92 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



Fiji islands, appears the Papuan or Melanesian stock, with a distinct!}' 

 postponing syntax, and a vocabuhiry that, in its widely divergent forms, 

 exhibits every gradation of influence by the dominant speech through 

 which it has passed, or in the midst of which it now lies. It is generally 

 conceded that these Melanesians were the original inhabitants of the 

 regions in which they are now found, and that those who dwell upon the 

 outskirts of the area have been displaced from their primitive insular 

 abodes by the Malay and Polynesian peoples. The wide extension of the 

 latter from Madagascar to Easter Island, and from Formosa to the Sand- 

 wich Islands, indicates maritime adventure of no ordinary kind at some 

 remote period in history. It is true that the Melanesian, with the excep- 

 tion of the Fijians and some other islanders, as at present found in a pent- 

 up, subject, and degraded state, shows no evidence of sea-going powei*s, 

 but the fact that he is now found as far west as Flores and as far east as 

 Fiji, is proof sufficient that he also was at one time a master of the ocean. 

 The pure Papuan is, no doubt, a black, — the negro of the Pacitic — 

 while the complexion of the Ilaidah is fairer than that of most of the 

 coast tribes in the neighbourhood. But the Melanesian, as Wallace, 

 Whitraee and other writers have shown, is of ail shades, an evidence, it is 

 thought, of mixed blood, to which also his language testifies. The 

 Alfuros, or Harafuras of Celebes, are such a mixed race, and, according 

 to Durville, qvioted by Latham, they are whiter than the Malay inhabi- 

 tants of tlie island. Similar to them are the Dyaks and Idayans of 

 Borneo, and the Battas of Sumatra. In their use of large canoes and in 

 their proiiciency in carving, as well as in the actual features of their 

 idols and medicine posts, the Fijians claim kindred with the Haidahs, in 

 spite of the difference in colour. The houses of the latter point to an 

 insular origin as well as their maritime habits, but in the matter of dress, 

 equipments, implements and folk-lore, it is hard to institute a compari- 

 son, partly from lack of material, partly because the Ilaidah has largely 

 borrowed from his neighbour, the Tshimsian. Language remains, there- 

 fore, the test of their relationship, and that test I have applied in the 

 case of over two hundred words, nouns and pronouns, adjectives and 

 numerals, verbs, adverbs and postpositions. For the Malay -Polynesian 

 and Melanesian languages 1 have, in addition to dictionaries of the Malay, 

 Tongan, Maori and other dialects, drawn upon the collections of Craw- 

 ford, Belcher, Wallace, Hale, and many other writers, together with 

 vocabularies found in the transactions of the Anthropological and similar 

 societies. To these must be added Dr. John Fi-aser's work, entitled "An 

 Australian Language," which really contains grammar and vocabularies 

 of five dialects of that continent. M}^ materials for com])arative purposes 

 have not been so complete as I would have desired had time permitted 

 further research, but they are sufficient to make it morally certain that 

 the Haidahs are a Melanesian stock with a considerable Malayan admix- 

 ture. 



