Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 13, 1902.djvu/116

102 graphy, the social condition of these races, their customs and superstitions, folklore, and mythology came under observation.

The chief centre of operations was the Murray Islands, a most inaccessible group, where social life must, until the arrival of Christian missionaries, have developed with little interference from outside. A number of journeys were also made to the neighbouring islands of the Archipelago and the adjoining shores of New Guinea, Borneo, and Queensland. It is pleasant to note that the expedition received cordial assistance both from the Government officials and members of the missionary communities, among whom the late lamented Dr. Chalmers held a leading place. It is ample proof of the tact and ability which marked the conduct of the expedition that the physical examination of these savage or semi-savage races, as well as the inquiry into customs which have now, under the influence of Christian teaching, become almost obsolete, was not only carried out without any friction, but produced the most friendly relations between the explorers and the natives.

The psychological experiments on the whole confirm the observations of other students of savage races. Their visual acuity is little superior to that of normal Europeans, but it is better directed, and hence results the belief in the acuteness of savage eyesight which has been so often noticed. Short-sightedness is, as might have been expected, practically unknown; "there were definite names for red, less definite for yellow, and still less so for green, while a definite name for blue was either absent or borrowed from English." In hearing there was no superiority over normal Europeans; but here the difficulty of the investigation at Murray Island was increased by the noise of the sea and the rustle of the coco palms.

Paganism in these islands is in a state of active decay, due partly to the rapid conversion of the people to a form of Christianity, but perhaps more to economic changes resulting from extended trade. It is fortunate that the expedition was undertaken while there were still many people living who were familiar with the older state of things and willing to impart their knowledge to sympathetic observers.

Much that is interesting is said about totemism. The case of the dugong-men and turtle-men of Mabuiag seems (as Professor Haddon has already told us, Folk-Lore, xii., 230) to corroborate