Supplement to '' N attire" April 24, 1902. 



SUPPLEMENT TO "NATURE." 



FIRST FRUITS OF THE CAMBRIDGE AX 

 THROPOLOGICAI. EXPEDH ION 7 O TORRES 

 STRAITS. 



Head- Hunters, Black, White and Brown. By Alfred C. 

 Haddon, Sc.D., F.R.S. Pp. .\xiv + 426. (London : 

 Methuen and Co., 1901.) Price 15^. 



UNDER this sporting title, Dr. Haddon has published 

 a preliminary and popular account of the Cam- 

 bridge .'Anthropological Expedition to Torres Straits and 

 its unofficial extension to Sarawak. Expeditions for 

 various scientific purposes have long been familiar. 

 Expeditions for specifically anthropological purposes 

 have been frequently organised in the United States and 

 in (.lermany ; but in this country such an expedition is a 

 "new departure." Contributions to the cost of the 

 Torres Straits Expedition came from more than one 

 source ; the chief part of the funds, however, was sup- 

 plied by the University of Cambridge— hence the name. 

 The expedition was led by Dr. Haddon, whose interest 

 in the natives had been excited ten years before, when 

 he visited the islands of Torres Straits on a scientific 

 mission of a different character. He secured as col- 

 leagues Dr. W. H. R. Rivers, Dr. C. S. Myers, Mr. 

 W. McDougall, Mr. Sidney H. Ray, Mr. C. G. Selig- 

 mann and the late Mr. .'Anthony Wilkin — the majority 

 of them Cambridge men. They left London on 

 March 10, 1S9S, and the last of them returned on May 

 31 in the following year. Nearly seven months were 

 spent by most of them in Torres Straits, on the islands 

 and on the mainland of New Guinea, with a short visit 

 to the contiguous part of Australia. Upwards of four 

 months were spent by the leader of the expedition, Mr. 

 Ray and Mr. Seligmann at Sarawak, whither Dr. Myers 

 and .Mr. McDougall had preceded them. 



The object of the expedition was not merely to in- 

 vestigate the physical and mental development of the 

 islanders of Torres Straits, but to determine, if possible, 

 their ethnological position, situated as they are geo- 

 graphically between the Papuans and Melanesians of 

 New Guinea and the islands further to the eastward, on 

 the one hand, and the .Australian race on the other. 

 The result has been to trace the population wholly to 

 the north and east, without any recognisable admixture 

 of the ."Australian element, although many of the islands, 

 and those the largest, are within a few miles of Cape 

 York. The amount of work done in the way of physical 

 observations, mental tests and investigations into the 

 civilisation of the natives will only be rendered appreci- 

 able when the official reports are complete. A very 

 slight examination, however, of the part (by Dr. Rivers) 

 which has already been issued will suffice to convince 

 everyone of the extreme care with which the inquiries 

 were conducted, and of the value of the information 

 obtained as data for induction and as a guide for future 

 researches. 



The fact that the islanders have been under continuous 

 European influence for a quarter of a century rendered 

 them more docile and capable of assisting the investiga- 

 NO. 1695, VOL. 65] 



tions into their physical and mental qualities. But it 

 had the inevitable disadvantage that their customs were 

 undergoing rapid change ; many interesting ceremonies 

 md institutions had been abandoned ; the old lore and 

 many of the old superstitions were beginning to be 

 forgotten ; the shrines of the ancient worship were 

 neglected or desecrated ; and European clothing and 

 mission churches were outward and visible signs of the 

 new order. It is true this change was not without its 

 compensations. Communication was made easier by 

 the fact that nearly all the natives knew some pidgin 

 English, as well as by their comparative familiarity with 

 the ways of white men. But again and again things 

 of importance that had been recoverable even ten years 

 previously had vanished. Old men, the depositories of 

 tradition, had died. Ceremonies which the travellers 

 witnessed were often only make-shift and imperfect 

 representations performed for their special behoof, and 

 had to be supplemented by explanations, too often, 

 doubtless, as imperfect as the representations. " It was 

 very saddening," says Dr. Haddon, " to be continually 

 pulled up in our researches by the oft-repeated cry of 

 ' Too late/'" In spite of all this, however, much sur- 

 vived. Amusing instances are given, showing how the 

 old superstitions lingered in the minds of those who had 

 renounced them and who were doing their best to lead 

 Christian lives according to the standard of their mis- 

 sionary instructors. 



Dr. Haddon's narrative of the expedition contains some 

 very entertaining chapters, and some excellent stories of 

 the natives and of the stratagems resorted to by the 

 travellers to obtain the information they were seeking. 

 One of the quaintest things is the account of a missionary 

 meeting on the island of Mabuiag, which Dr. Haddon 

 was suddenly called on to address. .-After the meeting 

 was over, a war-dance was performed by some of the 

 natives for the delectation of the scientific visitors. 

 It was called Kwoiam's dance, after the mythical 

 hero of the island. Men who had been singing hymns, 

 and evincing their genuine interest in the mission by 

 giving what were really substantial sums of money for the 

 evangelisation of New Guinea, painted themselves with 

 red and black and yellow ochre, adorned themselves with 

 cocoa-nut leaves, and carried bows and arrows and (to 

 represent decapitated human heads, such as they once 

 had borne in grim earnest) cocoa-nuts and pawpaws. So 

 vivid was the representation that in the course of the 

 dance " some old women, excited by the memory of 

 former days, could not refrain from joining also." 

 "Imagine," e.xclaims the author, " a 'May meeting' in 

 Exeter Hall closing with a war-dance !" 



The narrative also contains incidentally pregnant hints 

 for future anthropological explorers. But, on the whole, 

 its interest is secondary to that of the ethnographical in- 

 formation interspersed or set forth in special chapters. 

 Some of this is of high value, though probably not ex- 

 panded as fully as it will be in the official report. The 

 subject of totemism has during recent years occupied a 

 large space in the discussions concerning the evolution of 

 religion and of social institutions. Until we see the 

 details of Dr. Haddon's discoveries it is, perhaps, prema- 

 ture to say that they will settle any of the questions to 

 which it has given rise. But enough appears in the volume 



