In Melanesia both stone images in human form and pyramidal structures occur. The nanga of Fiji, in many respects similar to the marae of Polynesia, had pyramids of stone as part of their structure. Though it is probable that degenerate representatives of pyramids occur elsewhere in Melanesia, we only know of the existence of definite pyramids of stone in Fiji.
Stone images are more frequent. As in Polynesia, they may form part of houses, especially of the men’s houses, and they also occur among the ceremonial objects of the Banks Islands and the New Hebrides, where they are connected with the organisations known as the Sukwe and Mangge[1] It is only recently, however, that we have become acquainted with a definite example of the association of stone images with pyramidal burial-places in Melanesia. This information comes from the Rev. C. E. Fox,[2] who has recorded the presence in San Cristoval in the Solomon Islands of burial-mounds, often pyramidal in form, on the top of which are placed images in human form carved out of coral. We have here just such an association of burial-place, pyramidal form and stone-image as through the work of the Routledges we have now come to know in Easter Island. There seems little doubt that San Cristoval and Easter Island are two places where there has been preserved for us an association which in other places has been broken, so that pyramidal form and stone image do not appear together. It is probable, however, that the dissociation of elements of culture which occur together in San Cristoval and Easter Island is only apparent, and that the two features will be found together elsewhere. The place where the evidence in this direction is most definite is the Marquesas, and it is to be hoped that the American Expedition which is now investigating the
- ↑ Hastings’ Encyclopaedia of Comparative Religion and Ethics, art. “New Hebrides.”
- ↑ Personal communication to Professor Elliot Smith and myself.
