228 PAGAN TRIBES OF BORNEO chap. 



Indonesian should be applied to the eight groups 

 of aborigines of Indo-China which he distinguishes/ 

 He recognises that the Indonesians and the 

 Malayans are of very similar physical characters, but 

 distinguishes them as two of four races which have 

 given rise to the population of the Malay Archi- 

 pelago — namely, Malayans, Indonesians, Negritos, 

 and Papuans. He regards the Indonesians (used in 

 a wide sense to include Malays) as most closely 

 akin to the Polynesians ; but he expresses no opinion 

 as to their relations to the Mongol and Caucasic 

 stocks. 



Keane describes the Indonesians as a Proto- 

 Caucasic race which must have occupied Malaysia 

 and the Philippines in the New Stone Age. He 

 separates them widely from the Malays and Proto- 

 Malays, whom he describes as belonging to the 

 Oceanic branch of the Mongol stock ; ^ and the 

 " Dyaks " of Borneo are classed by him with strict 

 impartiality sometimes with the Proto-Malays, 

 sometimes with the Proto-Caucasians. 



If these oldest inhabitants of Borneo may be 

 regarded as typical Indonesians (and we think that 

 they have a strong claim to be so regarded), then 

 we think that the usage of the term by both 

 Keane and Deniker errs in accentuating unduly 

 the affinity of the Indonesians with the Polynesians, 

 and that Keane's errs also in ignoring the Mongol 

 affinities of the Indonesians. 



The most plausible view of the relations of these 

 stocks seems to us to be the following. Poly- 

 nesians and Indonesians are the product of an 

 ancient blend of southern Mongols with a fair 

 Caucasic stock. In both the Caucasic element 

 predominates, but more so in the Polynesian than 

 in the Indonesian. We imagine this blending to 



1 op. cit. p. 392. 

 2 Man^ Past and Present^ London, 1899, pp. 562 and 143. 



