CH. xm AST IN MINAHASSA 337 



I have referred briefly to the traces of a primitive art 

 found in some places in Minahassa; but, like all the 

 Malays, the iniiabitants of North Celebes are not artistic 

 in spu-it. If we compare the Malays throughout the 

 archipelago -with their neighbours, the Papuans of the 

 eastern or Dutch portion of New Guinea, we cannot fail to 

 be impressed with the wide difference that exists between 

 the two races in this respect. The Malay uses spears, 

 shields, swords, canoes, and other weapons and implements 

 which are often entirely without ornament, and the coloured 

 designs on his clothes, his ceremonial shields, &c;, are of the 

 simplest geometrical patterns. The Papuan, on the other 

 hand, covers everything he possesses with strange figures of 

 men and animals, and fiUs up aU the interstices between 

 them with conventional designs of great regularity and 

 beauty. The wooden idols, the 'Korowaars' of the 

 Papuans, and the gigantic human figures carved on the 

 piles of some of their temples, although to a certain extent 

 conventionahsed, show artistic powers of a remarkably 

 high order. The fact that many of their patterns can be 

 traced through a series of well-marked stages back to 

 designs of human and animal figures is a point of great 

 interest, as it shows that their artistic talent must have 

 been exercised for many generations by a very considerable 

 number of the people (37). 



Among the wild Malays we but rarely find any attempt 

 to draw or carve the human figure or the figures of ani- 

 mals. Those we do find are very rough and childish, and 

 show no signs of becoming conventionalised. 



There can be no doubt that the Malays are quite 

 capable of learning the art of other races. The ruins of 

 magnificent Buddhist temples and many beautiful designs 

 on cloths of various kinds found in Java and Sumatra 

 speak only too plainly of the readiness with which they 



