Manchester Memoirs, Vol. lix. (19 1 5), No. 10. 29 



introduced a new cult which considerably modified the 

 antecedent totemism," and taught " improved methods of 

 cultivation and fishing" (p. 44). 



" An interesting parallel to these hero-cults of Torres 

 Straits occurred also in Fiji. The people of Viti-Levu 

 trace their descent from [culture-heroes] who drifted across 

 the Big Ocean and taught to the people the cult associated 

 with the large stone enclosures" (p. 45). 



In these islands the people were expert at carving 

 stone idols and they had legends concerning certain 

 "stones that once were men" (p. 11). It is also signifi- 

 cant that at the bier of a near relative, boys and girls, who 

 had arrived at the age of puberty, had their ears pierced 

 and their skin tattooed (p. 154). 



Thus Haddon himself supplies so many precise tokens 

 of the " heliolithic " nature of the culture of the Torres 

 Straits. 



These hints of migrations and the coming of strangers 

 bringing from the west curious practices and beliefs may 

 seem at first sight to add little to the evidence afforded 

 by the technique of the embalming process ; but the sub- 

 sequent discussion will make it plain that the association 

 of these particular procedures with mummification serves 

 to clinch the demonstration of the source from which 

 that practice was derived. 



It is doubly interesting to obtain all this corroborative 

 evidence from the writings of Dr. Haddon, in view of the 

 fact, to which I have already referred, that he vigorously 

 protested against my contention that the embalmers of 

 the Torres Straits acquired their art, directly or indirectly, 

 from Egypt. For,, in his graphic account of a burial 

 ceremony at Murray Islands, his confession that, as he 

 watched the funerary boat and the wailing women, his 

 11 mind wandered back thousands of years, and called up 



