THE FRIENDLY AND OTHER ISLANDS 495 



able area that they would meet with, and here they would 

 remain till an overflowing population drove them to seek 

 fresh lands farther east. The slight mixture with the 

 higher class of Melanesians which has occasionally taken 

 place has tended to produce the tall and bulky bodies, 

 the pronounced features, and the slightly curly or wavy 

 hair which distinguishes them from all Mongolian tribes ; 

 while it has never been sufficient materially to affect the 

 general lightness of their colour, which has, moreover, 

 been favoured by the preference for the fairest women 

 which they invariably show. 



Although the use of the word " Polynesia " as a col- 

 lective name to include all the islands we have already 

 mentioned has been sanctioned by general custom, it must 

 be borne in mind that the title expresses a purely arbi- 

 trary division, founded upon no geographical, national, 

 racial, or linguistic basis. 'For if it were desired to take the 

 connection of land as our guide, we should have no reason 

 to exclude the Carolines and other islands of Mikronesia. 

 Nationally, Polynesia has never formed a unit, for from 

 the remotest times the people have been split up into 

 innumerable tribes — the inevitable result of tlie small 

 area and scattered distribution of the islands they inhabit. 

 So, too, with regard to race or language. The Maoris of 

 New Zealand are of the same stock as the Samoans, and 

 the Motu, Kerapuno, and other tribes of Southern New 

 Guinea speak dialects of the same widespread linguistic 

 family. The name, therefore, of Polynesia must be taken 

 only as a convenience to enable us to express certain 

 islands and groups of islands in the Pacific which are in- 

 habited by people of the same stock and linguistic family, 

 but which do not by any means comprise the entirety of 

 this people within their limits. 

 • The peculiarities of the languages of this Mahori 



