304 AUSTRALASIA. 



Strait. The best known native dialect is the Nofur (Nufor), of Dorey and the 

 adjacent islands in Geelvink Bay. Some of those that have been hitherto studied, 

 as, for instance, the Motu of the south-east coast, belong undoubtedly to the great 

 Malayo-Polynesian linguistic family ; but it would be premature to assert that all 

 the New Guinea languages are members of that widespread oceanic group. 



On the whole the Papuans are somewhat shorter than the Polynesians, the 

 average height being about 62 to 64 inches. They are well-proportioned, lithe, 

 and active, and display surprising skill both in climbing trees and in iising the 

 feet for prehensile purposes. Most Papuans have a very dark skin, but never of 

 that shiny black peculiar to the Shilluks of the White Nile, the Wolof s of Senegal, 

 and some other African peoples. The eyebrows are well marked, the eyes large 

 and animated, the mouth large but not pouting, the jaw massive. Amongst the 

 north-western Papuans, regarded by Wallace as representing the type in its purity, 

 the nose is long, arched, and tipped downwards at the extremity, and this is a trait 

 which the native artists never fail to reproduce in the human effigies with which 

 they decorate their houses and boats. Another distinctive characteristic of nume- 

 rous tribes is their so-called mop-heads, formed by superb masses of frizzly hair, 

 no less abundant than that of the Brazilian Cafusos, and, as in their case, possiblj^ 

 indicating racial interminglings. But this feature is not constant any more than 

 is the dolichocephalous, or narrow shape of the skull, although both are very gene- 

 ral. In Mabiak and some other islands of Torres Strait the heads of the children 

 are lengthened by artificial means almost to a point, and the young women of 

 many tribes on the mainland carry loads supported by a strap round the forehead, 

 which has the contrary effect of compressing the skull to a circular form. 



Some Papuans still go naked, but the majority wear at least a sort of bark loin- 

 cloth or skirt of vegetable fibre, or else a rattan cane to which is suspended a 

 shell or some foliage. Tattooing is not universal, nor do the Papuans, properlj^ 

 so-called, ever decorate themselves with designs and arabesques like the Poly- 

 nesians. The tattooing is, moreover, generally effected by burns or incisions, and 

 not by the pricking operation common amongst the mixed populations of the south- 

 eastern districts. Bamboo combs are worn in the hair, little bits of stick or bone 

 are passed through the cartilage of the nose, the body is also painted and orna- 

 mented with earrings, bracelets, and pendants of bone, shells, polished* pebbles, 

 the vertebrae of fish, and even human teeth. In sign of mourning they daub 

 themselves in white, yellow, or black, according to the tribes, and the women of 

 Katau, near the Fly delta, express their grief by covering themselves from face to 

 knees with a network of little strings. 



Certain tribes on the shores of Astrolabe Bay studied by Miklukho Maklay are 

 amongst the least civilised in Papuasia, Till recently they were unacquainted 

 with metals, still using stone, shell, or wooden implements exclusively ; they were 

 even incapable of producing fire, so that when the embers died out it had to be 

 borrowed from the next-door neighbour. The old men assured the Russian 

 traveller that till within a recent epoch fire was altogether unknown, and flesh 

 was eaten raw, which caused scorbutic affections to prevail. Such is also probably 



