Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 28, 1917.djvu/413

 in regard to Easter Island. 379

used in the Solomon Islands, the symbolic significance of which might be ascertained before it is too late.

Certain affinities suggested by the implements and art, etc., of the Chatham Islands, of New Zealand and of British New Guinea, also merit attention and call for fur- ther research. I have already referred to certain points of resemblance, and I would suggest further that a com- parative study of the manaia design in New Zealand art, might lead to an elucidation of certain conventional signs frequently occurring in the Easter Island script. The problem of Easter Island seems to involve incidentally a fresh discussion upon the possible or probable Melanesian element in New Zealand and the Chatham Islands. That well-defined traces of this non-Polynesian element are to be distinguished in the culture of these islands, has been questioned by several able observers, but to others, with whom I find myself in agreement, it is difficult to explain certain " Maori " and " Moriori " culture-phenomena unless we recognize that there has been influence from Melanesia.

As to the spread of Melanesianism, if I may use the term, over the Polynesian area, much might be said, but space does not admit of my entering upon so wide a subject. I will merely recall Mr. Basil Thomson's statement that in the Island of Niue he found evidence of Melanesian and Polynesian admixture, and also refer to the fact that in the far-easterly and very-Polynesian Marquisas Islands, there is very striking evidence pointing unmistakably to culture-contact with the Melanesian area.

I may conclude my remarks with a reference to another source of evidence which testifies to the presence of a Melanesian element in Easter Island, and which bears out not only the technological evidence which I have offered, but also the native traditions. I cannot do better than quote a passage from some remarks made by Mr. T. A. Joyce during the discussion of Mrs. Routledge's paper on Easter Island read before the Royal Geographical