226 METHODS AND RESULTS OF ETHNOLOGY. 



The cranial characters of the Negritos vary con- 

 siderably more than those of their skin and hair, 

 the most notable circumstance being the strong 

 Australian aspect which distinguishes many Ne- 

 grito skulls, while others tend rather towards forms 

 common in the Polynesian islands. 



In civilization, New Caledonia exhibits an ad- 

 vance upon Tasmania, and, farther north, there is 

 a still greater improvement. But the bows and 

 arrows, the perched houses, the outrigger canoes, 

 the habits of betel-chewing and of kawa-drinking, 

 which abound more or less among the northern 

 Negritos, are probably to be regarded not as- the 

 products of an indigenous civilization, but merely 

 as indications of the extent to which foreign 

 influences have modified the primitive social state 

 of these people. 



From Tasmania or New Caledonia, to New 

 Zealand or Tongataboo, is again but a brief 

 voyage: but it brings about a still more notable 

 change in the aspect of the indigenous population 

 than that effected by the passage of Bass's Straits. 

 Instead of being chocolate-coloured people, the 

 Maories and Tongans are light brown; instead of 

 woolly, they have straight, or wavy, black hair. 

 And if from New Zealand, we travel some 5,000 

 miles east to Easter Island; and from Easter Island, 

 for as great a distance north-west, to the Sandwich 

 Islands; and thence 7,000 miles, westward and 

 southward, to Sumatra; and even across the 



