[Note: this transcription was produced by an automatic OCR engine]

NOTE
“ Degree-taking rites in South West Bay, Malekula â€ù, referred
to by Miss Wedgwood, on pp. 140 and 219 of which the chief facts
set out above are clearly stated. -
Deacon, whose work was of the very highest order, more than
justified the great hopes there expressed of him in rescuing, under
the most difficult conditions, so much oi what would otherwise
have been irrevocably lost.
The preparation of this material for publication has involved
much labour and devotion. The task of editing another’s ï¬Åeld-
notes is at best a thankless one and full of pitfalls, which, in
this case however, might to a great extent have been avoided
by consultation with the only ethnologist acquainted with most
areas in which Deacon worked. Miss Wedgwood did, in fact,
approach me, and I expressed not only my willingness but also
my desire to give her all possible assistance. This was the last
I heard, however, of the matter; my offer of assistance was,
indeed, rejected. It is therefore doubly surprising to read in her
Introduction (p. xxxviii) an acknowledgment to myself which is,
in fact, without foundation. Had I been so consulted it is unlikely
that, apart from many errors in transcribing Deacon's work, the
omissions mentioned above would have occurred, or that the
numerous errata and corrigenda in relation to my own published
work which Messrs. Routledge and Sons have kindly consented
to insert, both in list form and interleaved, would have been
necessary. Nor would the area of my own intensive work have
been partially mis-stated as it is on p. xxxi.
Deacon's statement to the effect that “ I feel bitterly envious
of Layard. I-Ie could follow through a whole ceremony, where
I have to try and piece the thing together from descriptions f’,
here quoted (p. xxxiii) as though applying to the DISTRICTs
where he carried on his work, is equally misleading. I saw and
have recorded many rites in the Small Islands where my own
intensive work was carried out, but the South Western DISTRICT
was, when I visited it, already almost completely depopulated ;
I never saw a single ceremony there, and my notes, like most of
Deacon's, were taken from oral description. I
In the body of the work, although on the one hand my pub-.
lished article is freely criticized, sometimes with reason but more
frequently by misquoting and attributing to me statements which