634 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION H. 
practised and the occasions upon which it takes place lend support to this 
hypothesis. Further, if we examine the well-known Meriah sacrifice of the 
Khands, we shall find that rotation of the victim was in certain places a very 
common feature of the ritual, and it is probable that from such form of 
human sacrifice hook-swinging has descended. 
6. Sun Cult and Megaliths in Oceania. 
By W. . BR. Rivers, M.A., M.D., F.R.S. 
The infanticide and libertinage for which the Areois of Eastern Polynesia 
are best known are probably but late accretions to a cult which had a definitely 
religious purpose. Moerenhout tells us’ that in the Marquesas the celebrations 
of the Areois jhad a seasonal character, and that their purpose was to represent 
the annual movements of the sun by the death and coming to life again of the 
god Hahui. 
The Areois of Polynesia closely resemble the secret societies of Melanesia, 
and the celebrations of some of these have also a seasonal character. Under- 
lying the extortions and licence of the Dukduk of New Britain, there are ideas 
according to which the rites celebrate the annual death and coming to life 
again of the Dukduk.? We have no direct evidence that the Dukduk, whose 
birth, life, and death are thus celebrated, represent the sun, but the existence 
of a definite cult of the sun in the neighbourhood of the region where the Dukduk 
are active makes this highly probable.* 
The celebrations of the Matambala of the Solomon Islands also had a seasonal 
character, and here there is definite evidence that the sun was included among 
the ritual objects of the societies.* 
In the Tamate or ghost societies of southern Melanesia any evidence of a 
seasonal character is wanting, but the Tamate are said to be born and to die; 
and in the ritual of the Tamate Liwoa, or chief society of Mota in the Banks 
Islands, there are several features which point to a representation of the sun, 
while the legend which records the origin of the society has several features 
suggesting that the founder represented the sun. 
The representation of the annual movements of the sun by means of the 
anthropomorphic processes of birth and death is very unlikely to have arisen 
near the Equator, where these movements are relatively so small. If one purpose 
of the secret societies of Oceania be the representation of the annual movements 
of the sun, we should have important confirmation of a conclusion, reached on 
quite other grounds, that the societies were founded by immigrants into Oceania 
and that their ritual embodies beliefs and practices brought from elsewhere. 
The representation of the movements of the sun by such a simile as that of birth 
and death suggests that the immigrants came from some northern latitude. 
There is a striking correspondence in the distribution of the secret societies 
of Oceania and the presence of structures constructed of large stones. In 
Tahiti and the Marquesas there are pyramids and platforms made of large 
stones so worked as to fit closely to one another and form durable structures 
without cement. The islands in which Oceanic stone-work has reached its 
highest development are the Carolines, and both here and in the neighbouring 
Marianne Islands there were societies whose name and functions show them to 
have been closely akin to the Areois of Eastern Polynesia. Further, there are 
striking similarities in the narratives recording the foundation of the Areois 
of Tahiti and the building of the cyclopean structures of Ponape in the Carolines. 
In Melanesia, again, the distribution of ancient stone-work corresponds 
closely with that of secret societies. Structures made of worked stone have 
been found in only three places, the Banks and Torres Islands and Ysabel in 
the Solomons. The Banks and Torres Islands are strongholds of the secret cults, 
and there is a definite tradition that the Matambala of the Solomons came 
originally from Ysabel. 
1 Voyage aux iles du grand Océan, Paris, 1837, i., 500. 
? R. H. Rickard, Proc. Ass. Soc. Victoria, 1891, iii., 70, 
* Meier, Anthropos, 1912, viii., 706. 
* Codrington, Melanesians, 1891, p. 95, 
oo 
