THE SOLOMON ISLANDERS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 30, 20 September 1911, Page 3

THE SOLOMON ISLANDERS.

THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. A CHAT WITH PROFESSOR MACMILLAN BROWN. “This is a little Solomon Islands carving.” The professor produced to a Christchurch “Press” reporter a small black figure, which, with its tatoo face lines and pearl shell eyes, bore a remarkable resemblance to some familiar Maori specimens of art. Using the little figure as a text ,hc hung on it a most interesting story of the islanders and their arts and crafts. The carving, lie explained, was probably made for one of their canoes, as the islanders wore extremely fond of putting in the bows of their canoes miniature carvings with foro-shortoned limbs. Very often the, carvings were only of the bust or the head. “In most cases,” the professor continued, “these carvings have an extremely ape-like appearance. The muzzle of the under-jaw stands out two or three inches beyond the upper part of the face. That is one of the characteristics of many of the Salomon Islanders, while others have tine European features. Yon will see that this figure—though the point of the nose has been flattened, probably by accident—has a fine’ straight nose, quite narrow nostrils, that the month is not large, that the lips are not thick, nor is the face ape-like. It has a fine, clear forehead. One of its peculiarities is that it has a round, or short, head. A peculiarity of the negroids of Africa. Australia, and Tasmania is that their heads are very long, so these Solomon Islanders must have come from a race different from the negroids of Africa and Australia.”

The professor turned again to the little figure, and proceeded to draw from it some most interesting and original deductions. “You see,” he said, “the shortness of the body and the lower limbs. It is manifestly an attempt to represent one of the pigmies whom all the Solomon Islanders report to be inhabitants of the high ranges in their islands. No traders or planters have over seen them, but the islanders on every island keep asserting that there are pigmies on the hack ranges. Recently an Kaghsii expedition into Dutch New Guinea discovered a race of pigmies far away a the mountains. There is ;t race of pigmies in the Philippines—Actas—and there arc a few straggling remnants of pigmies ia L.e Malay Peninsular. This, there faro, is an interesting illustration of the original primitive race from which the Solomon Islanders must have come, and also of tire fusion of Caucasian blood, which is strongly apparent in some of:. the islands, and which must have-come from the East, out of Polynesia.” id

Tlio professor explained that he bought the figure dor the tatooiug on the ■ race. The tatooiug was not spiral, as in the Maori style, but was made up by a scries of concentric circles and concentric zig-zags and straight lines. “Of course, the spiral does exist' iii some of their rude art. in the Solomon vlslands,” said the professor, - i “but still more on the coast of New Guinea north and south. In a series of ancient graves opened by-, Mr Money, a missionary, at Wanigora, on the north i coast of British New Guinea, there were found a number of comb shells, beautifully inscribed 'with spirals cas tine as those tatooed on the face of the Maori. It is quite possible that they may have got the idea of the spiral from the cut end of the comb shell, but they could not have got the extremely fine and artistic use of it. I have an idea that the spiral was most developed in New Zealand, and that where in islands north-west or north-east it appears in any artistic shapes, it had a Maori origin. Of covirse, in those regions there arc many other marks of the immigration of the Maoris, hut it, would bo a. long story to go into that.” Once more the professor drew on the pearl-eyed figure. “The short head',” he resumed, “is a mark of the negrito, or pigmy negroid, such as have been found in New Guinea. Quito a large percentage of the Solomon Islanders—l should almost say 70 per cent—have small stature, though amongst them there arc very tall people like the Polynesians. This small stature and this persistent short head reveal the fundamental origin of the Solomon Islander to be negrito and not tall negroid, the latter having a marked long head. But there is in the Solomon Islanders a singular feature that I have never seen reported. It is a deep notch at the root of the nose. Now tin’s is a most striking characteristic of the Australian natives. This little figure has not got it, and thus the Caucasian element. The deep notch shows some connection with the Australians. I fancy it is a very ancient connection, probably going back to the original negroid clement that first occupied Australia, before the Caucasian waves swept down over the Island Continent. One other sign of the presence of the Caucasian element is the large percentage of light brown hair yon see amongst the natives of certain islands of the Solomons, especially Malaita. It is .sometimes so brown as to be, like the auburn hair of Northern Europe. It is quite easy to distinguish between the brown hair that has been bleached by lime—a common practice in Melanesia—and the ordinary brown hair. ■. Yon see in the limed hair the dullness of colour, no lustre, and as a rule you so© at the roots the original dark colour of the hair. In the heads I. refer to, the hair is glossy and lustrous, and in many cases curly and wavy, these being characteristics of Caucasian hair.” The professor next produced a basket or satchel which had been manufactured by a Solomon Islander. It was one of the art products of the natives, the pattern being worked out in grasses in red and gold. The design vas an ingenious alternation of very

obtuse angles—it will he noted later that these angles have some significance. “These baskets,” said the professor, “are the universal vade mecum of the natives. Every native you see has one hanging to his belt. Inside it, as a rule, lie keeps his pan pipe, to entertain himself when lonely, or to entertain others. But the main tiling in it is a bamboo lime box, beautifully figured by burning on the outside, and in it a little spatula or spado, and then, wrapped up in a piece of pepper leaf the areca nut. This custom of eating the areca nut with pepper leaf and lime undoubtedly came down from the Malay Archipeigo, and reaches no further than the Santa Cruz group, which is to the north-west of the New Hebrides group. There the other stimulant—kava—has also reached from the east, from Polynesia. Most people are under the impression that the areca nut. is not a stimulant, hut a Marist Father who has spent six years in one district in the south-east of Guadalcanal' told me that lie had soon hoys reeling from the effects of its use. The adult men get accustomed to it, and yon don’t see such pronounced effects from it in their case, hut it has a deadh intoxicating effect. So it is with the kava, which, though it never affects the tongue, affects the legs ven much. But to return to the artproducts. Besides the fine mats yon find in the Solomon Islands, you have beautiful pearl shell mosaic work on their- canoes. This is easily managed, as the shell is merely stuck into

a vegetable cement, made of the nut of the tita tree, which hardens into something almost as hard as our cement. The usual ornamentation is the frigate bird or the honitq, and the characteristic of both these creatures is that they are pirates. The frigate bird never fishes himself, hut compels other birds to disgorge thencatches. The honito chases shoals of small fish, which, in their efforts to escape, cause the surface of the water to bo troubled. The piratical habits of these two creatures are doubtless the,. characteristics. that have led to their adoption as a sort of insignia by the Solomon Islanders. On the breasts and legs of the islanders you will see tatooed the frigate bird with outstretched wings, and the design, conventionalised, is reproduced in the angle design of the baskets. The tatoo of the easterly islands is puncture tatoo, like the Polynesian. It is done with a little sharp instrument, generally the hone of a hat’s wing, and a hammer to knock it under the skin. In the western islands it is done by incision or gash. A stone knife opens a gash, and lime is put into the wound to keep it open until it grows into a lump, and you can see a scries of little pea-like excrescences forming the frigate bird across the breast or shoulders. This gash system is always a mark of negroid race. The puncture tattoo seems to approach more of a fine art, and reveals a Polynesian origin. On the dancing paddles and sometimes on the ordinary paddles yon will find carvings sometimes in colours. The colour carving on the paddles is a characteristic, of Buka, and it passes into the Bismarck Archipelago, where colouring is done on a white' ground with red and black relief. All over the Solomons the handle of the lime spatula is beautifully carved, sometimes with open work, and sometimes with white relief work.

“It is perfectly evident,” the professor concluded, “from a bird’s eye view of the artistic work of the arts of the Solomon Islands and the adjacent end of New Guinea that they are the Alsatia of the regions to the west and to the east—.the Malay Archipelago to the west, and Polynesia to the east. In those islands, ns yon analyse- their culture, you find interwoven the elements from these two regions.- It is dear that there has been going on from time immemorial migrations from Polynesia and the Central Pacific, whilst on the other si le wo cannot be sure whether the infiltration of art and arts has not come by way of trade along the coast of New Guinea.”