PROGNATHOUS STOCK. 307 



responding to that displayed by the Alfourou race of Australia, a 

 deterioration accompanied by extreme barbarism, and produced by various 

 causes, among which an irregular supply of food, and that of an innutritious 

 quality, is one. In the Tasmanian, the hair is decidedly woolly ; the nose 

 is broad, with nostrils spreading transversely ; the mouth wide, the cheek- 

 bones developed, the eyes long and narrow, the lower part of the face 

 preponderating, and the colour dull black. The Papuans, as already 

 stated, have been termed Oceanic Negroes ; and the expression perfectly 

 applies to the Tasmanian ramifications, as the foregoing delineation 

 (fig. 225) will serve to prove. 



ALFOUROU BRANCH. To a race termed Alfourous, Arafuras, or 

 Alfoors, are to be referred scattered tribes inhabiting the central parts of 

 most of the islands of the Indian Archipelago, and also of Madagascar, 

 where they are called Virzimbirs.* To the same race, also, probably be- 

 long the Battas (a cannibal tribe) of the interior of Sumatra, and the wild 

 Dayacks of Borneo. In the Philippine Islands they have been termed Los 

 Indies, by the Spaniards ; in Mindanao, Negroes del Monte ; and in the 

 interior of New Guinea, Endamenes (" Alfourous-Endamenes" of Lesson). 

 The natives of Australia are usually considered, and apparently with justice, 

 as a branch of the Alfourou stock, and are termed, by Lesson, " Alfourous 

 Australien." At some former period, the Alfourou race was widely spread ; 

 and it may, perhaps, be regarded as the primitive population both of the 

 Malay Peninsula and of the adjacent groups of islands ; but their terri- 

 tories, for the most part, have been usurped by more powerful races 

 Papous and Malays, which have either extirpated them entirely, or 

 driven the relics of the broken tribes to seek refuge in the mountains and 

 woods of the interior ; where, almost unknown, they still linger, immersed 

 in barbarism. Lesson describes the Endamenes as living in the most mi- 

 serable manner, and involved in continual warfare with their neighbours, 

 from whose attacks, or snares, they are incessantly occupied in endeavour- 

 ing to preserve themselves. He observes : " The custom prevalent among 

 the Papous of the coasts, of putting their prisoners to death, and erecting 

 their spoil as trophies, accounts for the difficulty we find in observing 

 them, even in New Guinea ; and two or three men, whom we saw in a 

 state of slavery at Dorery, are the only individuals we have met with. 

 The Papous described them to us, as of a ferocious character, cruel and 

 gloomy, possessed of no arts, and passing their whole lives in seeking 

 subsistence in the forests : but we cannot regard this hideous picture, 

 which each people draws of its neighbouring tribes, as authentic. The 

 Endamenes, whom we saw, had a repulsive physiognomy : flat noses ; 

 cheek-bones projecting ; large eyes ; prominent teeth ; long and slender 

 legs ; very black and thick hair, rough and shining, without being long ; 



* Virzimbirs, or Ovales. 



