XX NEW GUINEA AND ITS INHABITANTS 453 



Guinea." Mr. Stone, on the other hand, classes them 

 together as slightly differing tribes of the same race, the 

 one being a little more advanced than the other ; and he 

 considers the whole eastern peninsula of New Guinea to 

 be peopled by a race of Polynesian blood, who, in some far 

 distant time, found their way to the coast, intermingled 

 with the native Papuan tribes, and gradually drove them 

 westward. There has thus resulted a number of separate 

 tribes, showing various degrees of intermixture, the Poly- 

 nesian blood predominating on the coast, the Papuan in 

 the interior ; one small tribe alone, the Kirapuno, being 

 more distinctly Polynesian. How complete is the inter- 

 mixture, and how difficult it is to determine the limits of 

 the two races, is shown by the opinion of Mr. S. M'Farlane, 

 who says, that though he at first thought the people of 

 Katow River and those of Redscar Bay to be quite dis- 

 tinct, the former Papuan and the latter Malayan (or more 

 properly Polynesian), yet, after five years' acquaintance 

 with them, he believes them to be of the same race ; 

 while he considers the tribes of the interior to be distinct, 

 and to be true Papuans. The coast people he thinks to be 

 the result of an intermixture of Malays, Polynesians, Arabs, 

 Chinese, and Papuans. 



Dr. Comrie (of the surveying ship Basilisk) believes 

 that all the tribes on the north-east coast, from East Cape 

 to Astrolabe Bay, are Papuans; but his description of 

 them shows that they have a slight infusion of Polj^nesian 

 blood, and many Polynesian customs. One thing is very 

 clear, that neither in physical nor mental characteristics 

 do these people show any resemblance whatever to Malays, 

 who are a very different race from the Polynesian. The 

 graceful figures, the woolly or curly hair, the arched noses, 

 the use of tattooing, the ignorance of pottery-making, the 

 gay and laughter-loving disposition, the talkativeness of 

 the women, the lying, thievishness, and beggary, widely 

 separate them from the Malay ; while all these peculiarities 

 support the view of their being a race formed by a mix- 

 ture of Polynesian men with Papuan or Melanesian women, 

 the former having perhaps arrived in successive waves of 

 immigration, thus causing the coast tribes, and those 



