MELANESIANS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 34, Issue 872, 20 April 1956, Page 13

MELANESIANS

ISLANDS OF MEN, by Colin Simpson; Angus and Robertson, Australian price 25/-. HIS book is about Melanesia, and the title is intended to suggest not only that males are dominant therethe female is apparently of more significance in Polynesia-but also that in the various centres of population of this region of scattered islands (with New Guinea "the big frog in the Melanesian pool") there are more distinctive local differences among the peoples than there are features common to all. The volume, a "mixed grill," is in five main parts: 1, The Islands in Torres Straits; 2, the Sepik River area of New Guinea; (continued on next page)

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(continued {rom previous page) 3, the New Hebrides; 4, the wide midmainland of New Guinea; 5, the firewalkers of Fiji. The first section is characteristic Simpson narrative, covering the festivals of the beautiful Island of Mer, the ceremonies of the fertility Waiet, and a pleasant portrait of the native police sergeant, Kaikai. The sections on New Guinea amplify what Simpson has described in earlier books in the "Adam" series with much new material resulting from further travels and meetings with officers of the administration. A large part of the section on the New Hebrides deals with historical development and a criticism of the "two-headed, three-legged con-dominium"-which Simpson would like to see replaced by Australian administration. The account of the fire-walkers of Fiji is carefully compiled; it gives all the current explanations, but offers io solution. As with other books in this series, the volume is beautifully illustrated with 12 colour-plates, many photographs and line decorations, and carries stifficient

sketch maps.

L.J.

W.