RACES AND PEOPLES OF OCEANIA.

The Stone Age in Oceania—I. Australians: Uniformity of the Australian race—Language and manners and customs of the Australians—Extinct Tasmanians—II. Populations of the Asiatic or Malay Archipelago: Papuan and Negrito elements in the Archipelago—Indonesians and Malays of Sumatra, Borneo, Celebes, etc.—III. Melanesians: Papuans of New Guinea—Melanesians properly so called of the Salomon and Admiralty Islands, New Hebrides, New Caledonia, etc.—IV. Polynesians: Polynesians properly so called of Samoa, Tahiti, and Sandwich Islands, New Zealand, etc.—Micronesians of the Caroline and Marianne Islands, etc.—Peopling of the Pacific Islands and of the Indian Ocean.

“OCEANIA” appears to me the term best adapted to designate comprehensively all the insular lands scattered in the immensity of the Pacific and Indian Oceans. These in their entirety are, from the ethnographic point of view, divided into a continent, Australia, which shelters a distinct race, the Australians, and into two groups of islands. The western group, that of the Asiatic Archipelago, formed especially of large islands, is peopled principally by Indonesians, pure and mixed. As to the eastern group, it falls into two regions: one region consisting of New Guinea (which, after Greenland, is the largest island of the world), together with the neighbouring archipelagoes peopled by the Melanesian race; and the other region formed of the innumerable islands, islets, rocks, and atolls situated farther east, and occupied by the Polynesian race. I shall describe separately the populations of these four regions, but I must say a few words in advance in regard to the prehistoric periods of Oceania.

With the exception of Sumatra, Java, and perhaps Borneo, still connected with Asia at the end of the tertiary period, the rest of Oceania formed an insular world apart, of ancient geological origin. Except the discovery of the Pithecanthropus in Java (see p. 360), hardly any finds relating to quaternary man can be pointed to in this part of the world. The objects in chipped or polished flint noted here and there in Malaysia, Australia, or New Zealand, as having been found at a certain depth of earth, have no fixed date, and, seeing that all Oceania, except West Malaysia, was up to the end of the last century still in the “stone age,” and remains in that age yet at several places, it will be understood that these finds may hardly be dated back further than some tens or hundreds of years, and have no connection with geological periods.[544] As to the megalithic monuments,—the ruins of “Morai” and other erections in Oceania, of which the best known are those of Easter Island, but which exist also in the Marquesas, Tahiti, Pitcairn, and Caroline Islands,—a precise date can with no greater certitude be assigned to them.[545]

The long duration of the stone age in Oceania may be explained especially by the absence of metallic deposits in Polynesia, and by the relative difficulty of working the iron and copper ores of New Zealand and of the rest of Oceania.[546]

The contemporary stone age, together with the affinity of the Malay, Polynesian, and Melanesian languages (Von Gabelentz), are perhaps the most characteristic traits of Oceanic ethnography.

1. AUSTRALIA.—The Australians form a distinct ethnic group, even a race apart from the rest of mankind. Notwithstanding some local differences, they exhibit great unity, not only from the somatic point of view, but also from the point of view of manners, customs, and speech. Up to a certain point this unity may be explained by the fact that the nature and surface of the soil, as well as the climate, the fauna and flora, vary to a relatively slight degree throughout the whole extent of the continent.[547]

Formerly owners of the entire face of their country, the Australians are now driven back farther and farther into poor, sterile, and unhealthy regions. Those who remain in contact with the invading European colonists are debased and degenerate, and disappear rapidly. The tribes of purest type, those of the mid-region and of the north coast, have recently been well studied by Stirling, Baldwin Spencer and Gillen, and W. Roth.[548]

The census of 1851 included 55,000 natives in Australia; that of 1881 declared only 31,700; and that of 1891, no doubt better compiled and including newly-discovered districts, gives a return of only 59,464 natives and cross-breeds.[549]

Between 1836 and 1881 the number of natives in Victoria fell from 5000 to 770; the tribe of the Narrinyeri in South Australia, which in 1842 was composed of 3,200 members, was by 1875 reduced to only 511 individuals. But no positive proof has been obtained of diminution in the number of the natives of the interior, nor of those of the west and north coasts.

Most Australians exhibit the sufficiently pure type of the Australian race as I have already described it (p. 285): dark chocolate-brown skin, stature above the average (1 m. 67); frizzy or wavy hair, very elongated dolichocephalic head (av. ceph. ind., 71.2 in skulls, and 74.5 on the living subject), prominent superciliary arches, nose flat and often convex, sunken at the root, where it is very thin, but much enlarged on the level of the nostrils, thick and sometimes protruding lips, etc. The cranial capacity is rather low (see p. 99). The pilous system is well developed over the whole body (Figs. 14, 15, 149, 150). Some of these characters, the dolichocephaly and crooked nose, are common both to the Australians and the Melanesians of the archipelagoes extending north-east of the continent; while other traits (wavy or frizzy hair, etc.) differentiate these two races, and connect the Australians with the Veddahs of Ceylon and with certain of the Dravidian populations of India.

Deviations from the type just described are very slight, and have been attributed, without, I think, much justice, to intermixtures with Malays and Papuans on the coasts; elsewhere deviations are quite limited.

The Australians have great powers of endurance, are temperate and fairly agile; they climb trees readily with the aid of a rattan rope, in the style of natives of India, of the Canacks and the Negroes (p. 275 and Fig. 81).

Most travellers agree in regard to the low intellectual development of the Australians. However, they have sufficiently complex social customs, an extensive folk-lore,[550] and their children have been known, in the missionary schools, to learn to read and write more quickly than European children; arithmetic only appearing to be outside the limits of their intelligence. It should be remarked in regard to all Australian dialects that they have special words only for the figures one and two, occasionally for three and four; but most frequently “two and one” is used for “three,” and “two and two” for “four” (see p. 223).

The Australian languages present great resemblances to each other; they all belong to a single family, having no affinity with any other linguistic group. All these languages are agglutinative. The various forms of the words are produced by the addition of suffixes, while in the Malay and Papuan languages they are produced by means of prefixes. Abbreviations, slovenliness of pronunciation, and neologisms are very constant, and rapidly lead to changes in these dialects.

Gesture language is fairly developed, especially as an ideographic mode of communication between tribe and tribe. Very often a gesture completes the phrase, even in a colloquy between two members of the same tribe; certain of these gestures recall those of European children, such as lightly rubbing the stomach to signify “I have had enough” (W. Roth).

The Australians are typical hunters (for their weapons, see pp. 259 and 267, and Figs. 75 and 78). They know nothing of cattle-raising; their only domestic animal, the dingo, is half wild. Fruit gathering and the digging up of roots of wild plants are the principal occupations of the women. Intoxicating drinks, apart from the regions penetrated by colonists, are unknown; the custom of chewing “pituri” leaves (Duboisia) as a narcotic is fairly widespread.

Most of the tribes live under such shelters as nature affords, or in huts made of leafy branches, hemispherical or semi-ovoid in shape, and very low (p. 161); even these they do not take the trouble to put up if they have other means of protecting themselves from cold, such as the woollen blankets distributed by the Colonial Governments.

Sundry particulars have already been given in regard to the ornaments of the Australians (p. 178, and Figs. 59, 149, and 150), in regard to their marriage customs (p. 232), their system of affiliation (p. 234), the “corroborees,” and their ceremonies of initiation (p. 241), at which time are practised the circumcision and urethral sub-incision (mika operation, p. 239) of the young people. On p. 210, et seq., I have already given some details in regard to the music, poetry, and arts of these people.

In most ethnographical works, the extinct Tasmanian[551] people are described side by side with the Australian. The only reason of this lies in the proximity of their habitat, for really the Tasmanians recall rather the Melanesians, both in somatic traits and in mode of life. The language of the Tasmanians, which is agglutinative with prefixes and suffixes, presents no analogy either with Australian or Melanesian tongues. The Tasmanians appear to have been of stature below the average (1 m. 66); head, sub-dolichocephalic (ceph. ind., 76 to 77); broad and prognathous face; flattened and very broad nose; frizzy hair (which last constituted their chief difference from the Australians).[552]

II. ASIATIC ARCHIPELAGO OR MALAYSIA.—The population of this part of Oceania may be separated into four great ethnic groups: Malays, Indonesians, Negritoes, and Papuans. The first two form the basis of most of the ethnic groups of the Archipelago, while the Negrito element is represented only in the Malay peninsula (which from the ethnic point of view may be associated with the Archipelago), in the Andaman Islands (see p. 397), in the Philippines, and perhaps in Riu-Linga; and the Papuan element in the Aru and Ke Islands, and in a lesser degree in the South-West Islands, Ceram, Buru, Timur, Floris, and the neighbouring islets. It has long been supposed that the interior of the Malay Islands is occupied by negroid races akin to the Negritoes or Papuans; but no explorer of Sumatra, Borneo, Java,[553] or Celebes has yet encountered Negritoes there, although the centres of these islands have repeatedly been traversed; hence there is little hope of discovering negroid races in them. Besides, the assumed Negritoes of the Mergui Archipelago, of Nicobar and of Engano, described by Anderson, Lapicque, Man, Sherborn and Modigliani, have been shown to be simply Indonesians. The existence of true Negritoes has been affirmed only in the extreme north of the Archipelago, in the spots named above, the Andaman Islands, etc. If there be any trace whatever of intermixture with these races, it should not be necessary to search beyond the north parts of Sumatra and Borneo—in other words, beyond the equator going south.

I have already given some particulars in regard to the Negritoes of Malacca and the Andamanese (p. 397). As to the people of the Philippines,[554] known under the name of Aeta or Aita (a corruption of the Malay word “hitam,” meaning black), they occupy the interior of Luzon Island in little groups, and are to be met with also in the Mindoro, Panay, and Negros islands, and in the north-east part of Mindanao. They are shorter (1 m. 47) than the Andamanese and the Sakai, but are very like them generally. They are uncivilised hunters; in certain districts where they are crossed with Tagals they have begun to till the soil.

The Papuans (see p. 493) are still less numerous than the Negritoes in the Asiatic Archipelago. They are to be found, more or less pure, only in the Aru, Salawatti, and Waigiu Islands, etc. All these islands form part of the Archipelago only from the political point of view; they belong by their climate, their flora and fauna, to the New Guinea and Australian world. There are also tribes which recall the Papuans in Ceram and Buru, in the Ke and Tenimber islands; but in the remainder of the Moluccas, and in Floris and Timur islands, only traces of Papuan or Melanesian blood can be discovered, generally in the form of intermixture with or modification of the Malay or Indonesian type (see p. 491, and Figs. 46 to 48). Such at least is the conclusion to which lead the researches of Ten Kate and Lapicque,[555] the only anthropologists who have studied the question on the spot.

There remain the two principal groups of the population of the Archipelago: the Indonesians and Malays, who differ from each other much less than till recently was supposed.

It has been said and frequently repeated, though without precise documents to warrant the assertion, that the Indonesians resemble the Polynesians, and the Malays the Mongols, but recent anthropological research has proved that this is not the case.[556] The Indonesians, which is the collective name under which, since Junghuhn, Logan, and Hamy,[557] have been comprised the little intermixed inland populations of the large islands (Dyaks of Borneo, Battas of Sumatra, various “Alfurus” of Celebes and certain Moluccas, etc.), have none of the special characters of Polynesians. They are of very short stature (1 m. 57 on the average), mesocephalic or dolichocephalic (av. ceph. ind., 78.5 on the liv. sub.), while the Polynesians are very tall (1 m. 72 on the average) and brachycephalic; and if the yellow colour of the skin and the nature of the hair (straight or slightly curled) are almost the same in the two races, the form of the nose, of the lips, of the face, as well as various other traits, present notable differences.

On the other hand, the Indonesians singularly resemble the Malays. Speaking generally, the Malays are somewhat taller (av. height, 1 m. 61) and brachycephalic (av. ceph. ind., 85 on the liv. sub.), but there is a great variety of type in this group, which is much more mixed than the Indonesian. It is even possible that the Malays (that is to say, the Malays properly so called of Malacca and of Menangkabau in Sumatra, as well as the Javanese, Sundanese, and the riverine “Malays” of the other islands) are a mixed nation, sprung from the intermixture of Indonesians with various Burmese, Negrito, Hindu, Chinese, Papuan and other elements. In this case, the Indonesians would be of the pure Malay type, the real Protomalays. Intermixtures of Indonesians and Chinese are especially pronounced in Java, in the north of Borneo, and in the Philippines of the north; while in Mindanao, in Sulu and Palawan islands, Arab elements (Moros) dominate, and Hindu elements in certain parts of Java, Sumatra, Bali, and of the south of Borneo. As to intermixtures with Negrito blood they are, as I have already said, specially notable in the north of the Archipelago, while Papuan influence predominates in the south-east.

Apart from some savage tribes like the Olo-ot, the Punan of Borneo, and the Kubus of Sumatra, all the Indonesians and Malays are tillers of the soil, using the hoe. The plant most extensively cultivated is rice, a foreign importation; it has replaced the indigenous plant, millet (Panicum italicum), which only some backward Dyak tribes, the Alfurus of Buru, and the natives of Timur continue to cultivate. Mention has already been made of the use of siri or betel (p. 158), and of geophagy and anthropophagy (p. 145, et seq.) in the Archipelago. The characteristic dress of the Indonesians and Malays is the kaÏn, a piece of stuff passed round the loins and between the legs; also the “sarong,” which appears to have been imported from India—a piece of stuff enveloping the body (Figs. 126 and 146), worn by both sexes; the women wear besides the javat or chastity belt. Among other ethnic characters special to the Malay-Indonesians should be mentioned the quadrangular houses on piles,[558] the use of the “sumpitan” (p. 261), the bow being of foreign importation, either from India (in Java and Bali) or from Melanesia (in the islands of the south-east and south-west, in Timur, and the east of Floris); the national weapon, the “kris,” an inlaid dagger with slightly bent handle and sheath in the form of an axe; the large quadrangular or hexagonal shield (Fig. 79); tattooing, practised among the Dyaks, the Igorrotes of the Philippines, the inhabitants of Ceram, of Timur Laut, the Tenimber Islands, etc.

Among the customs of the family life should be noted the alterations of names (the father at the birth of a son takes the name of “the father of so-and-so”); exogamy in relation to the clan (the “saku” of the Malays of Sumatra, the “marga” of the Battas), practised everywhere in Malaysia except by the Dyaks and the Alfurus to the north of Celebes; the patriarchate, existing everywhere except in the “Padangshe Bovenlanden” (upper Padang district, Sumatra), among the Nias and the Alfurus of Baru and Ceram; the universal custom of carrying off the bride and the indemnity paid at once to the relatives (“halaku” of the Dyaks, the “sompo” of the Bugis). The barbarous practice of head-hunting, either to be assured of servitors in the other world, or to lend importance there (see p. 251), is in vogue with the Dyaks, the Nias, the Alfurus of Minahassa (north Celebes), the Toradja (mid Celebes), as well as in Ceram and Timur islands.[559] Family property exists almost throughout the Archipelago, side by side with individual property.

The Malay languages, which form part of the Malayo-Polynesian family, are of agglutinative structure, with prefixes and suffixes; by the introduction of infixes they have a tendency towards flexion. Many words, however, do not change at all, and represent at the same time noun, verb, adjective, etc. Among the dialects, Tagal is the richest in affixes and gives to its words the finest shades; then comes the Batta dialect, the dialect of the Alfurus of Minahassa, and lastly, Javanese (see also p. 133). The dialect least complicated grammatically is the Malay properly so called; it has become the lingua franca and official language of the Mussulmans throughout the Archipelago. Among other dialects may be mentioned Mangkassarese and the “Behasa tanat” of the Moluccas.

The Javanese make use of a special alphabet; the inhabitants of the south of Sumatra have a hooked mode of writing, different from the rounded writing of the Battas; finally, the Bugis and Mangkassars of Celebes, as well as the Bisayans and Tagals of the Philippines, have special forms of writing derived probably from the Devanagari. The Malays employ the Arabo-Persian alphabet.

I will now add some particulars of the population of each of the large islands of Malaysia.[560]

The interior of the island of Sumatra is inhabited by independent populations, known in the north under the name of Battas (with whom should probably be associated the Ala and the Gaja of the interior of Achin), and under the name of Kubu and Lubu in the south. All these tribes, who are primitive tillers of the soil, are famous as man-eaters and head hunters. As to the regions contiguous to the east and west coasts, they are inhabited (as well as in part the middle of the island, between the Kubu and the Batta) by the so-called Menangkabau Malays (the name of the ancient native kingdom). The north coast is taken up by the Achinese, a mixed Arabo-Indonesian people; while the south part of the great island is occupied by other compound populations, the Palenbangs or Javanese of Sumatra, the Rejangs (Malayo-Javanese), the Passumahs (Indonesians intermixed with Javanese blood), and finally the Lampongs, cross-breeds of Passumahs with Sundanese (see below) and the natives of the south, such as the Orang-Abong, who have to-day almost disappeared. The islands skirting west Sumatra are peopled with tribes resembling the Battas, like the islanders of Nias, of Engano (p. 486, note), etc. The islands to the east are peopled by Malays, except Riu and the middle of Biliton, which are occupied by the Baju, a tribe perhaps of Negrito race. The island of Bangka is occupied mostly by a branch of the Passumahs.

In Java are to be noted the Sundanese in the west, the Javanese in the east, the former being less affected by Hindu elements. The Madurese of Madura and Bavean islands, as well as the Balinese of Bali, are like the Javanese. In the less accessible mountains of the province of Bantam (west of the island) live the Baduj, and in those of the east (province of Pasuruan) the Tenggerese. These are two fairly pure Indonesian tribes, who have preserved their heathen customs in the midst of the Mussulman population of Java. There are people like them in Bali, Lombok, and Sumbawa.[561]

In Borneo, the coast is occupied by Malays, except the north-east part, where are found Suluans (Arabised Indonesians from the Sulu Islands), Bugis, and the Bajaus or Sea Gypsies, analogous to those of Riu and Mergui (p. 396).

The interior of the large island is, however, the exclusive domain of the Dyaks, the numerous tribes of which may be divided into two great groups, the one of stationary, the other of nomadic habits. The sedentary tribes, more or less intermixed with immigrant elements, Chinese, Malay, and Bugi, are more or less civilised. First come the Kayans, the Bahau, and the Segai; then the Tagans, among whom, it is said, the practice obtains of girls being deflowered by their fathers; and, lastly, the Dusuns or Sun Dyaks, the Baludupis, the Land Dyaks, and the Sea Dyaks of Sarawak, etc. Second, the nomads, who are purer than the fixed tribes, and sometimes half savage, as, for example, the Punan and Olo-ot of the middle of the island, are still little known.[562]

The Philippine archipelago[563] contains, besides Negritoes (p. 483), a crowd of Indonesian tribes, which, from the linguistic and ethnic point of view, may be grouped as follows:—Starting in the north-east we meet first the Cagayanes or Ibangs around Lake Cagayan in the island of Luzon, and their neighbours the Ifugaos, who are hunters of skulls; then farther south we find the Igorrotes and their congeners; then the Tagals; then, still farther south, in the interior, on all the east coast of Luzon, as well as on the coast of Mindoro, are found the savage Mangianes. At many points these peoples are intermixed with Chinese blood. The west coast of Luzon is occupied by the Ilocanos, who are bold colonists, and, farther south, towards Manilla, tribes of the Zambales and Pangasinanes. The quite southern extremity of Luzon is occupied by the Bicols, nearly related to the Tagals, whom one finds again also scattered over the islands (Catanduanes Islands, north Masbate Island, etc.). West Mindanao is taken up by the mixed population (Arabo-Negrito-Indonesian) of pirates, Mussulman fanatics, known by the name of Moros; the east of this island being inhabited by several tribes as yet little known, such as Mandayas in the south, Bogobos in the north, etc., and the Caragas tribe of Bisaya or Vissaya. Most of these last people occupy the rest of the archipelago north of Mindanao, as far as and including the south of Masbate and Samar and Tablas islands. They are met again beside the Moros in Palawan Island between the Philippines and Borneo. The Tagaloc language is largely superseding other dialects in the archipelago; it has already displaced Bicol in the north of the province of Camarine, Bisayan on Marinduque Island, etc. Besides, Tagals emigrate to the other parts of the archipelago and even to Marianne Islands. Most of the Tagals are Christians; many can read and write Spanish, and not a few have received a superior education.

Celebes Island is peopled in the north (Minahassa province) by the Alfurus; in the south by Mangkassars and Bugis, and by various tribes (Toraja, Gorontolo, etc.), who as yet have been little studied, in the middle. The Moluccas are inhabited by other “Alfurus,” with a greater strain of Papuan blood. Timur, apart from its Malay or Indonesian coast populations, contains also tribes imbued with Papuan blood; such are the Emabelo of the middle of the island; the Timur-Atuli of the east coast; the Helong-Atuli in Samu Island opposite Kupang, the capital of Timur; and lastly, the Rottinese of Rotti Island, south-west of Timur, etc.

In Floris Island, the Sikanese of the central isthmus and the east part possess traits intermediate between Papuans and Indonesians, while the Ata-KrowÉ of Koting and the Hokar mountaineers are almost pure Papuans. The Lios to the west of the Sikanese present again a mixed type, as do also the inhabitants of the region of Larantuka (Fig. 146), among whom may be found all the degrees between Indonesian and almost pure Papuan. This applies also to the Solorese of the Solor Archipelago, east of Floris (Figs. 147 and 148).[564]

III. MELANESIA.—The Melanesians are a well-characterised race. However, they exhibit in somatic type differences sufficiently marked to separate the Melanesian race into two sub-races. The one, Papuan, with elongated face and hooked nose, is especially spread over New Guinea; the other, or Melanesian properly so called, with broader face, straight or concave nose, has a geographical area which covers (from north-west to south-east) the Admiralty Islands, New Britain (Bismarck Archipelago), Solomon, Santa-Cruz, and Banks Islands, the New Hebrides, Loyalty Islands, and the Fiji Archipelago. Further, there are a certain number of ethnic characters which also justify the separation of the Papuans from the Melanesians properly so called. (See pp. 494–495.)

The Papuans[565] are found in the large island of New Guinea and the coast islets; for the most part they present the more or less uniform type of the Papuan sub-race (long face, convex nose, etc.), but the Melanesian type properly so called is also to be found among them. The frequency of individuals with a skin relatively fair, chocolate colour, especially in the south-east of the island (British New Guinea), joined to the frequency of wavy and straight hair, which, in the case of the children, is sometimes chestnut or sandy at the ends and black at the roots, has given the impression that there was a strong infusion of Polynesian blood in the veins of the Papuans; but this idea has been refuted by all ethnologists who have studied the populations on the spot—Miklukho-Maclay, Finsch, Haddon. According to the last, the evidence is in favour of some intermixture with the Melanesians, who, in general, are fairer than the Papuans, and have often wavy hair.[566] Some anthropologists (Miklukho-Maclay, Meyer, Hamy, Mantegazza) have also pointed out the presence of Negritoes or Negrito-Papuan cross-breeds in New Guinea, basing their opinion on the study of skulls. These Negrito-Papuans appear to be localised at a single spot on the island, at the mouth of the river Fly.[567]

It should also be said that some Polynesian customs, kava drinking, tattoo by pricking, the possession of outrigger canoes, etc., to be met with at certain points of New Guinea, are equally to be found in Melanesia (New Hebrides, Fiji, etc.). Many ethnic characters may be brought forward which are proper to the Papuans, or in which either Indonesians or Australians resemble them—large phalanstery-houses (up to 300 feet) on piles with roofs of the shape of a reversed boat; the ceremony of initiation for the young of both sexes; the use of the bull-roarer and of very elaborate masks in religious ceremonies, the seated attitude of limbs crossed tailor-fashion, in which last they differ from the Melanesians, who rest squatting.

The Papuans (perhaps a million in all) are divided into a great number of tribes. In the west (Dutch) portion are the Mafors or Nofurs; the Varopen or Vandamenes in Geelvink Bay and the islands lying within it; the Arfaks, their neighbours of the interior; then, on the north coast, the Amberbaki, the Karons, one of the tribes practising anthropophagy (tolerably rare among Papuans); lastly, the Talandjang, near Humboldt Gulf; the Onimes in the neighbourhood of McClure Gulf, and the Kovai farther to the south. The Papuans of German New Guinea present linguistic differences: those of Astrolabe Bay do not understand the natives of Finsch Haven, etc. In British New Guinea the following tribes are known: the Daudai to the west of the mouth of the Fly, the Kiwai in the mouth of this river; the Orokolo and the Motu-Motu or Toaripi in the Gulf of Papua; the Motu or Kerepunu (Fig. 152) of Port Moresby;[568] the Koitapu and the Kupele more in the interior of the country, near the Owen Stanley range; the Loyalupu and the Aroma to the south of the foot of Moresby; finally, the Massim of the extremity of the peninsula, the Samarai (Fig. 151) and their congeners of the Entrecasteaux Islands and the Louisiade archipelago.[569]

The Papuans are tillers of the soil, and especially cultivate sago, maize, and tobacco; occasionally they are hunters and fishers, and are then very adroit in laying snares and poisoning waters; their favourite weapons are the bow and arrow with flint heads. Excellent boat-builders, they merely do a coasting trade, and while understanding well how to handle a sail, rarely ever venture into the open sea. Graphic arts are developed among them (see p. 202, and Figs. 60 to 62). The practice of chewing betel is universal. The dress of the men is a belt of beaten bark (Fig. 60); that of the women an apron made of dry grasses. Funeral rites vary with the tribe: burial, exposure on trees, embalmment. Very superstitious, living in dread of “spirits” at the merest whispering of leaves in the forest, of a bad augury at the least cry of a bird, the Papuans have no religion properly so called any more than they have “chiefs”; all public matters are discussed at meetings where, however, individual influences are always predominant. Among their principal customs may be noted the vendetta and the headhunt.

The inhabitants of Torres Straits very much recall the Papuans; they have nothing in common with the Australians.[570]

The Melanesians properly so called[571] are for the most part of the variety with large square or lozenge-shaped face, with the straight or retroussÉ nose of the Melanesian race (Fig. 153). In general they are taller and more dolichocephalic than the Papuans. (See Appendices I. and II.) All tillers of the soil, cultivating especially the yam and taro, they practise hunting and fishing only at times; the pig is their only domestic animal. Most of the Melanesians still live in the stone age, but the former fine axes of polished serpentine, artistically hafted, are disappearing more and more. They also make many weapons and tools of wood, of shells, and of human humerus bones. The favourite weapons are the club, bow, and spear, this last being used only in war (except in New Caledonia, where the bow is little employed).

The arrow and spear heads are most often of human bone, barbed, and sometimes poisoned with juices of plants or microbes from the ooze of ponds or lagunes.

The Melanesians build outrigger and twin canoes, but they do not sail far from the coasts. Pottery in certain islands is unknown; the dwellings are little houses on piles, except in New Caledonia, where circular huts are met with. Communal houses (“Gamal”) exist everywhere. Tattooing, little practised, is most often done by cicatrices. The habit of chewing betel is general, except in New Caledonia; but kava is almost unknown. Anthropophagy is now indulged in only on the Solomon Islands and in some islands of New Britain and New Hebrides, although the custom of preserving the skulls of the dead, and of hanging them near the hut side by side with those derived from head-hunting, is general. As in New Guinea, there exists a mob of dialects and tongues in each of the Melanesian Islands, and even in different parts of the same island. Melanesian women are very chaste and virtuous, and that notwithstanding the absence of the sense of modesty, at least in New Britain, where they go completely naked, as also do the men. The men, in certain islands, wear only antipudic garments (see p. 170). Taboo in Melanesia assumes a less clear form than in Polynesia, where it amounts to simple interdiction without the intervention of mysterious forces. As in Australia there are no “tribes” among the Melanesians (except perhaps in New Caledonia), but in each island there exists two or more exogamous “classes” or clans (as in Australia), and the regulations of group marriage (p. 231) are observed as strictly in the Solomon Islands as in Viti-Levu (the largest of the Fiji Islands). Secret societies (Duk-Duk, etc., p. 253) flourish especially in Banks Islands, but are met with also in the rest of Melanesia and even in the Fijis, where, especially in the west islands, the population is already intermixed with Polynesian elements.[572]

IV. POLYNESIANS.[573]—Seeing that the Polynesians are distributed over a number of islands, and exist under the most varied conditions, we might expect to find a multitude of types. This is not the case; the Polynesian race shows almost the same traits from the Hawaii Islands to New Zealand. This fact is due to the constant migrations from island to island, and the active trading conducted by all the Polynesians with each other, the effect of which is to efface, by process of intermixture, differences arising from insular isolation.

From the physical point of view the Polynesian is tall (1 m. 74, average of 254 measurements), sub-brachycephalic (ceph. ind., 82.6 according to 178 measurements on the living subject, 79 according to 328 skulls), of a fair complexion (warm yellow or brownish), with straight or curly hair, most often straight nose, the cheek-bones fairly projecting, the superciliary arches little marked, and, especially among the women, something languorous in the look (Figs. 154 to 156). The Polynesian therefore differs completely from the Melanesian, whose stature is below the average (1 m. 62 according to 295 measurements), and who is dolichocephalic (ceph. ind., 77 according to 223 measurements on living subject); he has dark skin, woolly or frizzy hair, concave or convex nose, and, lastly, prominent superciliary arches, which, combined with the pigmentation of the cornea, give a fierce and suspicious look. The Polynesian is more subject to obesity than the Melanesian. He is more lively, more imaginative and intelligent, but also more dissolute in his habits than the Melanesian.

Before the advent of Europeans, the Polynesians of the upper volcanic islands were expert tillers of the soil (as witness the ruins of irrigation works in Tahiti, New Zealand, and elsewhere), and in the lower coral islands lived on the produce of the cocoa-nut and bread-fruit trees. Everywhere they were accustomed to fish. They cooked their foods by means of heated stones (p. 153), having (except in Micronesia, in the Tonga and Easter Islands) no knowledge of pottery; they excelled in the art of plaiting, in the preparation of tapa (p. 183), and especially in navigation. Their light canoes with outriggers (Fig. 82), or their large twin canoes connected by a platform and always carrying a single triangular sail of mat, furrowed the ocean in all directions. For weapons they had short javelins, slings, and wooden clubs, but neither bow nor shield. They made tools of shell and polished stone, and were proficient in the art of wood-sculpture (Fig. 71). Pictography appears to have been known only in Easter Island (p. 140). Kava (p. 158) was their national drink; tattooing had reached the condition of an art in New Zealand only. The custom of taboo (p. 252) probably originated in Polynesia, where also two or three social classes are to be met with. After the arrival of Europeans the Polynesians, adopting the customs of the new-comers, underwent rapid changes. For the most part Christians, especially Protestants, they have modified their very rich old mythology by the incorporation of Christian legends. In several islands, in Hawaii, Samoa, and New Zealand, the Polynesians have even risen to the height of having parliamentary institutions, in the management of which they themselves take part. On the other hand, civilisation, in ensuring peace, has had the effect of making the Polynesians unenterprising and lazy, and more inclined to dissipation than they were formerly. And the population is diminishing, owing either to imported epidemic diseases (particularly syphilis and tuberculosis), or to cross-breeding.

FIG. 154.—Tahitian woman of Papeete,
twenty-six years old. Pure Polynesian race.
(Phot. Prince Roland Bonaparte.)