46 Director's Annual Report. 
the human attributes are probably in the majority; but then, the 
gods of Olympus were at times very human! The extreme height 
is 38 inches. 
The last specimen in this interesting collection to which I shall 
call attention is a well-carved figure in such an opisthotonic pos- 
ture as to suggest that it was a boat figure or figure head. The 
closed eyes, however, militate against that theory, and except 
through the large ear borings (the right-hand one is broken away) 
there seems no means of attaching the uncomfortable figure to any 
support. There is, however, a portion of fresh cut surface between 
the shoulder blades which may be the place from which a cleat has 
been broken or removed. The buttocks are prominent, but the 
coccygeal process is prolonged into a rudimentary tail. The 
wide-spread legs (in one the thigh, in the other the lower leg is 
longer) would perhaps be the posture of a dance, but the closed 
eyes—altogether the chubby and rather attractive figure is a 
puzzle. ‘The fingers are well done and the nails are very distinct; 
the right thumb and a portion of the adjoining forefinger have 
been broken off. The small determined mouth contrasts strangely 
with the enlarged nostrils: if the hair is intended it can only be 
wool. No. 11,572, from Big Bay. Figs. 19, 20. 
In such a collection as this it is easy to call attention to pub- 
lished accounts of similar things when such accounts exist, but 
there are always questions that a student of ethnology wishes to 
ask of the native makers themselves, that he cannot find in the 
accounts of travelers or even of missionaries who have for years 
resided among these primitive peoples. I have seen such a dish 
used in such a way in Java, but what right have I to record that 
a similar dish is used in the same way and for the same purpose 
on the island of Ambrym? We know so little of the woods used 
to fashion into dishes or images, dance clubs or paddles, and if I 
were on the shores of Ambrym I could probably persuade some 
capable person to point out to me the tree from which this club or 
that dish had been cut. Again one could see how the dishes were 
used, and how the dances conducted and the many slight but im- 
portant questions that an unscientific collector would never think 
of asking, but which often make the difference between knowledge 
and ignorance concerning a specimen. 
[86] 
