XX NEW GUINEA AND ITS INHABITANTS 459 



lighter coloured skin and less pronounced features, but yet 

 on the whole decidedly Papuan. In the islands of Ceram 

 and Gilolo also the type is more Papuan than Malayan, 

 though the light brown colour indicates, perhaps, some inter- 

 mixture with people of Malay or even of Caucasian race. 



If we now take account of all the evidence yet obtained, 

 we seem justified in concluding that the great mass of the 

 inhabitants of New Guinea form one well-marked race — 

 the Papuan — varying within comparatively narrow limits, 

 and everywhere presenting distinctive features which 

 separate it from all other races of mankind. The only 

 important deviation from the type occurs in the south- 

 eastern peninsula, where a considerable Polynesian 

 immigration has undoubtedly taken place, and greatly 

 modified the character of the population. At other points 

 immigrants from some of the surrounding islands may have 

 formed small settlements, but it is a mistake to suppose 

 that there are any Malay colonies on the south-west 

 coast, though a few of the natives may have adopted 

 the Malay dress and some of the outward forms of 

 Mahometanism. 



If we look over the globe for the nearest allies of the 

 Papuans, we find them undoubtedly in Equatorial and 

 Southern Africa, where alone there is an extensive and 

 varied race of dark-coloured, frizzly-haired people. The 

 connecting links are found in the dwarfish, woolly-haired 

 tribes of the Philippines, the Malay Peninsula, and the 

 Andaman Islands ; and, taking these altogether, we may 

 well suppose them to represent one of the earliest, but not, 

 probably, the most primitive type of man. 



We must not fail to take note of the fact that the two 

 great woolly-haired races are almost entirely confined 

 within the tropics, and both attain their highest develop- 

 ment near the equator. It is here that we should expect 

 the primitive man to have appeared, and here we still find 

 what may be one of his earliest divergent races thriving 

 best. We may, perhaps, even look on the diverse types of 

 the three great races as in part due to changes of consti- 

 tution adapting them to cooler or warmer climates and 



