Chapter XXI: Section 2: Oceanica

The term “Oceanica” is used here without geographic precision, to include several islands not mentioned in other sections of the present work, in different parts of the globe, where specially interesting petroglyphs have been found and made known in publications. Although more such localities are known than are now mentioned, the pictographs from them are not of sufficient importance to justify description or illustration, but it may be remarked that they show the universality of the pictographic practice.

NEW ZEALAND.

Dr. Julius von Haast (_a_) published notes, condensed as follows, descriptive of the illustration produced here as Fig. 133:

The most remarkable petroglyphs found in New Zealand are
situated about 1 mile on the western side of the Weka Pass road
in a rock shelter, which is washed out of a vertical wall of rock
lining a small valley for about 300 feet on its right or southern
side. The whole length of the rock below the shelter has been used
for painting, and it is evident that some order has been followed in
the arrangement of the subjects and figures. The paint consists of
kokowai (red oxide of iron), of which the present aborigines of New
Zealand make still extensive use, and of some fatty substance, such
as fish oil, or perhaps some oily bird fat. It has been well fixed
upon the somewhat porous rock and no amount of rubbing will get it
off.

Some of the principal objects evidently belong to the animal
kingdom, and represent animals which either do not occur in New
Zealand or are only of a mythical or fabulous character. The
paintings occur over a face of about 65 feet, and the upper end of
some reaches 8 feet above the floor, the average height, however,
being 4 to 5 feet. They are all of considerable size, most of them
measuring several feet, and one of them even having a length of 15
feet.

Beginning at the eastern end in the left-hand corner is the
representation _a_ of what might be taken for a sperm whale with its
mouth wide open diving downward. This figure is 3 feet long. Five
feet from it is another figure _c_, which might also represent a
whale or some fabulous two-headed marine monster. This painting is 3
feet 4 inches long. Below it, a little to the right in _d_, we have
the representation of a large snake possessing a swollen head and a
long protruding tongue. This figure is nearly 3 feet long, and shows
numerous windings.

It is difficult to conceive how the natives in a country without
snakes could not only have traditions about them but actually
be able to picture them, unless they had received amongst them
immigrants from tropical countries who had landed on the coasts of
New Zealand.

Between the two fishes or whales is _b_, which might represent a
fishhook, and below the snake _d_ a sword _e_ with a curved blade.

Advancing toward the right is a group which is of special
interest, the figure _i_, which is nearly a foot long, having all
the appearance of a long-necked bird carrying the head as the
cassowary and emu do, and as the moa has done. If this design should
represent the moa, I might suggest that it was either a conventional
way of drawing that bird or that it was already extinct when
this representation was painted according to tradition; in which
latter case _k_ might represent the taniwha or gigantic fabulous
lizard which is said to have watched the moa. _h_ is doubtless a
quadruped, probably a dog, which was a contemporary of the moa
and was used also as food by the moa hunters. _j_ is evidently a
weapon, probably an adz or tomahawk, and might, being close to the
supposed bird, indicate the manner in which the latter was killed
during the chase. The post, with the two branches near the top _l_,
finds a counterpart in the remnant of a similar figure _g_ between
the figures _c_ and _i_. They might represent some of the means by
which the moa was caught or indicate that it existed in open country
between the forest. _m_, under which the rock in the central portion
has scaled off, is like _f_, one of the designs which resemble
ancient oriental writing.

Approaching the middle portion of the wall we find here a
well-shaped group of paintings, the center of which _n_ has all
the appearance of a hat ornamented on the crown. The rim of this
broad-brimmed relic measures 2 feet across. The expert of ancient
customs and habits of the Malayan and South Indian countries might
perhaps be able to throw some light upon this and the surrounding
figures, _o_ to _r_.

From _q_, which is altogether 3 feet high, evidently issues fire
or smoke; it therefore might represent a tree on fire, a lamp or an
altar with incense offering. * * * The figure _o_ is particularly
well painted, and the outlines are clearly defined, but I can make
no suggestion as to its meaning. In _s_ we have, doubtless, the
picture of a human being who is running away from _q_, the object
from the top of which issues fire or smoke. I am strengthened in my
conviction that it is meant for a man by observing a similar figure
running away from the monster _aa_. _p_, which has been placed
below that group, might be compared to a pair of spectacles, but is
probably a letter or an imitation of such a sign.

A little more to the right a figure 6 feet long is very
prominent. It is probably the representation of a right whale in the
act of spouting. Above it, in _v_, the figure of a mantis is easily
recognizable, whilst _u_ and the characters to the right below the
supposed right whale again resemble cyphers or letters. _w_ and _y_,
although in many respects different, belong doubtless to the same
group, and represent large lizards or crocodiles. * * * _w_ is 4
feet long; it is unfortunately deficient in its lower portion, but
it is still sufficiently preserved to show that besides four legs it
possesses two other lower appendages, of which one is forked and the
other has the appearance of a trident. I wish also to draw attention
to the unusual form of the head. _y_ is a similar animal 3 feet
long, but it has eight legs, and head and tail are well defined.
The head is well rounded off, and both animals represent, without
doubt, some fabulous animal, such as the taniwha, which is generally
described as a huge crocodile, of which the ancient legends give so
many accounts.

_aa_, a huge snake-like animal 15 feet long, is probably a
representation of the tuna tuoro, a mythical monster. It is evident
that the tuna tuoro is in the act of swallowing a man, who tries to
save himself by running away from it.

KEI ISLANDS.

Mr. A. Langen (_a_) made a report on the Kei islands and their Ghost grottoes, with a plate now reproduced as Fig. 134. He says:

The group of the small Kei islands, more correctly Arue islands
[southwest from New Guinea], is a sea bottom raised by volcanic
forces and covered with corals and shells. The corals appear but at
a few points. They are in the main covered with a layer of shells
cemented together, whose cement is so hard and firm that it offers
resistance to the influence of time even after the shell has been
weathered away.

On the whole, all the figures in similar genre are represented
in thousands of specimens. [They may be divided into three series,
the first including letters _a_ to _k_; the second, letters _l_
to _t_; the third, letters _u_ to _cc_.] Many are effaced and
unrecognizable, only letter _k_, series 1; letters _n_, _o_, _s_,
_t_, series 2; and letters _cc_, series 3, stand isolated and seem
to have a peculiar meaning. The popular legend ascribes the greatest
age to the characters of series 1 and series 2, and it is said that
the signs record a terrible fight in which the islanders lost many
dead, but yet remained victors. It is stated that the signs were
produced by the ghosts of the fallen. The signs of series 3 are said
to be the work of a woman named Tewaheru, who was able to converse
with ghosts as well as with the living. But, when on one occasion
she helped a living man to recover his dead wife by betraying to
him the secret of making the spirit return to the body, she is said
to have been destroyed by the ghosts and changed into a blackbird,
whose call even at this day indicates death. Since that time no
medium is said to exist between the living and the dead, nor do any
new signs appear on the rock.

Investigation in place showed me that the color of series 3
consists of ocher made up with water. The very oldest drawings
seem to have been made with water color, as the color has nowhere
penetrated into the rock. Most of the figures are painted on
overhanging rocks in such a way as to be protected as much as
possible against wind and weather; whether they bear any relation to
the signs on the rocks of Papua, and what that relation may be, I am
not yet able to judge.

It may safely be assumed that the caves as abodes of spirits
were sacred, but did not serve as places of burial. The lead rings
and pieces of copper gongs found in small number before some of the
caves seem to be derived from sacrifices offered to the spirits.
At the present day no more sacrifices are offered there, and the
islanders knew nothing of the existence of these things.

EASTER ISLAND.

In this island carved human figures of colossal size have been frequently noticed in various publications, with and without illustrations, but apart from those statues ancient stone houses remain in which have been found large stone slabs bearing painted figures. Paymaster William J. Thompson, U. S. Navy (_a_) says of the Orongo houses, that the “smooth slabs lining the walls and ceilings were ornamented with mythological figures and rude designs painted in white, red, and black pigments.” The figures partake of the form of fish and bird-like animals, the exaggerated outlines clearly indicating mythologic beings, the type of which does not exist in nature. Fig. 135 is presented here, extracted by permission from the work above cited, and it may be of interest to know that nearly all, if not all, of the original specimens are now deposited in the U. S. National Museum.

While the curious carvings on the wooden tablets which are discussed in the work of Paymaster Thompson are not petroglyphs, it seems proper to mention them in this connection. Fig. 136 is taken from Mittheilungen der Anthropologischen Gesellschaft, in Wien (_a_), and shows one of the tablets, which does not appear to be presented in this exact form in the work before mentioned.

The following remarks by Prof. de Lacouperie (_b_) are quoted on account of the eminence of his authority, though the subject is still under discussion:

The character of eastern India, the Vengi-Châlukya, was also
carried to north Celebes islands. The people have not remained at
the level required for the practical use of a phonetic writing. It
is no more used as an alphabet. Curiously enough, it is employed as
pictorial ornaments on the MSS. they now write in a pictographic
style of the lowest scale. This I have seen on the facsimile
(Bilderschriften des Ostindischen Archipels, Pl. I, 1, 11) published
by Dr. A. B. Meyer, of Dresden, in his splendid album on the
writings of this region.

In the Easter island, or Vaihu, some fourteen inscriptions
have been found incised on wooden boards, perhaps of driftwood.
The characters are peculiar. Most of them display strange shapes,
in which, with a little imagination, forms of men, fishes,
trees, birds, and many other things have been fancied. A curious
characteristic is that the upper part of the signs are shaped
somewhat like the head of the herronia or albatross. A pictorial
tendency is obvious in all of these. Some persons in Europe have
taken them for hieroglyphics, and have ventured to find a connection
with the flora and fauna of the island. The knowledge of this
writing is now lost; and it is not sure that the few priests and
other men of the last generation who boasted of being able to read
them could do so thoroughly. Anyhow, in 1770, some chiefs were still
able to write down their names on a deed of gift when the island was
taken in the name of Carlos III of Spain.

In examining carefully the characters I was struck by the forked
heads of many of them, which reminded me of the forked matras of the
Vengi-Châlukya inscriptions. A closer comparison with Pls. i to viii
of the Elements of South Indian Paleography (A. C. Burnell, Elements
of South Indian Paleography, from the fourth to the seventeenth
century A. D., being An Introduction to the Study of South Indian
Inscriptions and MSS., 2d edit., London and Mangalore, 1878; Pls.
i, vii, viii are specially interesting for the forked matras) soon
showed me that I was on the right track, and a further study of
the Vaihu characters, and their analysis by comparing the small
differences (vocalic notation) existing between several of them,
convinced me that they are nothing else than a decayed form of the
above writing of southern India returning to the hieroglyphical
stage. With this clue, the inscriptions of Easter island are no
more a sealed text. They can easily be read after a little training.
Their language is Polynesian, and I can say that the vocabulary of
the Samoan dialect has proved very useful to me for the purpose.