Chapter 11

Area.—Van Dieman's Land.Physical appearance.—Negritos, with curly, frizzy, or woolly hair;i.e., with the character of the Papua, but not within the Papua geographical area.

Area.—Van Dieman's Land.

Physical appearance.—Negritos, with curly, frizzy, or woolly hair;i.e., with the character of the Papua, but not within the Papua geographical area.

The native population is nearly extinct; and but few specimens exist of their language.

Fig. 8.

It fell into, at least, four dialects—mutually unintelligible: probably into more.

Writers who are not, otherwise, over-prone to exaggerate differences, have separated the Tasmanians from the Australians; and this arrangement is followed in the present work. The physical difference is chiefly that of the hair. The language, as far as the imperfect vocabularies have allowed me to examine it, has fewer affinities with thesouthern dialects of Australia than even the known amount of dissimilarity between fundamentally allied languages prepares us for.

Furthermore—it was my impression, that such philological affinities as existed were with New Caledonia rather than Australia. If so, the philology and the physical appearance go together; and the Tasmanian population cameroundAustralia rather thanacrossit.

The present position, therefore, of the Tasmanians is provisional.

Necdum finitus Orestes.—There are two other Negrito localities; which,geographicallyspeaking, are scarcely Amphinesian, and not at all Kelænonesian. From the latter area they lie wholly apart. With the Protonesian portion of Amphinesia they are less disconnected; indeed they seem, at first, to form a prolongation of the northern extremity of Sumatra.

I allude to two groups in the portion of the Bay of Bengal, on the Siamese side, almost parallel with the line of the continent, and forming a series of stepping-stones from Cape Negrais, in the Môn country, to the Malay island of Sumatra.

These are—1. The Andaman Islands. 2. The Nicobar Islands.

Native name of the inhabitants.—Mincopie.Nearest point of the Continent.—Cape Negrais.Language.—Apparently not monosyllabic. Not considered to be Protonesian.Native Fauna.—Rats, hogs, dogs.Religion and habits.—Pagan cannibals.—Lieutenant Colebrook's Asiatic Researches, vol. iv.Physical appearance.—Colour extremely dark, perhaps black. Heads woolly, lips thick, noses flat. Stature small, limbs ill-formed and slender, bellies prominent.

Native name of the inhabitants.—Mincopie.

Nearest point of the Continent.—Cape Negrais.

Language.—Apparently not monosyllabic. Not considered to be Protonesian.

Native Fauna.—Rats, hogs, dogs.

Religion and habits.—Pagan cannibals.—Lieutenant Colebrook's Asiatic Researches, vol. iv.

Physical appearance.—Colour extremely dark, perhaps black. Heads woolly, lips thick, noses flat. Stature small, limbs ill-formed and slender, bellies prominent.

Little as the Andamans, from the ferocious character of the inhabitants, are known, they are noticed by the Arabian travellers of the twelfth century, and also by Marco Polo; the early accounts being quite as unfavourable as the late ones. "Angaman is a very large island, not governed by a king. The inhabitants are idolators, and are a most brutish and savage race, having heads, eyes, and teeth resembling those of the canine species. Their dispositions are cruel, and every person, not being of their own nation, whom they can lay hands on, they kill and eat."—Marco Polo, Marsden's Translation.

Locality.—Between the Andamans and Sumatra.

Nicobar.—Inhabitants copper-coloured, with oblique eyes, yellowish sclerotica, small flat noses, large mouth, thick lips, and black teeth; undersized. Hair strong and black; beard scanty. Ears large and perforated. Occipito-frontal profile brakhykephalic, the hinder part of the head being flat and compressed.

The Nicobars are the people who, from the yearA.D.1647, until a recent period, had the credit of having tails, like those of cats, which they moved in a similar manner. This arose from a mistake of Keoping, a Swede, who mistook for a caudal appendance a stripe of cloth hanging down behind. That there is no real prolongation of theos coccygisis expressly stated by Fontana. The peoplenowsupposed to present this anatomical peculiarity are a tribe from the interior of Africa.

The evidence of Keoping as to the cannibalism of the Nicobarians is more conclusive than his assertion as to their tails. Having "sent a boat on shore with five men, who did not return at night, as expected, the day following alarger boat was sent, well manned, in quest of their companions, who, it was supposed, had been devoured by the savages, their bones having been found strewed on the shore, the boat taken to pieces, and the iron of it carried away."

Their huts are raised from the ground, and entered by a ladder; inhabited by more families than one, and ornamented with boar-skulls. Marriages are easily formed, and easily dissolved.[79]The dead are buried; and for every person that dies a cocoa-nut tree is cut down; and his name is never afterwards mentioned.

The changes of the moon are productive of their great festivities; and it is by these only that they reckon; seven to each monsoon. At the beginning of the north-east monsoon a brisk trade, carried on by means of large canoes, begins with the other islands. The extent of this, and the amount to which it has introduced European articles of commerce is considerable; indeed, in the Carnicobar Island the Portuguese has partially become alingua franca.

The habit of artificially flattening the back of the head is of more importance. It is a custom "to compress with their hands the occiput of the new-born child, in order to render it flat. By this method the hair remains close to the head; as nature intended it, and the upper fore-teeth very prominent out of the mouth." This is, apparently, so exclusively an American custom that its presence here is remarkable; and it is equally remarkable that the only other approach to it, is to be found in these parts. It is mentioned as being a practice of certain Arakan tribes.

The most characteristic disease is theCochin-leg, a formof elephantiasis; arising, perhaps, from the extent to which their aliment is either fish or pork, to the exclusion of other sorts of animal food. Instances, too, of longevity, are said to be rare.

Malabar and Bengal settlers to a considerable extent make the Nicobarians amixed, rather than a pure population.

Carnicobar.—Inhabitants well made, but undersized, with Malay features.

Chowry.[80]—South of Carnicobar. Trade between the Chowrians and Carnicobarians; the former selling canoes, the latter cloth.

Nancowry is described by Marco Polo, as being under the government of no king, the people being "little removed from the condition of brutes, all of them both males and females going naked, without a covering to any part of the body. They are idolators."[81]

One of the most remarkable of their customs is the way in which they celebrate the anniversary of the burial of any near relation, when "their houses are decorated with garlands of flowers, fruits, and branches of trees. The people of each village assemble, dressed in their best attire, at the principal house in the place, where they spend the day in a convivial manner; the men, sitting apart from the women, smoke tobacco and intoxicate themselves, while the latter are nursing their children, and employed in preparations for the mournful business of the night. At a certain hour of the afternoon, announced by striking the coung, the women set up the most dismal howls and lamentations, which they continue without intermission till about sunset; when the whole party gets up, and walks in procession to the burying-ground. Arrived at the place, theyform a circle around one of the graves, when the stake, planted exactly over the head of the corpse, is pulled up. The woman who is nearest of kin to the deceased, steps out from the crowd, digs up the skull, and draws it up with her hands. At sight of the bones, her strength seems to fail her; she shrieks, she sobs, and tears of anguish abundantly fall to the mouldering object of her pious care. She clears it from the earth, scrapes off the festering flesh, and laves it plentifully with the milk of fresh coco-nuts, supplied by the bystanders; after which she rubs it over with an infusion of saffron, and wraps it carefully in a piece of new cloth. It is then deposited again in the earth, and covered up; the stake is replanted, and hung with the various trappings and implements belonging to the deceased. They proceed then to the other graves, and the whole night is spent in repetitions of these dismal and disgustful rites."[82]

By referring to p.209, the reader will find that three questions connected with the distribution of the Polynesians—and, through them, with that of the Oceanic tribes, altogether stand over for consideration; these being—

A. The general question, as to their origin and distribution in respect to their connection with the Continent, and with each other.B. The date of the migrations.C. The inferences to be drawn from the existence of a darker-coloured population in areas more especially belonging to the brown and olive-coloured tribes.

A. Connection with the Continent of (1) The Kelænonesians, (2) The Polynesians.

1.A.Of the Papua Kelænonesians.-The Papuans of New Guinea are, more probably, a continuation of the population of the Eastern Moluccas than aught else. This is what their geographical position indicates; and (such being the case) it is theprimâ faciedoctrine. At the same time, they are a continuation of the black or black-like portion of the Moluccan area, rather than of the Mahometan Malays. The chief difference lies in the texture of the hair, a difference which has, most likely, been over-rated.

B.Of the Australian Kelænonesians.—Thea prioriview as to the source of the Australian population is complicated, as may be understood by looking at the distance between Cape York and New Guinea on one side, and that between Cape Van Dieman and Timor on the other. The difference in breadth between the interspaces of ocean in these two parts is nearly the same: that, however, of Torres Straits is the smaller;—besides which, there is a numerous series of islands which would serve as stepping-stones to emigrants from New Guinea; assuming that to be the line. Now as it is a general rule to derive the population of islands forming part of a series from the nearest inhabited point between the area under consideration and the Continent,unless reasons can be shown to the contrary, the apparentprimâ facieview is in favour of the south of New Guinea having peopled the north of Australia. Nevertheless, it not only is highly probable that such is not the case, but it is by no means certain that,all conditions considered, it is a correct view evena priori. In many instances those reasons for believing that one particular island has supplied a population to another, which are based on the principle of simple contiguity, are modified by the relations of the supposedimmediatesource of population to the supposedremoteone; in which case, although the land and sea conditions between the twolast links of the chain may be of the most favourable kind, those between the last link but one and the first, may be the contrary. Thus, in the case before us, the fact of Torres Straits being the narrowest portion of Ocean between Australia and the inhabited land, on the side of the continent next to it,taken by itself, constitutes a reason for deriving the Australians from the Papuans. It is complicated, however, by the circumstance of the line between New Guinea and the Continent being by no means of the most direct and straightforward sort. Hence, if there were any other point of inhabited land which should at one and the same time be not much farther from some part of Australia than New Guinea is from Cape York, and much nearer theremotesource (assumed to be on the Continent) of the Australian population, such a locality would divide with New Guinea the claims for having been theimmediateorigin of the occupants of the great island in question; inasmuch as the slight difference between the favourable conditions of one kind, would counterbalance the preponderating conditions of another.

Now such a locality is really found in the case before us in the relations already noticed between the north-east point of Timor and Cape Van Diemen; so that,upon the whole, thea prioriviews are as much in favour of the Timor range of islands, being the connecting link between Australia and the Continent, as they are in favour of New Guinea being so.

The distinction just indicated is of more importance, as illustrative of a general principle, than as a fact affecting the particular point in question. The special facts of the case are, in the mind of the present writer, in favour of Timor andnot New Guinea, having been the quarterfrom whence Australia was peopled, the particular part of the Timorian stock being, of course, the darker, wilder, and, apparently, more ancient tribes of the west and of the interior.

2.Of the Polynesians.—In investigating the relations between Polynesia and the Continent, with an exclusive view to the land-and-sea conditions between the different portions of the connecting series of islands, we should at once derive the population of the Eastern Archipelagoes from the islands which lay nearest to them on the west, and so proceed until we came to the Samoan Archipelago, to the Tonga group, or to the Fijis. These we should connect with the New Hebrides, or Solomon's Isles, and these last with New Guinea, the Moluccas, and the Continent. We should then assume a spread of the population, as far to the North and East as it had been found to occur westwards; and so derive the Micronesians from the northern Polynesians. We should not be afraid of even deriving the people of the Pelew Islands from the same quarter; the similarity of language and habits having already been recognised, and the distance between the Pelews and the nearest portion of Protonesia being greater than (or at least as great as) any interspace of ocean between Polynesia and the Continent. I say that this is what we should do if we looked exclusively to the discovery of that line of connexion where the land-and-sea conditions should be the most favourable; in other words, where the interspaces of sea should be the smallest. Nevertheless, in so doing we should, probably, commit an error in our inference, and certainly violate a principle in our method; a principle which has been suggested in a previous[83]part of the present Volume, andwhich is founded upon the circumstance of the population of the line of the Papuan Islands, beingnot Amphinesian but Negrito: so that the ethnological continuity, and the geographical continuity, disagree; a fact which throws us upon a line of greater geographical, but of less ethnological complexity; and in favour of which the probabilities arise out of a composition of the conflicting difficulties. This is the line from either the Philippines, or the northern Moluccas to the Pelews (viaLord North's Isle, Sonsoral, or Johannes I.), the cluster of Goulou, the cluster of Yap, the Egoy Isles, the Lamoursek and Satawal groups; the Proper Caroline group, the Chains of Ralik, and Radak, the Tarawan group, the Navigators' Isles or Samoan Archipelago.

Now the Samoan Archipelago is very nearly the point from which we should have derived theproperPolynesian population, had we taken the course of the Papuan islands; so that it constitutes a point wherein the two lines meet. Hence, if upon historical, philological, or any other points of external evidence, we gave a preference to the Samoan Archipelago, over the Tonga group, as the source of the population for other parts of Polynesia Proper, we should reduce thegeneralquestion as to the original of South Pacific islanders to that of the origin of the Samoans. This, however, is a matter of detail, of less importance than the recognition of the necessity of making the geographical continuity of the chain which connects the Polynesians with the Continent, agree with the ethnological. This can only be done by deriving the Polynesian population from Micronesia. In this case the stream of migration goesroundthe Kelænonesian area, and notacrossit.

The rule of taking, as lines of insular migration, thoseseries where themaximuminterspaces of ocean are the smallest, has already been twice insisted on, and in both cases it has been qualified by the indication of particular reasons, which might, in certain cases, lead us to depart from it. These reasons have not been exhibited in detail. Two sorts, however, of them have occurred, as it were spontaneously,i.e., in the natural course of our investigations. These showed themselves, first in the preference given to Timor over New Guinea, as the origin of the Australian population; and next, in the case of Polynesia, just discussed. Athirdsort will now present itself,i.e.,the effect of winds and currents; since it is clear that it is easier to pass over a large interspace of sea with wind and current (one or both) in your favour, than over a small one with either one or both against you.

The prevailing winds in the Pacific are against a line of insular migration, being from west to east, at all; since for three fourths of the year they blow from America towards Amphinesia rather than from Amphinesia to America.

Valeat quantum.All that can possibly be got would be a chance of three to one in favour of an American origin for the Polynesians,provided that all other conditions were equal. But this is not the case; thea prioriprobabilities are neutralized by a vast difference in the maximum interspaces of ocean, and by the non-American character of both Micronesia and Polynesia.

It is most likely, then, that Polynesia Proper was peopled from Micronesia, and Micronesia from either the Philippines or the Moluccas.

C. The date of the migrations. This is either relative or absolute:relativewhen we ascertain whether one division of the Oceanic populations migrated before orafter another;absolutewhen we fix the chronological date of a migration. As a general rule the latter is unattainable—Iceland and a few other areas, peopled within the historical period, forming the exceptions.

Respecting, then, the absolute date of the Polynesian migration, there is no reason why it should not be knownin particular islands; for instance, in the Dangerous Archipelago, where only a small proportion of the clusters is peopled even at present, any given island may receive a population so late as this, the eleventh hour of the extension of the human species; yet it is evident that the knowledge of such a migration would throw but little light upon the broader question of the date of the Polynesian populationen masse. Of this it may safely be said, that no important group has received its first occupants within the Polynesianhistoricalperiod. This, however, is but a short one.

Will the longer range of thetraditionaryperiod supply any such information? I think not. Nevertheless it must be added, that in Nukahiva pedigrees run up to the eighty-fifth generation, the founders of them being connected with the first occupancy of the island. Even, however, if we admit so long a genealogy as an historical fact, it only gives the date for one particular island.

Properethnologicalreasoning is, from its very nature, inapplicable to the investigation of a definite epoch in chronology; since it only begins where the evidence of testimony ends. Furthermore, it is only approximate, since it simply calculates, by means of an imperfect induction, theminimumperiod required to account for differences; and themaximumperiod that will account for resemblances;e.g.for the Polynesians to differ as they do from the Micronesian, a certain time must haveelapsed; and for them to differ no more than they do, that time must have a limit.

Applied to therelativedate of the Oceanic migrations, ethnological reasoning gives for even the most recent of them, a geological rather than an historical epoch; and this is as much as it is safe to say. Its other probable conclusions are more definite.

1. Occupancy had begun in Australia before migration across Torres Strait had commenced in New Guinea.

2. Occupancy had begun in New Guinea before Polynesian migration had commenced in Protonesia. The first of these facts we infer from the physical differences between the Australian and the Papuan, taken with the fact that it is scarcely likely that the Papuans of Torres Straits would have failed in extending themselves to Australia had that island been unoccupied.

The second is an inference from the diversion of the Protonesian population from New Guinea to the Micronesian line, since the best reason that can be assigned for the Protonesians not having taken possession of the Papuan isles, is to be found in the assumption that they were previously inhabited.

This brings us to the third question, as to the import of the darker coloured populations in areas more especially belonging to the brown and olive-coloured tribes.—I do not see how we can consider these as aught else but the lighter-coloured populations in a ruder stage of society; since unless we take this view we must look upon them as the representatives of a separate section of the human kind; a supposition against which there are the two following objections.

a.That the difficulties respecting the population of the Polynesian area are just doubled by such an assumption;since instead of having to account for the undoubted Polynesians alone (a matter quite difficult enough of itself) we should then have to account for an earlier migration of Negritos as well.

b.That if such a previous migration had taken place, we should expect to find—considering the vast number of Polynesian islands—at least oneisland where the blacker race remained unmixed, and (as such) speaking the original non-polynesian language, which is implied in the assumed independence of origin; since it is exceedingly unlikely that a second migration should have so nearly coincided with a former one as to people and leave unpeopled exactly the same areas. Now out of all the isles of the South Sea none presents the phenomenon of a pure black population, as determined by the double test of colour and of language.

On the other hand, it may be urged—a.That, although it may be a matter of doubt with competent judges whether improved physical and social conditions have so great an influence upon the colour of the skin and the texture of the hair as is imagined by some extreme thinkers on the point, it is generally admitted that they havesomeinfluence.

b.That in some groups (and sometimes in particular islands) the identity of the darker and lighter-coloured population is beyond a doubt; coinciding, as it does, with such differences.

c.That transitional forms occur where it is wholly gratuitous to assume the influence of intermixture.

With this opinion our view of the relations between the continuous Kelænonesian areas and the areas of the mixed population would be as follows:—

a.That at a period anterior to the development of theproper Malay and Polynesian characters of the typical Protonesians, New Guinea and Australia were peopled from the Moluccas and Timor respectively; the immigrants having a type which might lose or gain Kelænonesian characters according to circumstances.

b.That the conditions of Protonesia and Polynesia favoured the change from dark to fair; those of New Guinea and Australia from fair to dark.

I will now add a remark of Mr. Blaxland from Mr. Jukes's Voyage of theFly, which will further illustrate this position:—"The geographical boundary of the Papuan islander is precisely coincident with that of the north-west monsoon. This wind, from the months of November to March inclusive, is the prevalent one over all the space extending from the equator to 10° or 15° south latitude, and in longitude from Sumatra to the Fejee Islands. It is sometimes experienced to the west of Sumatra as far as the north of Madagascar, and it sometimes also extends to the east of the Fejee Islands into the Pacific Ocean; but these extensions are irregular, and its usual eastern boundary is precisely that of the Papuan race before described. Mr. Blaxland deduces from this fact, coupled with the little skill of that race in navigation, the inference, that they have travelled from the west into the Pacific Ocean, and extended their migration only as far as the monsoon allowed them."[84]

This gives us the following theory:—

1. That Kelænonesia was peopled when navigation was so much in its infancy as for the Protonesians to be limited in their migrations by the north-west monsoon.

2. That Polynesia was peopled when it was sufficiently advanced for the same people to be independent of it.

3. That thedifferentiæbetween the lighter and darker Protonesians is referable to the influences of Asiatic civilization.

The observations of Mr. Blaxland, taken along with the colour of the people, lead to the inference that the Fijis were peopled from Kelænonesia. The language, however, is against this. The conflict of difficulties is best reconciled by considering them a mixed race; of which the older element belongs to the line of population which supplied Kelænonesia with its inhabitants, the newer to the Polynesian system.

If this view be unsatisfactory we must consider them as members of the darker Polynesian population, with its differential characteristics at theirmaximum—a view probable enough of itself, but rendered suspicious by the fact of its occurring so precisely in the neighbourhood of Kelænonesia.

That they form a true transition between the Kelænonesians and Polynesians,as a continuationof a line of population from the New Hebrides to Polynesia, is of all views the most improbable.

In the opinion of the present writer, the Fiji Islands are the localities where the stream of population which wentroundNew Guinea met, and amalgamated with the extremity of the line that cameacrossthat country; the antagonism between the evidence of the language, the evidence of the physical conformation being the effect of the intermixture.

Respecting the ethnological relations of the Andaman and Nicobarian islanders, I am not prepared with an opinion.

The following facts connected with the Polynesian languages, are laid before the reader, less for the sake of enlarging the list of Polynesian peculiarities than as a preparation for certain philological phænomena, which will occur in the ethnology of America, and with the view of showing a process by which language, over and above the changes which are brought about bynaturalchanges, may be modifiedartificially—a point upon which we have fewdata, but plenty of extreme opinions.

Ceremonial language of parts of Polynesia.—The Samoans, ceremonious to each other, are preeminently so towards their chiefs; one of their methods of showing respect being to eschew certain words in common use, when addressing a superior, and to substitute for them others, which are considered more refined. Hence, a careful speaker will never address a higher personage in the terms appropriate to an inferior one. To a common man, on entering a house, the salutation isua mai=you have come.

To a householder,ua alala mai.

To a low chief,ua malui mai.

To a high chief,ua susu mai.

To the sovereign,ua afio mai.

In Tonga there are traces of a second order of ceremonial synonyms;i.e.over and above those ordinarily in use, there is a series for the particulardivinechief Tiutonga.[85]

In Tahitian, an excessively figurative manner of speech is said to supersede the proper system of ceremonial synonyms, thehousesof the chief being theclouds of heaven; hiscanoe, therainbow; hisvoice, thethunder, and so on.

The names too of the chiefs are almost always significant, and almost always compound, and, in some cases, they run to a very considerable length, asTai-ma-le-langi=sea and sky;Tau-i-te-ao-bu=suspended in the blue heavens;Ta-lana-tupu-a-pai-ta-lani-nui=the sky increasing and striking the great heaven. Now the owners of any such names as these are supposed to be complimented by the Tahitians ceasing to employ, in the language of their daily intercourse, one, or more, of the words which formed parts of them; so that, in the case ofTai-ma-le-langi, the syllablestai,mai,le, orlangi, are lost to the common language, until the death of the chief, so designated. After his decease, however, they return to the language. In this way, between the voyages of Cook and Vancouver, no less than forty or fifty words had been superseded by new ones: indeed, of the first ten numerals, four are now different from what they were in Cook's time.

Note 1.—Since the notice of the Fiji Islands was written a youth of that group—i.e.from the island of Lafu—has been brought over to England by Mr. James Boyd, been presented at the Ethnological Society, and is now in London. The most remarkable point is a reddish tinge, clearly perceptible under a cross light, in his otherwiseblack and frizzy hair. If I am right in referring this shade to the use of alkaline washes used in youth for the purposes of whitening the hair, it shows the unsafeness of talking aboutnaturallyred hair for any of Oceanic islands; since, in the case in question, it was upwards of five years since any alkaline wash had been applied.

Note 2.—Inp.184. I have overstated the extent to which the notion that Polynesia Proper was peopled from Kelænonesia rather than from Micronesia wasgeneral. Although not found (as far as I know) in any of the systematic works on the subject of human migration, it is by no means singular. It is the opinion of Mr. Norriss, and—subject to an alternative—the recorded opinion of Mr. Jukes, who writes,—

"The Papuan race exclusively possesses the islands on the north-east of Australia, namely, New Guinea with New Britain and New Ireland, the Solomon Islands, the islands called Tierra Austral del Espiritu Santo, and the New Hebrides, and New Caledonia. It extends also to the Feejee Islands, where it is more or less mingled with the Polynesian race, and where the language appears to be of Polynesian origin. It is probable that from New Caledonia proceeded the colony, or whatever it was, that reached Tasmania, and there mingled with the Australian race. To the westward of New Guinea scattered tribes, apparently of Papuan race, are said to occur in the interior of many islands as far west as that called Endé Flores or Mangeray, and as far north as the Philippine Islands. It has even been said that the Andaman Islands, in the Bay of Bengal, are inhabited by a people much resembling the Papuans, and I have been struck with the similarity of many of their customs to those which aresaid to characterize some of the wild hill tribes in the centre of India. I believe, however, that many of the stories of tribes of people being found in the various parts of the Archipelago, must be received with much caution, and that most of the wild people so described will be found, like the Dyaks of Borneo, or the wild tribes of the Malacca Peninsula, to be really of Polynesian race. A mingling of the Papuan race with the Australian, probably takes place at the present day in the neighbourhood of Torres Strait, but not, perhaps, to so great an extent as might be expected, for I am inclined to think that the Australians give way and retreat before the islanders. * * * * Whatever may have been the origin of the Polynesians, it is certainly most probable that their reason for going round these Papuan islands (whether from the east or west), and not taking possession of them, was the fact of their being previously inhabited by the Papuans."[86]

FOOTNOTES:[49]Terms applied to geographical distribution rather than to physical conformation;MalayandNegritobeing terms expressive of physical conformation rather than of geographical distribution.[50]History of Sumatra, p. 383.[51]History of Sumatra, p. 41.[52]Marsden's, History of Sumatra.[53]History of Sumatra, p. 53.[54]Prichard, vol. v.[55]A division of the Kelænonesians.[56]Theg-pronounced as inget.[57]Rajah Brooke's Journal, vol. i. p. 83.[58]Brooke, vol. ii. p. 65.[59]Description des Isles Philippines.[60]From Prichard, vol. v. p. 220.[61]Page302, &c.[62]United States' Exploring Expedition.[63]According to the map and nomenclature of Dumont Durville.[64]In Tahitian, Taaroa.[65]Beechey.[66]Amphi-nesian, fromamfi=around, andnæsos=island;Protonesian, fromprotos=first;Kelino-nesian, fromkelainos=black. This last term is Prichard's. I am aware that all these forms are, etymologically, incorrect. The first part is Greek, the termination,-an, Latin; so that they are impossible words in the language from which they are supposed to be taken. Still the formsPolynesianandPeloponnesian, establish a convenient, though exceptionable, precedent.[67]"This house resembled the smaller houses we afterwards saw in New Guinea, and it may have been erected merely in imitation of those the islanders have seen in that country. We afterwards saw, on Masseed, a solitary house like those of Darnley and Murray Islands."[68]See page168.[69]Prichard. Vol. v., p. 232.[70]Denoting that by some writers the Vanikoro tribes have been placed in another class. Their language has been considered as Polynesian rather than Papua.[71]See p.204.[72]February 10, 1843.[73]Vol. vi. p. 110.[74]As thechinchest.[75]A work of Purkinje on the distribution of the sounds in different languages, I know only from the reference to it in Müller's Physiology. The beautiful application of this by Professor Graves, of Dublin, will be noticed when speaking of the ethnology of Ireland.[76]Captain Gray; from Prichard. Vol. v.[77]Qu?—Delawares.[78]United States' Exploring Expedition, vol. vi.[79]Parum fecundæ mulieres; apud quas quinta Lucina rarissimum. Viri inculpantur; quorum Venus plerumque præcox et effræna, ebrietas perpetua.[80]Zoffany; Asiatic Researches, vol. ii.[81]Marsden's Translation, p. 619.[82]Asiatic Researches, vol. iv. p. 131.[83]Page185.[84]Vol. ii. p. 251.[85]See p.193.[86]Voyage of theFly, p. 251.

[49]Terms applied to geographical distribution rather than to physical conformation;MalayandNegritobeing terms expressive of physical conformation rather than of geographical distribution.

[50]History of Sumatra, p. 383.

[51]History of Sumatra, p. 41.

[52]Marsden's, History of Sumatra.

[53]History of Sumatra, p. 53.

[54]Prichard, vol. v.

[55]A division of the Kelænonesians.

[56]Theg-pronounced as inget.

[57]Rajah Brooke's Journal, vol. i. p. 83.

[58]Brooke, vol. ii. p. 65.

[59]Description des Isles Philippines.

[60]From Prichard, vol. v. p. 220.

[61]Page302, &c.

[62]United States' Exploring Expedition.

[63]According to the map and nomenclature of Dumont Durville.

[64]In Tahitian, Taaroa.

[65]Beechey.

[66]Amphi-nesian, fromamfi=around, andnæsos=island;Protonesian, fromprotos=first;Kelino-nesian, fromkelainos=black. This last term is Prichard's. I am aware that all these forms are, etymologically, incorrect. The first part is Greek, the termination,-an, Latin; so that they are impossible words in the language from which they are supposed to be taken. Still the formsPolynesianandPeloponnesian, establish a convenient, though exceptionable, precedent.

[67]"This house resembled the smaller houses we afterwards saw in New Guinea, and it may have been erected merely in imitation of those the islanders have seen in that country. We afterwards saw, on Masseed, a solitary house like those of Darnley and Murray Islands."

[68]See page168.

[69]Prichard. Vol. v., p. 232.

[70]Denoting that by some writers the Vanikoro tribes have been placed in another class. Their language has been considered as Polynesian rather than Papua.

[71]See p.204.

[72]February 10, 1843.

[73]Vol. vi. p. 110.

[74]As thechinchest.

[75]A work of Purkinje on the distribution of the sounds in different languages, I know only from the reference to it in Müller's Physiology. The beautiful application of this by Professor Graves, of Dublin, will be noticed when speaking of the ethnology of Ireland.

[76]Captain Gray; from Prichard. Vol. v.

[77]Qu?—Delawares.

[78]United States' Exploring Expedition, vol. vi.

[79]Parum fecundæ mulieres; apud quas quinta Lucina rarissimum. Viri inculpantur; quorum Venus plerumque præcox et effræna, ebrietas perpetua.

[80]Zoffany; Asiatic Researches, vol. ii.

[81]Marsden's Translation, p. 619.

[82]Asiatic Researches, vol. iv. p. 131.

[83]Page185.

[84]Vol. ii. p. 251.

[85]See p.193.

[86]Voyage of theFly, p. 251.

We are now in Siberia rather than in Central Asia; along the courses of large rivers rather than at their head-waters; and in a region oftundras, or flat barren morasses, rather than on elevated steppes. We are also in the country of the rein-deer and dog rather than the horse and sheep. Fishing and fur-hunting, too, will form a portion of the occupations of the Hyperborean Mongolidæ. These conditions, different as they are in many respects from the general conditions of the Turk and Mongolian Turanians, have still been met with before,i.e.with the Northern Ugrians, the Northern Tungusians, and the Yakuts. One of the nations about to be enumerated, occupies the most northern portion of the inhabited world,i.e.the Samöeids of the Northern promontory of Asia.

Back to Index Next