as important a guide to past history as in the older world. In Lepers' Island (Omba) Glaumont has found[1] coarse potsherds lying nine feet below the surface and in Ambrym[2] pottery has been found accompanying an ancient burial. We have here clear evidence of the use of pottery over an extensive region in only one corner of which it is still made.
Similar discoveries of ancient pottery have been made in New Guinea[3]. Here pots are still made in the districts where this ancient pottery has been found, but in south eastern New Guinea the ancient pottery is far superior to that now made, though similar to it in several respects. The modern pottery which most nearly approaches the old in character is that used in Murua (Woodlark Island) as a receptacle for the bones of the dead. If, as is probable, this modern pottery is the direct descendant of the old, we may note that it has survived in its completest form, not for a utilitarian purpose, but as part of the ritual of death.
There is thus clear evidence that pottery has disappeared from some islands where it was once in regular use, and that in others where pottery is still used, the art has fallen far below its former level of excellence.
THE BOW AND ARROW.
There is definite evidence that the bow and arrow was
