THE PACIFIC RIDDLE

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 80, 4 April 1923, Page 2

THE PACIFIC RIDDLE

IN HISTORY'S TWILIGHT EGYPTIAN CULTURE IN THE SOUTH SEA i CIVILISATION REACHING ACROSS WORLD. I Ancient Egyptian civilisation, or ' rather many of the customs peculiar to ' it, were carried: to Australia in prehistoric times. 'V "Heliolithic" culture is the name given to a combination of practices which include sun worship, mummification, belief that stones can be the abode of human spirits, the erection of stone pyramids and pillars, circumcision or incision, tattooing, and massage. Wherever one of these customs exists the other* are also found more or less developed, states a correspondent of the Sydney "Sun." There is a mass of evidence to prove that this heliolithic culture was carried from Egypt, via Persia, India, the Torres Straits, and South Sea Islands, to the Pacific littoral of South and Central America. Had the wanderers deviated a little to the south of their route, Captain Cook would probably have discovered in Australia a civilisation similar to that of Mexico and Peru. As it was, the people on the mainland were influenced at second-hand by thnir contact with the dwellers on the. Straits Islands. When Dr. G. Elliot Smith, the fam- ! ous Egyptologist, was in Australia in 1914, he examined the Davnley Island 'mummy in the Macleay Musei'm at Sydney University. The peculiar procedures followed by the embalmere were identical with those it had taken the highly-civilised Egyptians 17 centuries of pracMce and experimentation to ac- ! quire. Chief among these were the method of incision for eviscerating the body, and manner of • stitching U p afterwards, throwing the viscera into the sea, and the difficult way of removing th« brain. As in the case of later Egyptian mummies, the body was painted with a mixture containing red ochre, the scalp painted "black, and artificial eyes inserted. The peculiar funeral customs and the beliefs associated with them, the special treatment of the head, tha use of masks, and the making of stone idols are only a few of the strong links- in the chain of evidence proving the origin of these peculiar customs. -

An interesting collection of these heads can he seen at the Sydney Mu. semn. In the same room comparison can be made between the Egyptian boomerang and the Australian. The difference is not very great. The Samoan sword clubs are like gladiators' swords .in shape, and the basketwork Hawaiian helmets appear to ha,ve been modelled on tha Grecian helmet. Such similarities point to imitation, not invention. Mummification was introduced by the Egyptians into the Soudan, and from there it spread to the East Coast of Africa. Heliolithic culture would seem to have spread across the globe from this point, for evidence in the Indian and Pacific Oceans shows strong Ethiopian influence.

Navigation had become a science about 900 B.C. The shipg el»o Were larger than any that have .been, known up, .to comparatively recent times. That of Ptolemy Philopater, for example, was 420 feet long,: 57 feet wide, with 40 banks of oars. On one occasion it carried 3000 soldiers and 4000 slaves to row the sweeps. The boats of Columbu* were mare cockleshells in comparison. In the dim and distant atces these huge threemasted vessels undertook voyages that lasted months, and there is little doubt they sailed the Pacific Ocean. Coastal tribes in Papua have legend* of visits from snch craft, and the intricate charts of interlaced reeds employed by th» Marshall Islanders are quite beyond thfl inventive powers of such a primitive people.

The most daring of maritime races in the old world at this period were tha Phoenicians. Their enterprise embraced the Mediterranean, the Atlantic, the Red Sea, and far away through the straits of Bab-el-Mandeb. Madagascar wag colonised from Bab-el-Mandeb. though with a rather larger number of colonists from Malay. In this island bodies were preserved with gum benzoic or other powdered gums. The viscera were thrown into the lake, and after the corpses had been dried in the air they were buried in storm tombs. ' ;

Atone time in India and Burma the mummification of ■ men of importance was general. Other cults afterwards sprang up in these countries arid dcs? troyed the evidence. In many parts of Burma, hxynrever, it is still usual to mummify the dead prior to cremation.

Mention has been made of the system of embalming in the Torres Straits, and it seems to have been from here the; Australian aborigine acquired the art. In Australia only the very great were put through the process. The body was bent, probably in an attempt to reconcile mummification with practices existing at the time of itsadoption. The boomerang and circumcision probably came from Egypt through East Africa at the same time. Burial on raised stages also seems to have been derived from Egyptian rites. In almost all the islands of the Pacific mummification in some form was practised. In some cases in Tahiti and.Samoa, for example, the method follows closely that of Egypt. In the Solomons and New Hebrides, on the other hand, attention was confined to the head.

Other instances of the wide spread of heliolithic culture in Polynesia are plentiful. Many customs of the islanders can easily be traced to their Egyptian origin, and proof of such origin is furnished by the fact that all these customs existed among ithe civilised inhabitants of South America.

Bemains of stone structures pyramidal in form, and terraced buildings exist in many islands. Pitcairn Island and Easter Island are 1400 miles apart, yet the carved stone pillars on each are similar. The inhabitants of Viti Levu trace their descent from cultured heroes. Legend tells how these men came from over the ocean' and taught the cult associated with the immense stone pillars. The stone images and platforms in the Austral group, the Marquesas,, and Pitcairn Island bear a strong resemblance to monuments in Peru.

There is no doubt that in the.twilight of history the ancient civilisations of the Old World had established contact with the lands of the Pacific. From, the evidences of heliolithic culture it is deduced that some of the carriers remained in the islands, ■while others reached the mainland. The advantage of a continent to develop in resultod in the civilisation of Mexico and Peru. The voyagers who remained in the islands degenerated through lack of opportunity, and even forgot many of the useful arts they had brought with them.

The Polynesians are believed to have originally had the art of writing. Various causes may have' contributed to the loss of this important art. , Insular degeneration, death of the few possessors of the art, or their absence altogether from small groups may be some of the reasons. The tatu sivjns of the Maoris were of a hieroglyphic nature, and chiefs used some of them as signatures when siguiDg treaties with the English.

Letters in New Caledonian inscriptions are recognised as being derived from Phoenician, Aramaic, or Hellenic script. Perhaps they are connected with the Phoenician visits, which must have been numerous and spread over a considerable period. The hook-nosed Semitic, Papuans had an ancestry comprising many of these Phoenician and Semitio sailors.

Three thousand years ago a measura of civilisation came to, Auitfalin and the South' Seas. The people, left in isolation, allowed it to decay. They hecame degenerate, but degeneracy and superstition go hand in hand. Now, after the lapse of thirty centuries, we must read the riddle ot the Pacific iv the debased survivals of a pagan creed..