10 SISSANO. 
the German colony of Kaiser-Wilhelmsland.* On the north coast of 
the German colony the Sissano communities lie on the shore of a 
lagoon not more than 5 miles east of the intersection of 3° S. with 
142° E. ‘This array of geographical coordinates shows that Sissano 
is some 65 miles east of the Dutch-German boundary. 
This remote westward position will be found particularly advan- 
tageous for the purposes of our study, for it considerably removes 
this language station from the possibility of mixed contamination 
from successive waves of migration from divers sources which we are 
forced to recognize in some of the eastern island areas where migra- 
tion streams have converged. Yet in its westward position Sissano 
is far enough east to have escaped a more modern contamination, 
that of the raiding fleets of Malayan prahu. “These adventurous 
sailors in a quite recent period have visited and despoiled the western 
coasts of New Guinea, both north and south, wherever they could 
find articles worthy of their theft, or humanity which they could cap- 
ture in slavery. On the north coast we have the most abundant 
proof of the activity of these periodical raiders as far east as the great 
Geelvink Bay and the island of Jobi. East of Jobi Point, which 
marks the eastern extremity of Geelvink Bay, the coast becomes for- 
bidding, landing-places are few, the forests which come down unbroken 
to the sea offer little to the advantage of the trader, and the human 
population is too scanty to attract the slaver to an unprofitable 
voyage. Sissano lies quite east of the common limit of modern Malay 
intercourse. At the same time it lies so far to the westward as to be 
close to the Indonesian region, with which we associate a certain very 
distinct element of the languages called Melanesian and Polynesian. 
If we are justified in tracing back this element to some manner of - 
source in lands where the Malayan stock is now dominant, we shall 
be justified, until later discoveries may push a new station further 
westward, in regarding Sissano as the threshold of an exit of migration 
at some past time out of Indonesia. 
We owe our knowledge of Sissano to two authorities. Friederici 
has given us certain brief yet valuable notes scattered through his 
‘““Melanesische Wanderstrasse’’; Dr. Richard Neuhauss, in “‘ Deutsch 
Neuguinea,”’ includes a narrative of the communities as he found them, 
not great in extent but important as being the first comprehensive 
account of the place and people. In order that we may have for our 
linguistic studies of Sissano the proper geographical background and 
the essential ethnological surroundings, I shall present in this chapter 
the material 7m extenso, with ascription of full credit and equal respon- 
sibility to Dr. Neuhauss. His great work is intensive only upon the 
*This statement rests upon the last delimitation of spheres of influence. As these 
pages pass through the press, the colony of Kaiser-Wilhelmsland is in military occupation 
of the Australian contingent subject to final determination in the treaty of European peace. 
