Jan. 8, 1880] 



NATURE 



227 



sherds of glass bottles collected near Maclay's hut new 

 refinements and variations were introduced into their wood 

 ornamentation. As regards the pottery ware, since this 

 is made by the women, and as the latter are wanting in 

 artistic sense or in interest in their work, it is quite 

 devoid of ornament. 



2. The Origin of the Development of Symbolic Charac- 

 ters. — M. Maclay believes that he discovered by accident 

 the use of an ideograph (" Ideenschrift") by the 

 Papuans in a very rudimentary form. He noticed upon 

 the facade of the luiambramra of a neighbouring village 

 a row of shields formed from the leaf-bladders of the 

 sago-palm, on which rude figures, e.g., fish, snakes, suns, 

 and stars were painted in various combinations. Their 

 meaning puzzled him for along time, and from insufficient 

 knowledge of the language he was for a long period unable 

 to inquire about it. In the forests, too, he remarked 

 similar enigmatical symbols carved upon the bark of the 

 trees ; also upon the sides of the praus which came from 

 the Islands of Contentment. The riddle remained un- 

 solved until the occasion of a feast, several months later, 

 given in celebration of the launch of two large canoes on 

 which the natives had been working for a long time, when 

 a solution suddenly presented itself. Towards the end of 

 the feast one of the younger guests jumped up, took a 

 coal, and began to sketch a row of primitive figures upon a 

 plank which lay near. These symbols had a great 

 resemblance to those which Maclay had previously 

 remarked upon the trees, canoes, &c. , and were sketched 

 in the following order. First came a representation of the 

 two newly launched praus, drawn as though half upon 

 the shore and half in the water ; then followed a drawing 

 of men carrying two pigs tied fast to a stake, victims 

 doomed to be sacrificed for the feast. After these were 

 represented, a row of large tabir. equivalent in number to 

 the "covers" which had been served at the banquet, 

 while the rear was brought up by a drawing of Maclay's 

 canoe, conspicuous by its large flag, two large sailing 

 canoes from the Archipelago of Contentment, and a 

 number of smaller ones without sail?, from the neighbour- 

 hood of Bili-bili. This group, which symbolised the 

 various guests present at the feast, was drawn as a 

 souvenir of the banquet, and Maclay saw it several 

 months afterwards. Further observations have led M. 

 Maclay to the conclusion that representations such as 

 that just mentioned, are not to be regarded in thi 

 pictures or sketches, but as rudiments of a primitive 

 ideograph — "primitive Ideenschrift" — a conclusion 

 which has been borne out by later observations. M. 

 Maclay was impressed with the variety in the representa- 

 tion of the commonest objects, which implies a very 

 limited comprehension of drawing and renders it an utter 

 impossibility for any other [than the artist ?] to under- 

 stand this primitive writing, or pictorial mnemonic 

 medium. A man, for example, was actually represented 

 by the same artist (1) as a rough human shape; (2) 

 as a face with eyes and a large mouth ; (3) as a comb ' 

 with a plume of feathers, and, lastly, as the "membrum 

 virile," and it is very probable that there are many other 

 symbols besides having an analogous signification. 

 Besides the pictorial representations, the Papuans of 

 Maclay Coast employ several mnemonic appliances to aid 

 in remembering important events ; for in every village 

 may be seen suspended " in memoriam," various objects, 

 such as bones, as a souvenir of a great feast, cocoa-nut 

 shells, of a less important feast — no animal having been 

 slaughtered on the occasion — a dry bunch of leaves or an 

 empty basket, the former hung up by some friend in 

 remembrance of a visit, the latter in which some present 

 had been brought, being left behind as a hint for some 

 gift in return. In every buambramra hang rows of the 

 lower jaws of pigs and dogs, skulls of fish and of various 

 marsupial animals, in remembrance of feasts, successful 



1 "Kamm," a comb or crest. 



fishing and hunting parties, and visits of friends; serving 

 thus as a veritable calendar of the events of past months 

 and years. 



3. Sculpture in Wood. — Tothis category belongs princi- 

 pally the fairly numerous quantity of carvings which, if not 

 precisely as idols, may nevertheless be regarded as objects 

 standing in a very intimate relation to the religious ideas 

 of the Papuans. Such, under the common term, Tclum, 

 were seen by M. Maclay in nearly every village, and 

 accurate drawings were made of no less than twenty-one 

 of them, interesting as they were not only as specimens 

 of the art of the stone age, but as affording many a guide 

 to the relationship of the Melanesian races. A Tclum 

 consists of a human figure, of either sex, fashioned out of 

 wood, or, more rarely, from clay. Nearly all wear peculiar 

 head-dresses, and those of the male sex have the genitals 

 of an enormous size. In a mountain village a Telitm 

 was discovered with the body of a man, but the head of a 

 crocodile, for which a turtle served as a kind of cap, 

 and in the same village another human figure was found 

 which held with both hands a tablet covered with various 

 symbols. In all figures the nose, as is the custom among 

 the Papuans, is bored through, and every Telum, 

 moreover, of which several may be found in each village, 

 has its own special name. As for the significance of the;e 

 wood-carvings, M. Maclay is not quite certain upon this 

 point, although he is sure that they stand in some relation 

 to the rudimentary religious conceptions (Vorste 

 of the Papuans, for in some of the hill villages large 

 stones even were seen to be honoured as Teh 

 on the other hand, we regard these representations from 

 an aesthetic point of view, we shall be again forced to 

 admit the artistic capabilities of the Papuans, their great 

 perseverance, as well as the way in which simple decorations 

 become transformed into bas-relief, and again fro 

 relievo into the complete figure ; for in Papuan art of 

 the "stone age," such a series of progressive steps is 

 demonstrated in the completest manner. 



Superstitions and their Resulting Customs. — With regard 

 to "Tabu,"' this custom exists in New Guinea, but M. 

 Maclay did not succeed in finding out any equivalent 

 term for it in the Papuan tongue, though frequent ex- 

 amples of it could be recognised in the various restrictions 

 put upon the actions of women in their relation to the 

 men. For example they are forbidden to set foot within 

 the buambramra, the)' are excluded from all feasts, and 

 every dainty which they prepare for the latter, especially 

 the principal drink, Keu, is forbidden to them as well as 

 the children. The meeting places of the men, music, 

 musical instruments, and even the mere hearing of the 

 same is strict Tabu for the women, for as soon as the 

 sound of one is heard in the neighbourhood, they and 

 the children must instantly flee. To the repeated 

 inquiry of Maclay as to the reason of the above exclusion 

 of the women, the answer was invariably returned — " It 

 would never do, for the women and children would fall 

 ill and die." 



Music and Song.— The performance on all instruments 

 of music, which are collectively included under the term 

 "At," is allowed to the men alone. They are as 

 follows : — 



The "Ai-A'abrai.' ' — This consists of a bamboo, about two 

 yards and more in length, and about fifty millimetres in 

 diameter, from which all the septa between the internodes 

 have been removed so that the whole consists of a single 

 long tube. This instrument is put into the mouth, and 

 through its large orifice the performer blows, shrieks, or 

 howls, the sound being audible in still weather at a 

 distance of from two to three miles. The word " Kabrai " 



,11 be found in " 

 Early History of Mankind," I 



Ocean," Vol. i.i.. p. 163. London. 1784. " rhis « 



cit.p. 164) "is use,l I J- or eminent, or devoted. 



•1 bus the KingofOwhyhee was calkd " victim, Tang.Ua- 



taboo; and in the same manner, among the Friendly Islanders, longa.the 

 island where the king resides, is named ToHga-taim. — J. C. G. 



