PBOCEEDINGS OF SECTION F. 617 



3. The Polynesians are ruled by hereditary chiefs, who exercise 

 despotic power over the lives and property of their subjects. 



The Papuan form of government is patriarchal. Fijians an ex- 

 ception. 



4. Polynesians are polite, respectful, generous, hospitable. They 

 despise meanness and treachery. 



The Papuans on the other hand are mean, treacherous, and 

 avaricious. 



5. The Polynesians had a hereditary priesthood who preserved tlie 

 traditions of the tribe and the genealogy of the chiefs. 



The Papuans have no hereditary caste, and no privileged class. 



6. As rank among the Polynesians comes through the mother, 

 woman is held in the highest respect. 



Among the Papuans the woman is a chattel, a slave, a beast of 

 burden, sold to the highest bidder. 



7. The Polynesians, though scattered over the Pacific from New 

 Zealand to the Sandwich Islands, have one language, with dialectical 

 variations. 



The Papuans have many languages. In the New Hebrides, Solo- 

 mon, New Britain, New Guinea every island has its own language, 

 and on a large island several different languages will be spoken ; all 

 belong probably to the same stock and have the same grammatical 

 structure, but with differing vocabulary and requiring a different alphabet 

 to express the sounds. 



In all these points of differentiation, except the first and the last, the 

 Fijians must be regarded as an exception. In color, hair, and language 

 they belong to the Papuan race. In all other respects — physique, power- 

 ful chiefs, hereditary priesthood, position of woman — they should be 

 classed with the Polynesians. 



II.— ASIATIC ORIGIN. 



Both races are of Asiatic origin. That the dark race came from 

 India we have many proofs ; but we have no clue as to the time when 

 they arrived in the Pacific — probably thousands of years ago. 



The brown race represents a later migration from the same mother- 

 land. They found the islands of the western Pacific already peopled by 

 the black race ; hence few permanent settlements were effected till they 

 reached the Friendl}' Islands and Samoa. 



PROOFS. 



I. Polynesian Traditions. 



Polynesian traditions collected by .Judge Fornander, of the Sandwich 

 Islands, traced their origin through India to the head of the Persian 

 Gulf, and beyond. They came through Beluchistan to India, mixed 

 with the brown Dravidian race in Southern India, and thence into the 

 Malay Archipelago. About the beginning of the present era they were 

 driven out by the Malays from the mainland. About one thousand 

 years ago they left Fiji and sailed to the east, peopling Tonga, Samoa, 

 and other groups to the eastward. Savaii, in Samoa, appears to have 

 been their gi-eat centre. Eight hundred years ago they arrived in the 



