VARIETIES OF MANKIND. 



13CI 



Fig. 849. 



Artificially- compressed Cranium from Titicaca. (From a specimen in the Museum of the Royal College of 



Surgeons.) 



continued among the Peruvians for some 

 time after their conquest by the Spaniards ; 

 for the Ecclesiastical Court of Lima passed a 

 decree in the year 1585, forbidding parents, 

 under certain specified penalties, to compress 

 or distort the heads of their children in the 

 various modes which were then in vogue. 

 The practice still exists among certain tribes 

 of South American Indians; and seems to be 

 regarded in much the same light with the 

 artificial compression of the foot by the 

 Chinese, or of the waist by the French and 

 English, namely, as an artificial develop- 

 ment of a natural beauty. 



V. OCEANIC NATIOJSS. The vast Oceanic 

 area, extending in longitude from Madagascar 

 on the one side, to Easter Island (half way be- 

 tween Asia and America) on the other; and in 

 latitude from Formosa to New Zealand, includ- 

 ing the numerous islands of the Indian and 

 Polynesian archipelagoes, and the great island- 

 continent of Australia, is peopled by tribes the 

 greater part of which are undoubtedly related 

 to each other very intimately, and have no near 

 affinities with those of any other region. The 

 only part of the mainland of Asia which is in- 

 habited by an Oceanic tribe, is the Peninsula 

 of Malacca ; and there is far more reason to 

 think that this tribe has migrated to that 

 locality from the neighbouring part of Oceania, 

 than that it represents the original stock and 

 line of migration of the Oceanic races. In the 

 physical characters of the Oceanic tribes, two 

 typical varieties present themselves ; and these 

 may be designated as the Malayo- Polynesian, 

 and the Negrito. 



The Malayo- Polynesians present a nearer 

 approach to the Mongolian type than to any 

 other ; but they must be compared rather with 

 the modified Mongols of the south-east por- 

 tion of the Asiatic continent, than with the 

 proper Turanian stock. Their complexion is 

 yellow, olive, brunette, or brown, rarely or 

 never darkening into black ; their hair, often 

 long, is usually black and straight ; the face is 

 usually somewhat flat, the check-bones high, 

 and the antero-posterior diameter of the skull 

 short ; but there is often a tendency to the 



voi,. iv. 



prognathous character, such as is shown among 

 the inferior Hindoos. This division of the 

 Oceanic races occupies the greater part of the 

 Indian Archipelago, and the whole of the 

 Polynesian ; but it does not exist in New 

 Guinea, Australia, Tasmania, New Ireland, or 

 the islands between it and New Caledonia, 

 which are peopled exclusively by Negritos. 

 That the tribes thus widely dispersed are all 

 descendants of one and the same stock, and 

 belong to the same race, seems distinctly 

 proved by the affinities of their languages ; 

 which, although presenting considerable modi- 

 fications (as might be naturally expected from 

 a prolonged isolation, and from the entire ab- 

 sence of a literature), yet accord, as has been 

 proved by William Humboldt, in many of their 

 primary words, and in their general plan of 

 construction. This mutual relationship is the 

 closest among the Malayan dialects of the 

 Indian Archipelago on the one hand, and 

 among the tongues spoken by the various Poly- 

 nesian islanders on the other ; but these two 

 groups are also undoubtedly related to one 

 another, in such a manner as to constitute but 

 one family of languages. The proper Malays 

 are, for the most part, a people of short and 

 slender stature, and small limbs, but well- 

 formed and vigorous; they have flat faces, 

 somewhat oblique eyes, and features resem- 

 bling the Chinese ; "the hue of their com- 

 plexion, however, is considerably deeper, but 

 is not so dark as that of the Hindoos, yellow 

 being still a large ingredient. These cha- 

 racters, however, are far from being uniformly 

 exhibited by the whole Malayan branch ; and 

 in particular it is to be remarked that a ten- 

 dency to the prognathous type occasionally 

 shows itself, as in the skull of a Bugis of 

 Celebes, described by Blumenbach. Between 

 the Malayan ad the proper Polynesian area 

 is a small group, including the Pelew, Caroline, 

 and Marianne islands, the inhabitants of which 

 are even more conformable to the Mongo'ian 

 type than are either the true Malays or the 

 p'rope. Polynesians ; these are termed by Dr. 

 Prichard, Micronesians. A consideration of 



which 

 4s 



the probable lines of that migration 



