described and com- 

 pared. By Georsie Brown. Pp. xv+451. (London: Mactnillan and Co., 

 Ltd., 1510). Price I2J. net. 



NO. 2 161, VOL. 86] 



A more detailed examination of the contents 

 of the volume shows that it contains a large 

 amount of new information, not only valuable 

 in itself, but bearing also on work being done at the 

 present time, or which must be done in the near 

 future. There is an extremely interesting account by 

 an eye-witness of the death and cremation of the 

 celebrated Shortland chief Gorai, whose importance 

 may be gauged by the fact recorded by Guppy. that 

 the houses of his wives and children occupied more 

 than an acre of ground. 



Several interesting examples of the widely-spread 

 Melanesian custom of burial, accompanied by 

 the removal and preservation of the skull of the 

 deceased, are recorded. On Duke of York Island 

 the body of a chief or person of importance was 

 exposed on a specially built platform until the head 

 could be detached, when it was preserved by the 



