MALLERY. | IN KEI ISLANDS. 167 
can make no suggestion as to its meaning. In s we have, doubtless, the picture of 
a human being who is running away from q, the object from the top of which issues 
fire or smoke. I am strengthened in my conviction that it is meant for a man by 
observing a similar figure running away from the monster aa. p, which has been 
placed below that group, might be compared to a pair of spectacles, but is proba- 
bly a letter or an imitation of such a sign. 
A little more to the right a figure 6 feet long is very prominent. It is probably the 
representation of a right whale in the act of spouting. Above it, in , the figure of 
a mantis is easily recognizable, whilst wand the characters to the right below thesup- 
posed right whale again resemble cyphers or letters. wand y, although in many 
respects different, belong doubtless to the same group, and represent large lizards or 
crocodiles. * * * wis4 feet long; itis unfortunately deficient in its lower por- 
tion, but it is still sufficiently preserved to show that besides four legs it possesses 
two other lower appendages, of which one is forked and the other has the appear- 
ance of a trident. I wish also to draw attention to the unusual form of the head. 
y is a similar animal 3 feet long, but it has eight legs, and head and tail are well de- 
fined. The head is well rounded off, and both animals represent, without doubt, 
some fabulous animal, such as the taniwha, which is generally described as a huge 
crocodile, of which the ancient legends give so many accounts. 
aa, a huge snake-like animal 15 feet long, is probably a representation of the 
tuna tuoro, a mythical monster. It is evident that the tuna tuoro is in the act of 
swallowing a man, who tries to save himself by running away from it. 
KEI ISLANDS. 
Mr. A. Langen (a) made a report on the Kei islands and their Ghost 
grottoes, with a plate now reproduced as Fig. 134. He says: 
The group of the small Kei islands, more correctly Arue islands [southwest from 
New Guinea], is a sea bottom raised by voleanic forces and covered with corals and 
shells. The corals appear but at a few points. They are in the main covered with 
a layer of shells cemented together, whose cement is so hard and firm that it offers 
resistance to the influence of time even after the shell has been weathered away. 
On the whole, all the figures in similar genre are represented in thousands of 
specimens. [They may be divided into three series, the first including letters a to 
k; the second, letters / to t; the third, letters u to ce.] Many are effaced and unrecog- 
nizable, only letter k, series 1; letters n, 0, s, t, series 2; and letters cc, series 3, stand 
isolated and seem to have a peculiar meaning. The popular legend ascribes the great- 
est age to the characters of series 1 and series 2, and it is said that the signs record 
a terrible fight in which the islanders lost many dead, but yet remained victors. It 
is stated that the signs were produced by the ghosts of the fallen. The signs of series 
3 are said to be the work of a woman named Tewaheru, who was able to converse 
with ghosts as well as with the living. But, when on one occasion she helped a 
living man to recover his dead wife by betraying to him the secret of making the 
spirit return to the body, she is said to have been destroyed by the ghosts and 
changed into a blackbird, whose call even at this day indicates death. Since that 
time no medium is said to exist between the living and the dead, nor do any new 
signs appear on the rock. 
Investigation in place showed me that the color of series 3 consists of ocher made 
up with water. The very oldest drawings seem to have been made with water 
color, as the color has nowhere penetrated into the rock. Most of the figures are 
painted on overhanging rocks in such a way as to be protected as much as possible 
against wind and weather; whether they bear any relation to the signs on the rocks 
of Papua, and what that relation may be, I am not yet able to judge. 
