496 



NATURE 



[June i6, 192 i 



Fig. I. 



-Type of Uvean na'ive, Loyalty Islanii. From " Anions th; Natives 

 of the Loyalty Group.'' 



and appliances which exhibit Polynesian 

 affinities. 



The account given by Mrs. Hadfield of the 

 mentality, daily life, useful and aesthetic arts, 

 and also of the customs, social ethics, and 

 legends of the Loyalty Islanders, is very concise 

 and full of interest. One cannot but recognise 

 how rapidly the old indigenous culture is dis- 

 appearing. The author dwells upon their 

 many good qualities, and endeavours to 

 account for those characteristics which civi- 

 lisation deems undesirable and bad. Allow- 

 ances must be made for the native point of 

 view and for the environment, 'hough the 

 former is always difficult of diagnosis. Even 

 in war a system of sportsmanlike etiquette 

 prevailed, and certain unwritten laws were 

 studiously observed. Due notice was given of 

 • an impending " state of war," and operations 

 were not commenced until after the expiry of 

 a period of several days. The heads and 

 noses of children were modified by pressure in 

 order to induce the orthodox, fashionable 

 shape, a practice which is of much interest 

 owing to its wide dispersal over the world, but 

 is disconcerting to the ethnological cranio- 

 metrist. 



The natives exhibit skill and boldness in 

 surgery, though their methods are necessarily 

 of the crudest. Trepanation was freely re- 

 sorted to, and with success ; fractures were 

 dexterously reduced. Hygienic principles are 

 practically non-existent, and the spread of in- 

 fectious diseases is rapid. The intro- 



of the information acquired re- 

 garding their habits, customs, 

 and ideas was the reward of hav- 

 ing gained the confidence of the 

 islanders. Although but some 

 sixty miles separate the Loyalty 

 group from New Caledonia, the 

 natives of the former, with their 

 cheery disposition and laughter- 

 loving habit, differ markedly from 

 the dour, sullen natives of the 

 latter. The tradition that Uvea 

 was peopled partly by immigrants 

 from the Polynesian Wallis Island 

 (also called Uvea), lying about 

 1000 miles away, is borne out by 

 the fact that Uvea boasts of two 

 languages, the original " laian " 

 and a distinct and apparently in- 

 trusive language spoken in the 

 north and south of the island. 

 This Polynesian intrusion ex- 

 plains, perhaps, the tempera- 

 mental difference which is 

 noticed between the Loyalty 

 Islanders and the more strictly 

 Melanesian New Caledonians, and 

 also accounts for certain customs 



NO. 2694, VOL. 107] 



-The wonderful wooden gong of Umu-nze, t^e maker of which wa-i miirde'-ed lest he should 

 make an even finer one for another town. Krom " Among the Ibos of Nigeiia. " 



