134 SISSANO. 
term is found in the matrilineal region of the Solomons and in Eddystone, 
ard probably in the modified form the or zha in Ulawa and Saa. Further, it 
almost certainly occurs in Fiji, both as part of ra-iva and among the Tavua 
people without the prefix. On the other hand no form of the word has been 
recorded in any part of Polynesia. ‘The word thus raises a difficulty, for, 
if it belonged to the kava people, we should expect to find it in Polynesia, 
and its presence in the matrilineal Solomons and Fiji is a difficulty if it be 
ascribed to the betel people. I can only suggest that it is a term, common 
to both peoples, which has disappeared in Polynesia. (Vol. II, pp. 312-313.) 
It is an essential part of my general scheme that the immigrants into Melan- 
esia practiced a cult of the dead as the prominent element in their religion. 
Since this cult of the dead is a pronounced feature of the religion of Tikopia 
and of the secret societies of southern Melanesia, it follows that it is to be 
ascribed to the kava people. A cult of the dead is also the prominent feature 
of the religion of islands, such as Eddystone and Malaita, where I suppose 
‘the influence of the betel people to have been predominant. We have 
therefore to conclude that the cult of the dead was common to both the 
immigrant streams supposed to have entered Melanesia. . . . We can with 
some confidence ascribe the highly developed cult of the skull in the Solomons 
to the betel people, but we can not so confidently exclude a skull cult from 
the religion of the kava people. . . . The sanctity of the head among the 
kava people thus suggests some community of culture between them and the 
betel people. It suggests that the practices of the betel people are only a 
further development of beliefs and practices already possessed by the kava 
people; and that the kava and betel people were only two successive streams 
of migrants possessing closely related cultures. (Vol. II, pp. 258-260.) 
The conclusion to which this and the preceding chapters have led us is 
that Melanesian society, as we now know it, is the outcome of the blending 
of a number of different peoples. First, a people possessing the dual organiza- 
tion of society; next, an immigrant people who introduced the use of kava 
and were the founders of the secret organizations of Melanesia; thirdly, a 
people who introduced the practices of head hunting and betel chewing; and 
lastly, relatively recent influences from Polynesia and Micronesia. ‘There 
is reason to believe that the earliest of these peoples, the dual people, was 
itself complex, having as one of the constituent elements a people who 
interred their dead in the sitting position; but the problem before us is 
sufficiently involved without the introduction of this complexity. I propose, 
therefore, in the succeeding chapters to ignore it as far as possible and to 
treat the dual people as the aborigines of Melanesia. . . . In the attempt to 
analyze Melanesian culture I shall pay especial attention to the kava people 
and the dual people, and shall not attempt any thorough examination of the 
culture of the betel people. The material with which I deal in this book is 
derived chiefly from the more southern islands of Melanesia, which I suppose 
to have been uninfluenced by the betel people. If I am right in supposing 
that these islands are the scene of the mixture of only two main cultures, it 
is evident that the analysis will be a far easier task than in the Solomons, 
where we have, in addition, the influence of the betel people. The most 
favorable condition for an inquiry into the culture of the betel people would 
be the study of some region where their influence has been dominant and 
where the influence of the kava people has been relatively slight. Such a 
region seems to exist in the more western islands of the British Solomons 
which have been studied by Mr. Hocart and myself; the share taken by the 
betel people in the production of Melanesian culture can only be adequately 
considered after the full account of this work has been published. (Vol. II, 
pp. 290-291.) 
