TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION H. 801 



through his wife. If, for any reason, it should become necessary to speak to his 

 father-in-law, he talks in a low voice and mild manner. 



In the western tribe this disability is associated with certain duties and privi- 

 leges. The brother-in-law has the power of stopping a fight, but apparently not to 

 80 marked an extent as in the case of the maternal uncle. 



When a man dies the duty of looking after the body and the mourners falls 

 largely on the brother-in-law (imi). If the man has died away from home it is the 

 duty of the ' imi 'to announce the death to the widow and brothers of the deceased, and 

 the ' imi ' gives the signal for the crying ' keening ' to commence. lie prepares the 

 body and carries it to the grave. He stops the crying, gives food to the mourners, 

 and fills the pipe of the brother of the dead man. If no brother-in-law is present 

 these duties devolve on the father- in-law (ira), or, if no ' ira' is present, on the 

 sister-in-law (^ngaubat). Owing, however, to the large number of brothers-in-law 

 provided by the classiticatory system of kinship, this rarely happens. 



The brother-in-law has also definite duties in connection with fishing, and has 

 a definite place in the fore part of the canoe. It is his duty to hoist the sail, to 

 heave the anchor, to bale out water, to light the fire and prepare food, and to 

 spear the dugong or turtle. lie has, in fact, to do all the hard work, while the 

 owner or captain of the boat has little to do beyond giving orders. In special 

 kinds of fishing, as in that in which the sucking fish is used — of which Dr. Iladdon 

 has given an account— certain of the operations are carried out by the brother- 

 in-law. 



At a dance a man does not wear his own mask (hrci) but that of his brother- 

 in-law. 



It seems probable that these customs may be regarded as vestiges of a condi- 

 fion which does not now exist in Torres Straits, but is found in many parts of the 

 •world, viz., a condition in which a man lives with and serves the family of his 

 wife. 



These customs, and those connected with the maternal uncle, agree in pointing 

 to the existence, at some time, in Torres Straits of a stage in the development of 

 the family in which the husband was a relatively unimportant appendage, and the 

 head of the family was the brother of the wife ; a stage of development which is 

 .still to be found in some parts of the world, as among the Seri Indians, recently 

 investigated by McGee. 



[The full account of this and the preceding Paper will be published in the 

 ■)ort of the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to Torres Straits.^ 



Hepoi 



3. kiome Emotions in the Murray Islander. By Charles S. Myers. 



A belief is widely spread that in the degree of their control over the impulses 

 of their emotions lies the essential difference between the civilised and uncivilised 

 mind, and that the emotions of a savage are accordingly a series of powerful 

 stimuli, directly and automatically releasing their appropriate actions without the 

 effective intrusion of thought, reason, or self-consciousness. 



The writer's experiences, as member of Dr. Haddon's Cambridge Anthropo- 

 logical Expedition to the Torres Straits and Borneo, have led him to doubt 

 whether such a view is particularly or even broadly true. He found that the 

 general conduct of the Murray Islanders, an undoubtedly vivacious and excitable 

 people, was comparable to that of other similarly emotional country folk, e.r/. the 

 rural population of South Europe. He believes that such differences as exist are 

 due not so much to distinctive mental constitution as to the varyino- sanctions 

 and customs of society. 



The intense excitement prevailing at the games of the Murray Islanders 

 perhaps atoned for their remarkable disregard for orderly competition ; a feature 

 which is perhaps to be connected with the feeble fighting powers and the social 

 equahty of these people in the past. 



' See also M<m, 1901, pp. 136, 137. 



