92 SCIENCE PROGRESS. 



light skin colour and belong to what the ignorant would ex- 

 plain as a Malay mixture. But wrongly, for they are true 

 Papuans, amongst whom the individual occurrence of curly, 

 even of smooth hair is of no consequence." The craniology 

 of the natives of the south-eastern peninsula and neighbour- 

 ing islands has been studied by Comrie, Flower, Mikloucho, 

 Maclay (Proc. Linn. Soc, N.S.W., vi., 1882, p. 171), 

 Ouatrefages, Hamy and Sergi, most of whom admit 

 with Flower "a considerable mixture of races among 

 the inhabitants of this region of the world ". As at present 

 anthropography cannot speak with precision concerning the 

 racial elements in this immigrant people we must turn to 

 other branches of anthropology, and we will see what light 

 ethnography and linguistics can throw on this ethnological 

 problem. 



A comparison of Papuan and Melanesian customs and 

 handicrafts will prove that there is little of real importance 

 in common, say, between the Motu or the South Cape 

 natives and the Samoans. I need only allude to the almost 

 total absence of a system of cosmogony or of a pantheon 

 with a definite mythology; associated with this lack of a theo- 

 logy is the absence of an organised priestcraft. The demo- 

 cratic Papuans and Melanesians have no hereditary chief- 

 tainship, and the power of tabu is much more limited than 

 in Polynesia. Strangely enough these so-called " Poly- 

 nesians " in south-east New Guinea make pottery and do not 

 drink kava. 



For the linguistic evidence I have consulted my friend 

 and colleague Mr. S. H. Ray, who is our great authority 

 on the languages of Western Oceania, and the following 

 account embodies certain conclusions, which he has kindly 

 allowed me to quote from his unpublished MSS. : " It must be 

 accepted as an axiom in philology and ethnology that the 

 direction from which an observer approaches unknown 

 languages or peoples will materially influence his description 

 of them. The languages and customs of a newly dis- 

 covered people will naturally be compared with one better 

 known, and if there be any considerable amount of apparent 

 agreement the conclusion will probably be hastily arrived 



