Raymond Firth is Emeritus Professor of Anthropology at the University of London. He collected songs and other traditional oral material on his fi rst expedition to Tikopia in the Solomon Islands in 1928-29, and on several subsequent visits. He has published about a half-dozen volumes and many articles on aspects of Tikopia ethnography, incorporating much oral tradition, and has recently completed a general book on Tikopia songs to be published by Cambridge University Press.