Minute of Proceedings. 213^ 



circular spires which tend to pass into the square variety, and by the 

 development of the meander pattern. "Wooden belts are characteristic 

 of the district, and the prevailing ornaments on them are conven- 

 tionalised derivatives of human faces. 



The fourth, which Mr. Haddon calls the Central district, is an 

 extensive strip of territory, stretching from Cape Possession to MuUan's 

 Harbour, and occupied by a variety of tribes. This division of the 

 country is longest and best known, containing Port Moresby, the seat 

 of government. It is marked by the prevalence of panels, which 

 shows itself not only in the ornamentation of objects, but also in 

 tattooing, which is largely practised by the women. The absence of 

 human, and, in general, of animal, jS.gures is a noticeable feature in the 

 art of this region. 



Fifthly, there is the Massim district, comprising the remainder of 

 the south coast and the South-Eastern Archipelago, including the 

 Louisiade, D'Entrecasteaux, and Trobriand groups of islands. Here 

 curved lines abound ; scrolls, spirals, loopcoils, and the guilloche are- 

 everywhere. Animal forms, which were not found in the Central 

 district, reappear in this, the bird motif predominating. The art is 

 on a higher plane as regards technique than in other districts ; and 

 there is a feeling for symmetry and a talent for adapting ornament to- 

 material which are not elsewhere seen in the same degree. 



If we look at the inhabitants of these several districts from the 

 Ethnological point of view, we shall be led to regard those toward the 

 west of the Protectorate, whether on the mainland or in the islands, 

 from Daudai to somewhere about Cape Possession, as Papuans, belong- 

 ing to a race dark in colour, with frizzly hair, dolicocephalic, and 

 rather small in stature. Notwithstanding these common physical char- 

 acters, there are great diversities amongst the tribes, but, as a whole, 

 they appear to be the aborigines of ITew Guinea. Erom Cape Posses- 

 sion to the furthest of the Louisiades, we find, mixed with Papuans in 

 different degrees in different localities, what seems to be an immigrant 

 population, more light-coloured than the Papuans. These people are 

 sometimes spoken of as Malayans or Malayo-Polynesians ; Mr. Haddon 

 prefers to call them Melanesians, which implies their origin from the 

 chain of islands off the east of New Guinea, extending to New 

 Caledonia. He believes, however, in a more complex mixture than 

 that of two races only. It is thought that Maiva, in the Central 



