JANI7ARY 28, 1887.] 



scmjsrcE. 



99 



Dr. Humphrey concludes his comments upon 

 these cases with the hopeful consideration that the 

 result of the investigation is found to be that " the 

 means most suited for prolonging life . . . are the 

 means best calculated to turn it to good account 

 and to make it happy." 



THE MELANESIAN RACES AND LAN- 

 GUAGES. 



Some of the most perplexing problems of eth- 

 nology are encountered in Oceanica. As is well 

 known, this vast island world, stretching east- 

 ward from south-eastern Asia far into the Pacific 

 ocean, is commonly divided into five geographical 

 provinces, — Malaisia, or the East Indian archi- 

 pelago, extending from the Straits of Malacca to 

 New Guinea ; Melanesia, comprising New Guinea 

 and the groups east of it to the Fiji Islands ; 

 Polynesia, including the islands of the southern 

 and eastern Pacific, from New Zealand to the 

 Hawaiian group ; Micronesia, the range of small 

 islands in the North Pacific, east of the Philippines; 

 and Australasia, comprising Australia and Tas- 

 mania. The tribes that inhabit these various 

 regions differ in all the traits which are supposed 

 to indicate distinction of race. The Malays are 

 short, with light-brown complexion, straight black 

 hair, and small Siamese features. The Polynesians 

 are tall, of clear yellow hue, with wavy black 

 hair, and handsome, almost European counte- 

 nances. Of the swarthy Melanesians, some, like 

 the Papuans, are tall, with prominent, aquiline 

 features, and frizzled locks ; others, like the 

 Negritos and Samangs, are short, with woolly or 

 tufted hair. The Australians are black or red- 

 dish brown, with negroid features and wavy or 

 crispy hair ; while south of them the now extinct 

 Tasmanians had similar features and complexion, 

 with completely woolly hair. The question to 

 be decided is. Do all these tribes belong to one 

 race, or to two, or to many? Ethnologists of 

 the highest ability and attainments — Crawford, 

 Pritchard, Huxley, Wallace, Lesson, Von der 

 Gabelentz, Winchell, and many others — have 

 taken part in the discussion, and we seem as far 

 from a definite conclusion as ever. 



The latest and perhaps the most valuable con- 

 tribution yet made to the evidence on this subject 

 is the comprehensive and profound work of the 

 Rev. Dr. Codrington on the Melanesian languages. 

 The materials for the work were gathered during 

 many years of missionary labor ^pent chiefly on 

 Norfolk Island, in the Melanesian mission-school 



The Melanesian languages. By R. H. Codrington. Oxford, 

 Clarendon pr., 885. 8°. (New York, Macmillan.) 



of the Anglican church. Australasia is not in- 

 cluded within the scope of the work, and New 

 Guinea is only noticed in some incidental allu- 

 sions ; but all the groups lying east of that island, 

 and extending from New Ireland southward to 

 New Caledonia, and eastward to Rotuma and 

 the limits of Polynesia, are illustrated by it. 

 No less than thirty-four languages and dialects 

 are carefully described, and are compared with 

 one another and with the idioms of Melanesia and 

 Polynesia, as well as with the language of Mada- 

 gascar, which, as is well known, belongs to the 

 Malayo- Polynesian family. Dr. Codrington is an 

 Oxford scholar, versed in classical studies, and 

 familiar with the methods and results of philologi- 

 cal research. To a student of linguistic science it 

 is no small pleasure to peruse a work in which the 

 laws of the science, as they have been wrought out 

 by the ablest minds in the study of the Indo-Eu- 

 ropean and Semitic tongues, are applied with a 

 happily illuminating effect to the languages of 

 these barbarous tribes. 



The first result is to raise considerably our opin- 

 ion of the quality of the languages, and our esti- 

 mate of the intellect of those who speak them. 

 The author finds these idioms remarkably copi- 

 ous. Of this fact he gives an interesting illustra- 

 tion from his own experience with one of them, — 

 that of the island of Mota, of which many of the 

 pupils in the Norfolk Island school were natives. 

 "After some twelve years' acquaintance with the 

 language, talking, teaching, and translating," he 

 writes, "and after having acquired, more or less 

 correctly, a considerable vocabulary of Mota 

 words, I began to buy words that I did not know 

 at the rate of a shilling a hundred from the schol- 

 ars at Norfolk Island. I left off when lists of three 

 thousand words unknown to me had come in. It 

 is certain that elder natives living at Mota use 

 many words hardly known to those who have 

 gone away from their own island as boys, and 

 that the boys had by no means exhausted their 

 stock. I calculate, therefore, that there were 

 probably as many words still to come as would 

 bring up my vocabulary to at least six thousand 

 words. Of these, many, of course, are compound 

 and derivative ; but they are distinct words. This 

 concerns a small island, with less than a thousand 

 inhabitants, with whom European intercourse 

 began within the memory of living men." This 

 fulness, it should he added, is not merely in names 

 of objects and actions. Purely abstract terms are 

 common, and are formed by a system of deriva- 

 tion as clear and regular as that of the Greek or 

 the Sanscrit. Thus from toga (' to abide ') we have 

 togara ('behavior') and togava ('station'). No- 

 nom (' to think ') yields nonomia (' thought ') ; and 



