THROUGH THE MISTY AGES.

Taranaki Daily News, 18 September 1915, Page 10

THROUGH THE MISTY AGES.

ABORIGINAL PEOPLE OP THE (PAUPIC. Professor J. MacMillan Brown, of Cbristdiurch, who is a recognised authority on the aboriginal peoples of the (Pacific, returned from New Caledonia, via Australia, on Tiicalay, after an absence of some months from New Zealand. "To ethnographers," said Professor MacMillan Brown to an interviewer, "New Caledonia has 'been out of the beaten track. They have gone to the Solomons, the New Hebrides and t'o New Guinea, but nobody goes to New Caledonia, a fact which made it all the more Interesting to me, I can assure you. CURIOUS BASIS 01? SOCIETY, "I found that at one time the Polynesians must have come to New Caledonia in their great war canoes (with out .their women), and' establisßed themselves on the East Coast, and. there, being a strong warlike people, ma&tsted the villages. That is evident from the customs that prevail and the framework of their society. You see, throughout Melanesia and the Paipuan Group, the basis of society is matrilineal—descent through the mother. The children looked to their mother as the head of the family, and it was the mother's brother's charge to provide for the children. The father, curiously enough, looked after his sister's children. As the result of this strange arrangement there was no accumulation of family tradition, honor or property—no chiefs or great men arose. Every village was a thing unto itself, and its people were not able to understand the language spoken in the next village, only five or six miles away perhaps. It is in Polynesia where the patrilienal descent 'holds good, and the tribes and the chiefs at the head of them have their traditions, and love to ! recall the deeds of glory performed by their ancestors. That is in Polynesia—from Hawaii to New Zealand, from Tonga to Easter Island. As the result there have always been tribal chiefs, if not kings, in this vast realm, all of whom have kept genealogies, some of which go 'back for 5000 years. So it is conclusive that it, was an invasion of Polynesians which changed the entire basis of the society of New Caledonia, which geographically should have the matrilineal basis. LINGUAL PROOF. "Further confirmation of this," continued the speaker, "was made available through a young native whom I came in contact with on the north-east coast, a tall, slenderly-fbuilt young man with aquiline features, oval face, and of the lighter skin of the Polynesian type* Journeying with him, I learned to shape o lough vocabulary with the aid of signs and a smattering of French he had. I got from him that the word for tribe was "wanga," and that the word for canoe was "wanga." This, it was at once apparent, was a slight sorruption of the Polynesian word "whaka," meaning canoe, and so it was evident that the arrivals in the big canoes had first established tribes in New Ca'le-1 donia. It was the same with the popular prefix "Ti" of the island, which was obviously a reduction of the Polynesian "Ngati" (meaning the descendants of), or ati, another Polynesian version of the same prefix. The. invasion must have been fairly recent, not moro than two or three centuries, I should say, for there had not been sufficient time for the Polynesians to amalgamate the various villages into big tribes wiEli common interests and destinies. On the East Coast, too, the Polynesian types abounded—the more European type, with the light skin, aquiline features, and, in some instances, light hair. On the west coast, however, 75 per cent, of the people are negroid, with prominent muzzles, flattened nostrils, thick lips, and kinky! hair. I could not help being struck at their resemblance to the extinct TaV j manians or the natives of South Australia. I took an interesting photograph of one old woman, who would easily pass muster for Truganini, the last of tho Tasmanians. The infusion from Southern Australia must have been fairly recent. 'POLYNESIAN CARVED.STONES, "Another Polynesian sign in New Caledonia was found in the deep Carvings on the rocks all along the north and cast coast, and the erection of dolmens or Druidical stones—one flat stone being laid horizontally on two vertical, pillars of stone. Here are some of th« sketches of these markings or carvings which I took on the spot. Here is a tree, a tree in transition, the human form in transition, and this wheel-like object is intended for the sun—practically the same as have been found on other megolithic stone*-. There I also found this saucer-like abject, with all the sticks. That is quite familiar. MoutelTus, the Swedist arcaheologist, decided, and hie decision was accepted by the scientific world, that it was intended to represent a canoe, with the paddles held upright. These megolithic stones exist throughout Polynesia. They have the big 24ft shaped stones in Tonga, where they also have the carved tombs of the kings—great truncated pyramids of dressed stone. It was the same in Tahiti and Hawaii, whilst they had the huge megolithic platforms at Easter Island and the Marquesas, and in New Zealand we have the tattooed rocks at Kawhia—the spiral tattoo similar to what I saw at New Caledonia. POLYNESIANS FROM WESTERN EUKOFE. "We may therefore decide, through the evidence of those megolithic stones, that the Polynesian people came originally from Western Europe. There similar remains of a prc-historic period exist in plenty (bearing the closest relation to the stones in these Polynesian* islands) at Stonehcnge, in Ireland, Brittany, Carnac and Morocco. The carving of wooden statuary for the chief's house, found in New Caledonia, was another connecting link with the 'Polynesian idea and inllueuce. Still another factor was the canoe. The Now Caledonian primeval canoe was a dug-out, but they learned . at a later period to build the staunch double <canoc of the Polynesians. Polynesia is the home of the double canoe." All the time he has been in New Caledonia. Dr. MacMillan Brown has been studying the lungiiiifre of the natives from which, with his knowledge of tidier Pacific tongues, lie is able to Iraea lingual relationships. He has already been engaged on the study of the Pacific languages for six years, and considers i tfcat there is still new matter for. another six years' work. One day the result of Iris researches may mean a most valuable contribution to the world's limited store of literature dealing with pre-his-toric times in the Pacific.