INTKODUCTION. 



THE peoples of Polynesia may be divided into three distinct 

 classes. In the western islands from the east end of New 

 Guinea and Australia eastward, including Fiji, we find a nearly 

 black frizzly-haired people. In all the eastern islands there 

 are large brown straight-haired people (found also in New 

 Zealand) ; and in the western islands north of the equator, 

 there is a smaller brown straight-haired people. The black 

 frizzly-haired people, who are nearly the lowest type of 

 humanity in existence, are called Papuans.* 



On some of the islands the men collect their hair into small 

 bunches and carefully bind each bunch round with fine vege- 

 table fibre from the roots up to within about two inches from 

 the head. Dr. Turner, in his ' Nineteen Years in Polynesia,' 

 mentions having counted nearly seven hundred bunches on 

 the head of one young man. This strange custom gave rise 

 to the long popular belief that the hair of the Polynesians 

 grew in tufts. Dr. Turner also calls attention to the strange 

 resemblance existing between the hair of these people thus 

 dressed and the conventional representation in the Assyrian 

 sculptures. 



In the physiognomy of the Papuan people there is great 

 difference. The lips of a typical specimen are somewhat thick. 



* From ' Papuah, frizzled, woolly headed.' Marsden's Malay Di<-- 

 tlonary. According to Spencer, the Fuegians, Andaman*, Veddahs, etc., 

 are of a lower type than the Papuans. 



b 



