NEW GUINEA AND ITS INHABITANTS. 6 3 



with Jewish noses, and woolly hair, using bows and arrows, and living 

 in houses a hundred feet long elevated on posts, in all respects exactly 

 agreeing with the prevalent type in the western portion of the island. 

 But farther east, about Redscar Bay and Port Moresby, and thence to 

 East Cape, the people are lighter in color, less warlike, and more intel- 

 ligent, with more regular European features, neither making bows nor 

 (except rarely) pottery, and practicing true tattooing by punctures all 

 distinctly Polynesian characteristics. "When to this we add that their 

 language contains a large Polynesian element, it is not surprising that 

 these people have been described as a totally distinct race, and have 

 been termed Malays or Malayo-Polynesians. We fortunately possess 

 several independent accounts of these tribes, and are thus able to form 

 a tolerably good idea of their true characters. 



Captain Moresby, speaking of the inhabitants of that large portion 

 of the eastern peninsula of New Guinea discovered and surveyed by 

 him, says: 



This race is distinctly Malayan ; hut differs from the pure Malay, being small- 

 er in stature, coarser in feature, thicker-lipped, with less hair on the face, being 

 in fact almost beardless. The hair on the head is also more frizzled, though 

 this may result from a different dressing. These men have high cheekbones like 

 the pure Malay ; their noses are inclined to be aquiline and sometimes very well 

 formed. Among them are met many men with light hair, and what struck us 

 as a peculiarly Jewish cast of features. They rise to a height of from five feet 

 four inches to five feet eight inches, are sinewy though not muscular, slight, 

 graceful, and cat-like in the pliability of their bodies.* 



This description clearly shows that by " Malay " Captain Moresby 

 means " Polynesian," the characters mentioned being in almost every 

 respect directly the opposite of those of the true Malays, as indicated 

 by the words and phrases here placed in italics. And, even as compared 

 with the typical brown Polynesians, the frizzled hair, aquiline noses, 

 and Jewish cast of features, are all Papuan characteristics. 



Mr. Octavius C. Stone describes the Motu tribe who inhabit the 

 coast districts about Redscar Bay and Port Moresby as somewhat 

 shorter than the Papuans to the westward, and of a color varying from 

 light brown to chocolate. The hair varies from nearly straight to wool- 

 ly, often being frizzled out like that of the typical Papuan. The hair 

 on the face is artificially eradicated, and they are thus made to appear 

 beardless. The nose is aquiline and thick, and in a small percentage of 

 the men the Jewish type of features appears. The adjacent tribes dif- 

 fer somewhat. The Koiari, Ilema, and Maiva are generally darker in 

 color ; while the Kirapuno are lighter. These last live near Hood 

 Point, and are the handsomest people in New Guinea. Their hair is of 

 a rich auburn, often golden in the children, growing in curls or ringlets. 

 It is this tribe that keep their villages in such excellent order, with 



* "Journal of the Royal Geographical Society," vol. xlv., p. 163. 



