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Xxvi PREFACE .
in the native life during that time, with the exception of setting
up a new gong at Epmumbag (which I have described fully) and
repeated death ceremonies. Not a single Nalaze/an has been
made, nor is it probable that one will, as for making things like
the efï¬Ågies, no one dreams of it now. Last week I secured the
only fairly decent and complete eï¬Åigy left [this now adorns the
ethnological Museum at Cambridge]. . . . Collecting is very
difï¬Åcult, since the only specimens are to he found in inaccessible
abandoned villages up in the bush, where you have streams, rain,
and almost impassable tracks to contend with. Often you have
to hack a road through a tangle of creepers. I am afraid my
collection will be rather small. .' . . I imagine that most of
the material I have got will have disappeared for ever in, say,
ï¬Åve years time. Indeed with the deaths that have occurred
during my stay, some of my work would be impossible to repeat
now. . . . Well, I must stop. It is appallingly hot here, and
mosquitoes are bad—in fact, about the worst time of the year.
I shall be glad to get away. I need a change. By the way,
this group is a great place for blackwater fever, a great many
deaths take place from it. On one plantation in S. Malckula
ï¬Åve planters in succession have dicd of it. Apparently nothing
is known about the disease. There are also peculiar diseases
introduced by the Tonkinese, among others a kind of liver
inflammation, very painful. . . . I eXpect I shall be Writing
up my material in Sydney.â€ù
This reference to Sydney is explained as follows: In
November, I925, Professor A. R. Radcliffe-Brown, of the
University of Capetown, was offered the new Professorship of
Anthropology at the University of Sydney, but he could not
take up his duties till the end of June, I926. I knew that a
Lecturer in Anthropology was about to be appointed, so I
strongly advised Professor Brown to offer it to Deacon. Previously
I had recommended Deacon to get in touch with Professor
Brown, which he did and sent some MS. to him, the value of
which was at once recognized, and in due course Deacon was
elected to the Lecturership, though Professor Brown had never
met him.
In his last letter to his mother, Deacon said he was “ very
well and feeling very ï¬Åt " and wc can picture him as busily
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