20 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL 



seem to have more affinity with the dark, woolly-haired 

 races of the Pacific, or are equally distinct from both. 

 This view is supported by two writers who have great 

 knowledge of the races and languages of the Pacific. 

 Mr. W. S. W. Vaux, in a paper on the Probable Origin 

 of the Maorics, read before the Anthropological Institute 

 in 1876, maintains that the connection of the modern 

 languages of the Eastern Polynesians with the Malay is 

 by no means so intimate as many able philologists have 

 asserted. Still more important and weighty is the 

 evidence of Mr. W. L. Eanken, who, in a paper on the 

 South Sea Islanders, read before the same society a few 

 months later, proposes the native term " Mahori " for the 

 Eastern Polynesians, and shows that their language is 

 totally distinct from the Malay, has a different con- 

 struction, has very few Malay roots, and only a few 

 quite recent Malay words. Though resembling Malays 

 both physically and mentally in some respects, the 

 " Mahoris " differ greatly from them in others. They 

 have a much greater average height, their features are 

 much more of the European type, and their hair is 

 typically wavy. He traces this race to Samoa as their 

 first home in the Pacific, but primarily from some part 

 of the Asiatic continent. 



We now come to the view held by perhaps the 

 greatest authority on Australasian ethnology — Professor 

 A. H. Keane — as published in the Journal of the 

 Anthropological Institute for February, 1880. In this 

 paper the writer agrees with the opinion that the 

 Eastern Polynesians are distinct from the Malays, 

 but enters more fully into the question of the place 

 of origin of the various races that people the 

 archipelago. His conclusions may be shortly given 

 as follows : — 



