NEW GUINEA AND THE PAPUANS 
407 
work, and some of these are of designs which would be 
creditable to a pupil in a school of art. The carving of 
the caryatid piles of their temples is less good, and 
probably intentionally grotesque. 
In the islands of the great Australian Archipelago 
which we have hitherto considered, the tribes and nations 
inhabiting them have been, as we have seen, for the most 
part monarchical in their form of government. We find 
in Java, Brunei, and elsewhere, sultans and princes of 
more or less power, with a court and nobles. In all, or 
almost all, there have been, if not rajas or kinglets, at 
least greater or lesser chiefs to whom the people render 
some sort of obedience. But in New Guinea we find a 
totally different state of affairs. Throughout the length 
and breadth of the island, so far as is known, no system 
other than that of the most primitive form of socialism 
exists. Chiefs are unknown. Certain individuals by 
force of character, or by virtue of their known prowess 
in war, have more influence than others in their tribe, 
hut this influence seems to be at best but slight, and 
each person is obedient to himself alone or to some 
unwritten code of public opinion. It is this fact perhaps 
more than any other which has so greatly hindered not 
only the civilisation of the people, but our knowledge of 
the country. Each handful of people has always lived 
in a state of perpetual warfare with its neighbours. The 
Dutch, in their annexations in the Malayan islands, had 
but to gain this or that Baja by diplomacy or force, and 
no further question presented itself. In New Guinea 
European administration is attended by far greater 
difficulties, since the equal distribution of authority—or 
rather the want of any authority—renders agreement 
upon any subject no very feasible matter. It is to this 
system that is due the formation of innumerable offset 
