Page:The Melanesians Studies in their Anthropology and Folklore.djvu/351

] Solomon Islands must be divided into two groups; San Cristoval, Ulawa, and Eastern Malanta have their own style of art. Santa Cruz stands perfectly distinct; the Banks' Islands and the Northern New Hebrides must go together.

1. Beginning in the west, if there be anything distinctive it may be found in such ornament as appears on the lime-boxes of Ysabel. But there is and has been so much intercourse with islands further west that the style of New Britain ornament is represented in the paddles, for example, of Bngotu. The beautifully made and ornamented shields and clubs which have been common at Florida were made in Guadalcanar; the discs of clam-shell covered with a plate of tortoise-shell cut into an open-work pattern belong to all these islands to the west. Patterns of lines and circles in tattooing or incised on cocoa-nut bottles are also characteristic.

2. The carvings, paintings and representations of scenes of native life executed in San Cristoval and its neighbourhood have been mentioned. Drawings by native boys, such as those on pages 196, 259, would not be found in other islands. The decoration and fantastic shapes of bowls cannot fail to strike