NOTES ON THE INHABITANTS OF NEW lUELAND, ETC. 



115 



NOTES ON THE INHABITANTS OE NEW 

 IRELAND AND ITS ARCHIPELAGO, 

 THEIR EINE AND INDUSTRIAL ARTS, 

 CUSTOMS AND LANGUAGE. 



BY 



A. J. DUFFIELI). 



{Read on the Sth August, 1884). 

 Plate XVH. 



My interest in ethnological studies began a quarter of a century 

 ago in New Zealand, when I saw, for the first time, human 

 faces engraved with taste and skill, and in the most elaborate 

 way. From 'New Zealand I went direct to that part of the 

 Andes wdiich lies under the tropic of Capricorn, and, in the 

 ancient city of Chuquisaca, a thousand miles from the Pacific, 

 I encountered, among the cross-breeds of the "Indians" of 

 Cochabamba, precisely the same pi'intings on the skin of the 

 women as I had seen in Dunedin ; and now, (nily the other day, 

 when I visited New Ireland, I found th'ere, among women of 

 fair skin, the same " tattauing" — to use their own -svord — on 

 their faces as I saw in Blueskin Bay and Chuquisaca. I turn 

 to some old notes, taken in Egypt a few years ago, and find 

 that, in Cairo, people of the lower class still tattoo their faces 

 after the same manner as certain human figures are tattooed 

 on Egyptian monuments. One of many figures introduced 

 among these cuttings of the flesh is a cross — the very same 

 cross which is carried at tliis day on the breasts of New^ Ireland 

 women, and is identical with the cross found in the Temple of the 

 Sun in Cuzco 3G0 years ago. These cuttings are all of blue 

 colour. I also find in the Book of Leviticus, xix., 28, the follow- 

 ing prohibitory law : — " Ye shall not make any cuttings in your 

 flesh. . . .nor print any mark upon 3'ou." It will, also, be 

 remembered that that woman, Jezebel, was accustomed to 

 " paint" her face ; and, if we may trust the prophet Jeremiah, 

 iv., oO, Israelitish maidens had, in his time, lapsed into ancient 

 vice, and rent their faces with "painting." Now, this w^ord 

 "painting" is really nothing more than what is technically 

 known among book-binders as "])lind fooling," and is the same 



