214 Royal Irish Academy. 



district, is the extreme point readied by the Melanesian settlers. How 

 far the artistic characteristics of the several districts along the coast 

 are to be explained by racial origin is, I think, a question too complex 

 for solution, at least in the present state of our knowledge. 



Two notable facts may be mentioned respecting the art of the 

 entire Protectorate — (1) picture-writing is unknown, and (2) celestial 

 objects are not represented ; it appears to be at a later stage of 

 development that the heavenly bodies become interesting. 



Mr. Haddon's memoir is not merely a monograph on the art of the 

 tribes of the Protectorate ; it is also a study of their character and 

 condition from the anthropological and sociological points of view. 

 The treatment of their art, indeed, leads naturally, in many instances, 

 to a description of their customs. Thus, a 2JTopos of the instrument 

 commonly known as the buU-roarer,^ he gives an account of their 

 remarkable mysteries and forms of initiation, which remind us of 

 the more celebrated Greek institution, and recall Yirgil's "procul, o 

 procul este profani." And, in connexion with the masks which some 

 of the natives adorn so elaborately, he describes the ceremonial dances 

 in which this singular costume is worn. 



Speaking of these populations generally, we may say that they 

 are in the fetishistic state, in which, with religions of that type, 

 co-exists the lax form of political organization which usually accom- 

 panies them, where personal qualities — ability, experience, and 

 supposed supernatural powers — are the foundation of ascendancy, and 

 hereditary chieftainship is unknown or is found only in rudimentaiy 

 form. We must not, however, conceive of them as representing the 

 primitive man. They stand, as Mr. Haddon says, on a very low 

 rung of the ladder of civilization, but not by any means on the 

 lowest. ]^ot only is agriculture practised among them, but the 

 potter's art is carried on to a large extent, especially by the 

 women, and fleets of canoes are equipped to carry its products along 

 the shore to distant places, where they are exchanged for sago. 

 The tribes which are warlike in their habits are those which 

 are most energetic and contain the finest men ; and our just horror 

 of cannibalism must not hide from us the fact that those who have 

 this shocking practice amongst them are often, perhaps generally, 



^ On tids instrument see Mr. Andrew Lang's interesting volume, " Custom 

 and Myth." 



