^o 



NATURE 



[September 17, 1914 



building, in which they excelled all other South Sea 

 islanders, in the making of clubs and other weapons, 

 and in otherwise using the timber, which grew more 

 abundantly, and of better quality, in their islands than 

 elsewhere. Meanwhile the Polynesians, in their 

 earlier homes and long before they reached Fiji, had 

 developed, in very high - degree, corresponding but 

 different and much more elaborate arts (and ideas) of 

 their own. But, as we know from Captain Cook, the 

 Polynesians, despite their own higher culture, from 

 their Tongan homes, greatly admired and appreciated 

 the special craftsmanship of the Fijians, and it was 

 indeed this admiration which attracted the former 

 from Tonga to Fiji ; and when the Polynesians had 

 gained footing in the Fijis they — quite in accordance 

 with human nature — were inclined, for a time at least, 

 to foster the foreign Fijian arts — if not Fijian ideas — 

 rather than replace these by their own arts ; and before 

 the struggle, both physical and cultural, between the 

 two sets of "savages" had gone far it was inter- 

 rupted, and more or less definitely arrested, by the 

 arrival and gradual settlement of the still more power- 

 ful, because civilised, white folk from the Western 

 world. 



In turning to the earlier (Melanesian) occupants of 

 Fiji, and especially to the less advanced of these, to 

 find the traces of which we are in search of the more 

 primitive habit of thought, it must not be forgotten 

 that even at the stage at which we begin to know 

 about them they had made considerable advance, in 

 their ideas as well as in their arts and crafts. They 

 still used their most primitive form of club, but also 

 made others of much more elaborated form ; so, 

 though the ideas which lay at the basis of their habit 

 of thought were of very primitive kind, they had 

 acquired others of more complex character. 



Before going further may I say — and I sincerely 

 hope that suggestion will not be misunderstood — that 

 in the difficult task of forming a clear conception of 

 the fundamental stock of thought which must have 

 guided the conduct of the more primitive folk we 

 must constantly bear In mind the parallelism (I do not 

 mean .necessary Identity of origin) between the 

 thoughts of the earliest human folk and the corre- 

 sponding instincts (as these are called) noticeable In 

 the case of some of the higher animals? I am par- 

 ticularly anxious not to be misunderstood ; the sug- 

 gestion Is not that even the most primitive human 

 folk were mentally merely on a par even with the 

 higher animals, but that many, perhaps most, of the 

 ways of thought that guided the primitive man In 

 his bearing towards the world outside himself may 

 be more easily understood If It Is once realised, .and 

 afterwards remembered, that the two mental habits, 

 however different in origin and in degree of develop- 

 ment, were remarkably analogous in kind. 



A similar analogy. In respect not of thoughts but 

 of arts, may well Illustrate this correspondence 

 between the elementary Ideas of men and animals. 

 The higher apes occasionally arm themselves by tear- 

 ing a young tree up by the roots and using the 

 "club" thus provided as a weapon of offence and 

 defence against their enemies. Some of the primitive 

 South Sea Islanders dld^ — nay, do — exactly the same, 

 or at any rate did so until very lately. The club — 

 the so-called malumu — which the Fijian, then and up 

 to the much later time when he ceased to use a club 

 at all, greatly preferred to use for all serious fighting 

 purposes was provided In exactly the same way, i.e., 

 by dragging a young tree from the ground, and 

 smoothing off the more rugged roots to form what 

 the American might call the business end of the club. 

 But though the Fijian, throughout the period during 

 which he retained his own ways, used and even pre- 



NO. 2342, VOL. 94] 



ferred this earliest form of club, he meanwhile em- 

 ployed his leisure (which was abundant), his fancy, 

 and his ingenuity, In ornamenting this weapon, and 

 also In gradually adapting it to more and more special 

 purposes, some of the later of which were not even 

 warlike but were ceremonial purposes, until in course 

 of time each isolated island or group of islands evolved 

 clubs special to it In form, purpose, and ornament, 

 and the very numerous and puzzlingly varied series of 

 elaborate and beautiful clubs and club-shaped imple- 

 ments resulted. It seems to be in power of improve- 

 ment and elaboration that lies the difference between 

 men-folk and animal-folk. 



Something similar may be assumed to have brought 

 about the evolution of the ideas of these islanders. 

 Starting with a stock of thoughts similar in kind to 

 the instincts of the more advanced animals, the 

 human-folk — by virtue of some mysterious potentiality 

 —gradually adapted these to meet the special circum- 

 stances of their own surroundings, and In so doing 

 ornamenting these primitive thoughts further In 

 accordance with fancy. 



In the Fiji Islands this process of cultural develop- 

 ment was probably slow during the long period while 

 the Melaneslans, with perhaps the occasional stimulus 

 afforded by the drifting In of a little human flotsam 

 and jetsam from other still more primitive folk, were 

 in sole occupation ; yet it must have been during this 

 period and by these folk that the distinctly Fijian form 

 of culture was evolved. But the process must have 

 been greatly accelerated, and at the same time more 

 or less changed in direction, by the incoming of the 

 distinct and higher Polynesian culture, at a time 

 certainly before, but perhaps not very long before, tin 

 encroachment of Europeans. 



In order to realise as vividly as possible what were 

 the earlier, most elementary, thoughts on which the 

 whole detail of his subsequent "savage" mentality 

 was gradually imposed, it Is 'essential for the time 

 j being to discard practically all the ideas which, since 

 the road to civilisation parted from that on which 

 savagery was left to linger, have built up the men- 

 tality of civilised folk ; it Is essential to try to see as 

 the most primitive Fijian saw and to conceive what 

 these Islanders thought as to themselves and as to 

 the world In which they found themselves. 



It seems safe to assume that the primitive man, 

 absolutely self-centred, had hardly begun to puzzle out 

 any explanation even of his own nature, still less of i 

 the real nature of all the other things of which he 

 must have been vaguely conscious in the world out- 

 side himself. To put it bluntly, he took things very 

 much as they came, and had scarcely begun to ask 

 questions. 



He was — he could not but be, as the lower animals 

 are — in some vague way conscious of himself, and 

 from that one entirely self-centred position he could 

 not but perceive from time to time that other beings, 

 more or less like himself, were about him, and came 

 more or less In contact with him. 



The place in which he was conscious of being ap- 

 peared to him limitless. He did not realise that he 

 could move about only in the Islet which was his 

 home, or perhaps even only In a part of a somewhat 

 larger, but according to our ideas still small. Island; 

 if other islets were In sight from that on which he 

 lived, these also would be part of his world, especi- 

 ally if — though such incidents must have been rare 

 — he had crossed to, or been visited by strangers 

 from, those Islands — islands which lay between his 

 own home and that which he spoke of as wai-langi- 

 lala (water-sky-emptiness) and we speak of as the 

 horizon. To him the world was not limited by any 

 line, even the furthest which his sight disclosed to 



