Vaux.—On the Probable Origin of the Maori Races. 15 
portion of this population is often known by the name of 
Papuans, and their abode as Papuanesia. 
. Australia. With dark-skinned but rarely black population, 
with hair, however, not frizzly but lank and soft. 
. Micronesia. Consisting of several small groups of islands, 
many of them coral reefs enclosing lagunes, as the Ladrone or 
Marianne Islands, the Ludack Chain, Kingsmill, ete. The 
people who inhabit them are much mixed, and, in many of the 
islands nearly connected with the Melanesians. 
. Polynesia. Comprising by far the most numerous groups, and 
# extending from the Navigators’ Islands on the west, to Easter 
Island in the extreme east, with those of New Zealand, the 
Friendly, the Society, the Austral, Hervey and Gambier groups, 
the Low or Saumatoa, and the Sandwich Islands. 
As distinguished from Melanesia or Micronesia, the inhabitants of these 
Islands have more resemblance to those of Malaisia, with light or dusky 
brown skins, often with a tinge of yellow, the New Zealanders and Sandwich 
Islanders (or Hawaiians) being the darkest, with black and curly as 
distinguished from woolly or frizzly hair. One other considerable group I 
have omitted, purposely, that of the Fiji (or Viti) people, as it would seem 
they are a very mixed race, with many affinities to Melanesia, though their 
grammar is more like the Tongan. I have not been able, at present, to 
meet with any very satisfactory account of them, but, as they have now 
placed themselves under the sovereignty of England, we shall soon I presume 
know whatever there is to be known about them. It is clear that a great 
many Polynesian words are incorporated in the few specimens of their 
language I have met with ; indeed, in the name of their principal island 
Vanua-lera (the high land) I recognize at once, the Maori whenua. One 
marked distinction between the Viti and the dialects of the adjacent islands, 
which I have noticed, is the common occurence of two consonants at the 
beginning of their words, without an intervening vowel. The Fiji chieftains 
are said, too, to be devoted to the adornment and dressing of their hair, 
and to exhibit on their heads the circular mop-like masses of hair, so 
characteristic of the Papuans. 
It is probable, that the darker hue noticed as I understand chiefly in the 
case of the Maoris who are now found in the Southern Island is mainly due 
to their out of door life, exposure to the weather, and laborious occupations, 
The climate of New Zealand, especially southward of the middleof the North 
Island, does not differ very much from that of the South of England and 
France ; requires, therefore, warm clothing and gives ample scope for bodily 
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