98 



KNOWLEDGE 



[May 1, 1900. 



for the inhabitants of the islands other than New 

 Guinea, has likewise been employed in the wider sense; 

 and it is this usage, when a general term is required, 

 that is followed here. 



A tj'pical Melanesian has the same dark skin as an 

 African Negro, and likewise a similarly elongated skull, 

 whereby he is separated widely from the round-headed 

 Negritoes of the Andamans and Philippines. Indeed, 

 the Kai Colo tribe, of the mountains of Fiji, have 

 longer and narrower skulls than almost any other 

 people. A Melanesian skull may be generally distin- 

 guished from that of an African Negro by the heavy 

 ridges over the eyes; these brow-ridges being almost 

 absent in time Negroes. As similar brow-ridges occur 

 among some of the prehistoric natives of South America, 

 an affinity has been suggested between these people and 

 Melanesians, but on altogether insufficient grounds. 

 The jaws in the Melanesian skull are projecting, and 

 the cheek-bones very wide; and since the forehead 

 generally narrows superiorly, while the chin is not very 

 broad, the form of the face very frequently is that of 

 a long oval, pointed above and below. The nose, es- 

 pecially in New Guinea and the adjacent islands, is 

 narrower and more prominent than in African Negroes, 

 and is never of the broad, saddle-shaped type so charac- 

 teristic of Australians ; it is, however, generally low 

 and somewhat broad at the root, tending towards an 

 aquiline type among some of the inhabitants of Yule 

 Island. The mouth is broad and full, but the lips are 

 by no means so protuberant as ai'e those of the typical 

 African Negro. The most striking common feature 

 between Oceanic and African Negroes is the frizzly 

 hair, which is quite different from the wavy locks of 

 either the Australians or the Polvnesians, and still more 

 so from the long lank tresses of the Malays. There is, 

 however, a certain difference between the hair of Me- 

 lanesians and Africans, the former growing in very 

 marked and regular waves, and thus being more like 

 wool than is the latter, which forms an uneven tangled 

 mass. His hair is indeed the strong point of a Papuan, 

 and it is often dressed and frizzed till it stands out in 

 a mop-like manner on all sides. Feathers and the tails 

 of kangaroos are employed for its decoration, and combs 

 for its dressing. Only in cases of serious illness do the 

 men cease to attend to their hair ; but in the girls it 

 is kept shorter, and in some tribes the married women 

 cut it quite short or even shave it off. On the other hand, 

 the men are careful to pluck out every hair from their 

 beards, and sometimes extend the operation to their 

 eyebrows. As regards their muscular development, 

 Melanesians display a powerful build in the upper part 

 of the body, the shoulders being broad and the arms 

 strong ; but there is a woeful falling off in the lower 

 extremities, which, especially in the men, are long and 

 thin, with very small calves. 



Turning to the consideration of the affinities of the 

 Melanesians, there seems every reason for regarding 

 them as a pure-bred race, which has no intimate re- 

 lationship with their near neighbours the Malays. The 

 form of their heads likewise separates them from the 

 Negritoes of the Andamans and Philippines. But in 

 this latter respect, as well as in the character of the 

 hair, they come so close to the African Negi-o, that 

 there can be little hesitation in regarding both races as 

 derived from a common ancestral stock, notwithstanding 

 the birth-place of such stock cannot be determined. 

 That the date of divergence of the two races must be 

 very ancient, seems evident from the absence of any 

 common feature in their language. 



More difficult is the question of their relationship 



to the Australians, Tasmanians, and Polynesians. With 

 regard to the former, as stated in a previous article, I 

 am*inclined to agree with Dr. Semon that they have 

 no direct kinship. If this be so, the extinct Tas- 

 manians can scarcely any longer be considered as pure 

 but aberrant members of the Melanesian group; and 

 we may perhaps regard them, with Dr. Semon, as having 

 originated from a crossing between the inhabitants of 

 Australia and immigrants cast by chance into those 

 regions ; such immigrants being presumably Melane- 

 sians. 



As already mentioned, the mountains of the interior 

 of Fiji are inhabited by frizzly-haired Melanesians , 

 but the lowland population of that group of islands is 

 formed by the wavy-haired people known as Poly- 

 nesians. And these Polynesians extend over the whole 

 area from which they take their name, being repre- 

 sented in New Zealand by the Maori. Now it is 

 generally admitted that the Polynesians have a certain 



-V; V 



amount of Melanesian blood in their veins ; and it has 

 been supposed that the whole of Oceania, from Flores 

 eastwards, was originally populated by frizzly-haired 

 Oceanic Negroes, whose descendants in Polynesia have 

 been so profoundly modified by crossing with an immi- 

 grant type as to have formed practically a new race. 

 If we ask who were the immigrants, the most probable 

 answer is Malays. And that such a mixture would 

 produce the Polynesians, as we now know them, was 

 the opinion of the late Sir W. H. Flower. And in a 

 modified degree this appears also to be the view of Dr. 

 Semon, who, after stating that if Melanesians and Poly- 

 nesians be more closely related than is commonly sup- 

 posed, writes that this " would only show Polynesians 

 to be a branch of the Papuan race, which, by admixture 

 with other races, principally Malays, and by a subse- 



