392 repoet— 1879. 



V. The large brown race in almost exclusive possession of Eastern Polynesia 

 (Samoans, Tahitians, Maoris, Hawaiians, Tonga and Marquesas islanders), is 

 affiliated, not to the typical Malays, but to that element in Malaysia which diverges 

 most from the Mongoloid and approaches nearest to the Caucasian type. The 

 migration of the fair race from the Archipelago eastwards is shown to have taken 

 place at an extremely remote epoch, before or simultaneously with the arrival of 

 the yellow races from Further India, consequently before the evolution of the Malay 

 type proper. Hence there are no true Malayan ethnical elements and no Mongol 

 blood in Eastern Polynesia. The direct connection of the Eastern Polynesians 

 with the Indonesians of Malaysia is further confirmed on linguistic, physical, and 

 ethical grounds. 



Conclusion. Excluding the dark races there are in the Indo-Chinese and Inter- 

 Oceanic area two fundamentally distinct racial types only — the yellow or Mongo- 

 lian, and the fair or Caucasian ; and corresponding to them two fundamentally 

 distinct forms of speech only — the Monosyllabic spoken vario tono, and the Poly- 

 syllabic spoken recto tono. All the rest is the outcome of incessant secular inter- 

 minglings. 



5. On a Classification of Languages on the Basis of Ethnology. 

 By Dr. Gustav Oppert. 



All languages display either a concrete or an abstract tendency, and it is on this 

 distinction that the author's classification is primarily based. Both the concrete 

 and the abstract divisions are subdivided, each into two classes. The divisions of 

 the concrete class are termed heterologous and homologous; while those of the abstract 

 class are called digeneous and trigeneous. Further subdivisions are suggested. The 

 author's views are developed in a work on Comparative Philology, recently published 

 in Madras. 



SA1 URDA Y, A UG UST 23. 

 The following Papers and Pieport were read : — 



1. On the Manners and Customs of the People of Urua. Central Africa. 

 By Commander Cameron, B.N. 



The author remarked that the king of this people, Cassango, claimed divine 

 honours ; that it was supposed by the people that on the death of one king his 

 spirit entered the body of his successor ; and that on the death of the monarch his 

 wives, with the exception of one, who remained to be the pythoness of his suc- 

 cessor, were buried alive with him, with savage rites. The course of a river is 

 diverted to furnish a ready grave. Here the terrible sacrifice is made, and then 

 the waters, sent back into their original course, flow over the dreadful tomb. It 

 seems that the religion of these people centres round an idol which is said to be 

 located in an immense jungle. Such is the reverence, or rather awe, in which the 

 people hold this god that they fear to pronounce its name. None but the king may 

 sacrifice to it, excepting the sovereign's sister, who is given to the idol as a wife. 

 Priests, of course, guard the grove of this oracle ; and smaller oracles, of which the 

 people do not stand in so much awe, are consulted on matters of every day life. 

 The ventriloquial powers of the wizards who carry those idols are exercised "when 

 the answers are given. A clearly defined caste prevails amongst the people. One 

 chief may not sit down in the presence of another of superior grade. Each class 

 wears a distinctive apron. Mutilation is common as a punishment. A story was 

 told of one wife of the king offering to undergo the penalty of having her ears cut 

 off if she might have a slave. The king took her at her word. The mutilation 



