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The following memoirs—the first by the Rev, Lorimer Fison, and the second by Mr. Alfred W. Howitt, F.G.S.—were sent by these gentlemen to the undersigned, and they very kindly requested me to add an introduction, and such footnotes as the text might suggest; but the facts are so carefully and plainly presented that nothing seems left for me to do, except to call attention to the value of the materials contained in these memoirs, and to their bearing upon the early history of mankind.

While collecting materials for my work on " Consanguinity," which forms the seventeenth volume of the "Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge," it was my good fortune to interest, as a co-labourer, Mr. Fison, then resident in the Fiji Islands. He became a direct contributor to that work, as will be seen by consulting the same, pp. 573-583. Soon afterwards, he removed to Australia, where he entered upon a wider series of investigations into the social organization of the Australian tribes, their customs in respect to marriage and descents, the form of the family, and the systems of consanguinity and affinity pertaining to the same. These researches, which extended over a period of several years, are in part embodied in the first of the memoirs named. It is proper to add that the late Professor Joseph Henry was acquainted with Mr. Fison's work, and