RACIAL GROUPS HOUGH. 653 



They are tall, very well formed, and have straight, black hair and 

 good features. They are among the most perfect specimens of man- 

 kind. The Maori are at present upon the verge of extinction. 



Their clothing consisted of robes of New Zealand flax {Phormium 

 tenax) thrown over the shoulders or folded around the hips. The 

 face was tattooed in scrolls, deeply incised. The weapons were clubs 

 and spears, the shield not being used. (See pi. 79.) 



TRIBES OF PAPUA, AUSTRALIA, AND OTHER PRIMITIVE TYPES. 



In southeastern Asia, in Malaysia, the Andaman and Nicobar 

 Islands, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Australia, there exist blacks, in 

 some localities miserable groups on the point of extinction and in 

 others, numerous, dominant, and aggressive. These blacks in the 

 main possess negroid characteristics, but whether they have a common 

 origin or are dissimilar remnants of diverse origin is a moot ques- 

 tion. Among them are found the lowest specimens of mankind, lack- 

 ing in arts and near to nature ; others are fine examples of physical 

 development and advanced in the arts, the difference probably due to 

 several causes such as environment, repressive contacts with other 

 races, degradation, and continuance in a primitive state. Many theo- 

 ries have been advanced as to their origin, but no answers to this 

 interesting problem are satisfactory. 



PAPUAN MAN. 



The Papuans form a separate group of the Indo-Oceanic negroes 

 and number about 2,000,000. They inhabit New Guinea, the Fiji, and 

 other islands in the area called Papua. They are (in the most pro- 

 nounced type) black, tall, and well formed, having bushy hair, thick 

 lips, and a salient nose, thick at the base. The Papuans have made 

 considerable advancement in the arts, but their present state of de- 

 velopment appears to be retrograde. 



Clothing among the Papuans is purely for personal adornment. 

 This figure displays a featherhead plume, earrings, and nose pin, a 

 necklace of shell disks with a boar's tusk pendant, armlets of shell, 

 wristlets worked from a large shell, and a broad waist belt of bark, 

 carved on the exterior. The long palm-wood bow has a hempen 

 string. (See pi. 80.) 



AUSTRALIAN MAN. 



Clarence River, Australia. 



The Australians, according to Huxley, form a separate race and 

 by all ethnologists are classed among the lowest races of mankind, 

 both physically and from the limited progress they have made in the 

 arts. They are black, tall, sparely built, with bushy, but not woolly, 



