g2 ETHNOGRAPHY. 



Fala-lep (great Fala), &c.* I am inclined to think that Banabe or 

 Banobe will come nearest to the proper native pronunciation. 



The group of Banabe consists of the single high island of that 

 name, with many low islets situated on an extensive coral belt which 

 surrounds it. The high island was supposed by Mr. Punchard to be 

 about forty miles in circumference, and he estimated the population 

 at fifteen thousand, though others reduce it to half this number. 

 O'Connell, however, saw, on one occasion, the warriofs of one tribe 

 collected to the number of fifteen hundred men. As there are five 

 tribes on the island, this would seem to show that Mr. Punchard's 

 estimate is not too high. 



The natives are divided into three classes or castes, chiefs, gentry 

 (or freemen), and slaves, or rather serfs. The first two belong to the 

 yellow race, proper to this archipelago, and are of the middle size, 

 with light complexions, prominent features, and smooth skins. The 

 others are termed by O'Connell a negro race, and Liitke compares 

 them to the Papuans ; he says, " They have a wide, flat face, with 

 broad depressed noses, thick lips, and crisp hair (les cheveux crepus)."^ 

 O'Connell, however, says that they have straight hair,J meaning, 

 perhaps, that it is not woolly, like that of the African negro. He 

 adds, further, (the universal characteristic of the Melanesian race,) 

 that " the skin is rough, and very unpleasant to the touch." Their 

 colour is not black, but dark brown; Liitke calls it chestnut (chd- 



* It must be recollected that throughout Micronesia the letters n, r, and I, are used 

 interchangeably, as are g and k, p and 6, and sometimes/; the t of one dialect becomes 

 th in another, and s in a third. Bearing these changes in mind, we find numerous re- 

 semblances among the names of islands and groups. Namu or Numo is very common ; 

 we have Namu, Namu-rek (little Namu), Lamu-rek (ditto), Namu-louk, Namo-rousse, 

 Namo-liaour, Nanto-nouito, (southern Natno), Namo-lip-iafan (great northern Namo), 

 &c. So there are two islands named Fais, two named Faieu, there are Bigar and 

 Bigali, Pelc-leu, (commonly called Pelew,) and Pele-lap ; Lugu-nor, Nugu-or, and 

 Nuku-nau ; Otdia, Odia, Udi-rik, and Udia-milai, Maguir and Makin. In short, 

 there seems to be hardly an island in western Micronesia, which has not one in the 

 eastern part of the archipelago named after it. It should be observed that the difference 

 in many of the names given above, proceeds, in part, from the different modes of ortho- 

 graphy adopted by the voyagers from whom they are taken, Kotzebue, Duperrey, 

 Rieuri, and others. This resemblance in names is one of the clues which must be fol- 

 lowed in tracing out the migrations by which these islands have been peopled. 



f Rieuri, Oceanic, vol. ii. p. 136. 



$ Narrative, p. 128. 



