NEW CALEDONIA 459 



Gravcalus, Lalage, Pachyccpliala, Myzomcla, Glycvphila, 

 and others, point markedly to a western origin, but on 

 the other hand the land-shells differ entirely from those 

 of Australia, not a single Helix of the Australian type 

 being found. The most abundant genus is Placostylus, 

 which is entirely wanting in Australia. 



The natives are a well-made I'ace with frizzly hair, 

 dark skins, and pronounced features, distinctly Papuan in 

 origin, though now much intermixed with Polynesians. 

 They are divided into numerous tribes under chiefs, and 

 the various tribes are bound together by alliance into 

 two main bodies, after a system similar to that mentioned 

 as existing in the Aru Islands. They pierce and distend 

 the ear lobes, wear the scantiest possible clothing, are 

 great lovers of dances, and have large images sculptured 

 in wood in every village. They are firm believers in 

 forest-haunting demons, and until the advent of the 

 French were all anthropophagists. In these and other 

 characteristics the influence of their Papuan ancestry is 

 plainly to be traced. In other respects they do not show 

 this influence. Thus the houses are circular, well and 

 strongly built, and with a high extinguisher-like conical 

 roof, surmounted by an elaborately carved finial, whicli 

 varies in the chiefs' houses according to their rank. The 

 heads of the children are often artificially malformed, and 

 the use of the bow and arrow is unknown in warfare. 

 Constantly engaged in intertribal fights, the people are far 

 fi'om contemptible opponents, and offered a brave resist- 

 ance to the French. In the art of agriculture they are 

 superior to every other race of the Pacific, building 

 elaborate aqueducts and irrigating their land with almost 

 as much skill and care as the Balinese. The languages, 

 which are numerous, do not appear to differ from each 

 other so much as in the other Melanesian islands. A 



