34 
civilization behind them, but the wonderful progress they have made in 
civilization confirms the opinion that they are a superior race. If language is 
to be taken as an index, they must be acknowledged as very superior. Our 
modest lecturer has stated that the languages of the Sawaiori race are “fairly 
copious. 55 I may add that I am collecting words for a lexicon of the Tonga 
language, and I believe I have already obtained 10,000. How those words 
can have been retained in circulation all these years without any printed 
book to preserve them I cannot understand. It is true that they have a 
number of songs in which very many ancient traditions have been embalmed ; 
but I think you will all acknowledge with astonishment the vast number of 
I words that have been retained — an amount that goes far bevond anv com- 
parison with the vocabulary of the agricultural labourers of this country. 
With regard to what has been said about their belief in the existence of the 
spirits of their ancestors, I fancy that the word “ ancestor 55 is somewhat 
misleading. In Tonga there are many traditions of past ages. They repre- 
sent Tubal Cain and Noah as spirits, and you can scarcely call them their 
immediate ancestors. There are, however, a few of later times. If this 
is the meaning attached to the word “ ancestors 55 by Mr. Whitmee, I agree 
with him. They have a belief in the immortality of the soul after death, and 
they say that the soul keeps hovering about not very far from this world. 
This is their universal belief, and any idea to the contrary never entered the 
brain of a single Tongan. 
Mr. Whitmee. — I was speaking of the Tarapon race, and they speak of 
those who peopled their islands and the leaders of their expeditions as being 
their gods. I referred only to the leaders of these expeditions and the great 
men in their past history (most of them having existed at periods very remote) 
as those who have been deified. 
Rev. J. Shaep, M.A. — Do they have images of those ancestors ? 
Mr. Whitmee. — No; I saw a great many of what I considered to be 
their stone gods, and I wanted to know what were the ideas they associated 
with those stones, and I found that they regarded the places where they were 
simply as shrines. I said, when I saw one, “ Is that a god ? 55 and they replied 
“ No; that is the place where the god lives 55 ' — their gods are spirits : the 
shrines are simply the places where the gods are supposed to dwell. 
Mr. Moulton. — Are not the images wrapped round with the native cloth ? 
Mr. Whitmee. — Not in the cases I have referred to ; they are in some 
cases. 
Hev. J. Pisher, D.D. — I should say that the people referred to in this paper 
who are likely to interest us most are the Sawaioris and the Tarapons ; still I 
am a good deal interested in the Papuans. On page 22 the paper remarks, in re- 
ference to these people, 44 Mr. Wallace says, 4 it is impossible not to look upon 5 
these 4 eastern negroes 5 and the Africans 4 as being really related to each other 
and as representing an early variation, if not the primitive type of mankind. 5 55 
Now, I do not very clearly understand this. I do not understand what the 
writer means by 44 primitive. 55 If it only means an early race, I can under- 
stand it quite clearly and accept it ; but if it means that that was the primitive 
