and its Decay in Australasia. 103 



Museum. Among these illustrations I find several speci- 

 mens WTongiy described. One specimen certainly charac- 

 teristic of the natives of Tahiti is attributed to the New 

 Zealander. Another specimen, strictly New Zealandic in 

 character, cannot be placed at all, although very little know- 

 ledge of style would enable any one to identify it with its 

 producers." 



Native Wood Carving. — "The New Zealander proceeds 

 thus : A block of wood is procured and rudely fashioned to 

 the required size and shape ; it is then saturated with any 

 oily or fatty substance at command. The block is then 

 carefally smoked over a fire, then again oiled, and again 

 smoked, and so on, until its outer surfaces are rendered 

 vulnerable to the very primitive tools at command of the 

 native artizan, namely, fragments of flint, obsidian, shell or 

 their celebrated green stone (jade or axestone), by means of 

 which their ideas are realized by a kind of etching, or, more 

 properly speaking, a system of scratching and scraping." 



" Another peculiarity belonging to the work of these 

 people is that they perfect their designs in the mind prior 

 to the commencement of any portion of the execution. 

 When the design has been thus created, a portion only of 

 the work is carried into execution by scratching out only so 

 much as it is calculated can be completed within a given 

 time. The workman trusts to his truly woijdrous memory 

 which carries him faithfully through to the finish, without 

 misapplying a line, and this though many of their works 

 are of such extent as to occupy years for completion." 



The Comparative Skill of the Different Oroii]ys. — " My 

 reason for selecting the aboriginals of the Fijian and 

 the New Zealand groups as examples, is on account of the 

 universal opinion which places them foremost in the ranks 

 of ingenious and clever native workmen ; because, indeed, 

 they have no rivals among the inhabitants of the Southern 

 Archipelago. I ought, however, to add that many clever 

 tribes still exist among the Tongans, the Tannaese (?), the 

 Samoans, the inhabitants of Tahiti, and the New Hebrides 

 group ; among the whole of whom the same rapid decline 

 of constructive and decorative art is perceptible, and their 

 case is identical in this respect with that of the Fijian and 

 the New Zealander." 



Hie Native Arts of Samoa. — " The natives of Samoa to 

 a great extent still hold their own in that peculiar class of 



