284 VARIETIES OF THE HUMAN SPECIES xvm 



sub-typical it is true, but to which an easy transition can be 

 traced from the most characteristic members of the type. 



D. The brown Polynesians, Malayo-Polynesians, Mahoris, 

 Sawaioris, or Kanakas, as they have been variously called, seen 

 in their greatest purity in the Samoan, Tongan, and Eastern 

 Polynesian Islands, are still more modified, and possess less of 

 the characteristic Mongolian features ; but still it is difficult 

 to place them anywhere else in the system. The large infusion 

 of the Melanesian element throughout the Pacific must never 

 be forgotten in accounting for the characters of the people now 

 inhabiting the islands, an element in many respects so dia- 

 metrically opposite to the Mongolian that it would materially 

 alter the characters, especially of the hair and beard, which has 

 been with many authors a stumbling-block to the affiliation of 

 the Polynesian with the Mongolian stock. The mixture is physi- 

 cally a fine one, and in some proportions produces a combina- 

 tion, as seen, for instance, in the Maories of New Zealand, which 

 in all definable characters approaches quite as near, or nearer, 

 to the Caucasian type than to either of the stocks from which 

 it may be presumably derived. This resemblance has led some 

 writers to infer a real extension of the Caucasian element at some 

 very early period into the Pacific Islands, and to look upon 

 their inhabitants as the product of a mingling of all three great 

 types of men. Though this is a very plausible theory, it rests'on 

 little actual proof, as the combination of Mongolo-Malayan and 

 Melanesian characters in different degrees, together with the local 

 variations certain to arise in communities so isolated from each 

 other and exposed to such varied conditions as the inhabitants 

 of the Pacific Islands, would probably account for all the modifi- 

 cations observed among them. 



E. The native populations (before the changes wrought by 

 the European conquest) of the great continent of America, 

 excluding the Eskimo, present, considering the vast extent of 

 the country they inhabit and the great differences of climate, 

 and other surrounding conditions, a remarkable similarity of 

 essential characters, with much diversity of detail. 



The construction of the numerous American languages, of 

 which as many as twelve hundred have been distinguished, is 

 said to point to unity of origin, as, though widely different in 



