PREFACE.

A person from Fiji Codrington is likely referring to the ethnologist Lorimer Fison, who worked extensively in Fiji and corresponded with him., to whom I am indebted for much instruction, has written: "When a European has been living for two or three years among indigenous people original: "savages" he is sure to be fully convinced that he knows all about them; when he has been ten years or so among them, if he is an observant man, he finds that he knows very little about them, and so begins to learn." My own time of learning has been all too short. I have endeavored as far as possible to give the people's original: "natives'" account of themselves by recording what I took down from their lips and translating what they wrote themselves. It is likely that under the circumstances of such inquiries, much of the darker side of native life may be out of sight, and the view given may seem generally more favorable than might be expected; if that is so, I shall not regret it.

I should have been glad if space had allowed me to treat the subject of the native Arts of Life This refers to traditional crafts, technologies, and social skills. at greater length, and to have included more of the folktales, which throw so much light upon native life and thought. The comparison of Melanesian languages, customs, beliefs, and arts with those of the islands of the Pacific and Indian Oceans will establish the ethnological place The cultural and historical classification of a group of people. of the Melanesian people while aiding the general study of mankind.

In conclusion, this book—though written by a missionary with his full share of the biases and preferences belonging to missionaries—is not meant to have what is generally understood to be a "missionary character." However, the writer is convinced that one of the first duties of a missionary is to try to understand the people among whom he works, and to this end, he hopes that he may have contributed something that may help.