VARIETIES OF THE HUMAN SPECIES. 



139 



To this subdivision of tlie Human race, some writers would refer tlie 

 D.iyaks of Borneo,' as well as che Ancient Peruvians and Mexicans. ^ 



C. HOMO AUSTR-A-LASICUS — AUSTRALASIANS. 

 Sun. Alfourous Cm. Reg. Anim. I. 84. 



Tliese barbarous races, known by tbe name of Alfooroos, may be sub- 

 divided into two branches, tlie Proper Australians or New Hollanders 

 (//. Australius), and the Oceanic Negroes {H. Melaninas). 



1. Australius Australians. 



Sm. H. POLYNESius — Fisch. Syn. Mam. 8. 



H. AusTRALASicus. — Borv, Ess. Zool. I. .318. 



AUSTRALIKNS. — Less, et Garn. Zool. de la Coq. I. 106. 



AusTKALASiENNE Desmoul. Tab. 



Alfourous-Auotralien Less. Mam. 28. 



Icon. Blumenl). Dec. Cran. III. t. 27, and IV. t. 40. (Skulls of New Hol- 

 landers.) 



Peron Voy. pi. 20 to 28. 



Griff. Anim. King. (New Hollander.) 



Quoy et Gaim. Zool. de I'Astr. pi. o. 



The indigenous tribes of New Holland, who e.\bibit a marked resem- 

 blance to each other, according to the statements of navigators,' have 

 already been noticed for their ignorance, tlieir wretchedness, as well as 

 their moral and intellectual debasement. Their tribes are not numerous, 

 have little communication with each other, and are sunk into a state of 

 almost hopeless barbarism. 



The natives of New South Wales live in the rocks and thickets sur- 

 rounding the European settlements, without adopting any of the manners 

 of civilized life, excepting, perhaps, the taste for intoxi>;ating liquors. 

 Modesty seems wholly foreign to the race, and even in the midst of a 

 populous European colony, they are not particular in adopting any kind 

 of covering. The most unrestrained liberty appears indispensable to the 

 existence of the genuine Australian, who preserves his independence in 

 the rocky fastnesses of the neighbourhood, reclining near a wood fire, 

 and protected from the wind merely by a few branches, or a large piece 

 of bark torn from the Eucalyptus. 



The stature of tlie Australians is commonly below the average. Many 

 tribes have meagre limbs, apparently of disproportionate length ; while a 

 few individuals, on the contrary, have the same parts long and w-oll pro- 

 portioned. Their hair is not woolly, but coarse, very black, and plentiful, 

 usually worn loose and disordered, but most commonly short and col- 

 lected into curly masses. 



The face is flat ; the nose very broad, with the nostrils almost trans- 

 verse; the lips thick; the mouth widely cleft ; the teeth slightly inclined 

 outwards, but of the purest enamel ; and the external ears very large. 

 Their eyes are half-closed through the laxity of the upper eye-lids, a cir- 

 cumstance which imparts to their savage countenances a pliysiognomy 

 peculiarly repulsive. The colour of their skins commonly assumes a 

 darkish tint, varying in intensity, but never becoming absolutely black. 

 The .\ustralian females are still more ugly than the men, so that the in- 

 terval which appears to separate their forms from that of the Pelasgian 

 races appears immense to our eyes. 



Marriages are concluded by force. At a certain period of life an in- 

 cisive tooth is extracted from every man, and a ph.nlanx amputated from 

 the finger of every female. Their head and breast are usually covered 

 with some red colouring matter, and this ornament is of the highest im- 

 portance in all their coroboris, or great ceremonies. The habit of painting 

 the nose and cheeks by the same rude means is also common, witli the 

 addition of white rays along the forehead and temples. On the arms and 

 the sides of the thorax they raise the same conical tubercles, which are 

 practised largely by the Negro race. Numerous families insert rounded 

 sticks, from four to six inches in length, into the partition of the nostrils, 

 a practice which imparts a savage aspect to their physiognomy. Finally, 

 the garments of this race never extend beyond a rude coat of Kanguroo 

 skin thrown over the shoulders, or a front robe of filaments weaved into 

 a coarse kind of net work. 



These tribes are superstitious to an excessive degree; jugglers are 

 encouraged, and witchcraft punished. Their differences are decided by 

 a kind of duel, consisting of equal numbers, or equal arms ; and the judges 



of the field decide the rules of the combat. Their offensive arms consist 

 of a kind of javelin, a wooden sabre, a club or wnodah, while the shield 

 alone is used for defence. The bow and arrows are wholly unknown in 

 the entire continent of Australia. 



The inhabitants of King George's Sound are subject to an intense cold 

 during winter, and cover themselves with large mantles made of Kanguroo 

 skins. Those in the neiglibourhood of Sydney and Bathurst prepare the 

 skins of the Petaurista, while tlie New Hollanders within the tropics 

 live in a state of absolute nudity. Their ornaments consist of small 

 collars made of stubble. Their dwellings around Port Jackson are made 

 of the branches or bark of trees ; elsewhere they seem to consist in a sort 

 of nests formed of interwoven branches, and covered with bark. 



The care which they bestow upon their tombs serves to indicate their 

 belief in a future state. In general, it has been observed that they burn 

 their dead, and inter the ashes with a religious veneration. Their industry 

 is confined to the construction of lines for hunting and fishing, the product 

 of which is devoured on the spot, after being roasted over a wood fire, which 

 they always carry along with them. The women are treated with con- 

 tempt, compelled to the most laborious occupations, such as carrying their 

 utensils and children, while the man walks about leisurely with nothing 

 but a javelin in his hand. They also prepare the food, of which they 

 are only permitted to eat the fragments rejected by their masters. The 

 pungent root called dingona is gathered and prepared by the women for 

 their own use, and only eaten by the men in times of scarcity, when the 

 cliase is unsuccessful. Their canoes vary with the tribes ; near Port 

 Jackson these are formed of a solid piece of the bark of tlie Eucalyptus 

 joined tightly together at each extremity. They have some rude ideas of 

 drawing and music, and their dancing consists in an awkward imitation 

 of the leaps of the Kanguroo. 



Their languages, differing in every tribe, are nearly unknown to 

 Europeans.* 



2. Melaninus. — Oceanic Negroes. 

 Syn. H. Melaninus. — Bory, Ess. Zool. II. 104. 



ALFOUROUS-EsnAMENES. — Less, et Garn. Zool. de la Coq. I. 102. 



Negre Oceamenne. — Desmoul. Tab. 

 Icon. Less, et Garn. 5 Zool. de la Coq. t. I. (Cranes d'Alfourous-Endamenes). 



Labillardicre, Voy.'' pi. VII. and VIII. 



Quoy et Gaim. Zool. de I'.^str. pi. .3. 



The indigenous population in the Islands of the Indian Archipelago 

 appears to have consisted of a black race, which has been extirpated in 

 some islands, and in other places driven to the mountains of the interior, 

 as the ancient history of Malacca confirms. This nation, with Hack skins, 

 coarse, black, and straight hair, live in places inaccessible to the other 

 races, and are known by various appellations. The central plateau of 

 the Molucca islands is now occupied by the Alfooroos or Haraloras, and 

 of the Philippines by los Inr/inx of the Spaniards. At Mindanao, they 

 are styled Ins Xegrnx del mnnte ; at Madagascar they are the Vinzimbers, 

 or native inhabitants of that island, and at New Guinea, they are styled 

 Kndamcna:. 



The Oceanic Negroes live in tlie most savage and miserable manner. 

 Always at war with their neighbours, they arc wholly occupied in avoid- 

 ing the ambuscades and pit-falls laid for their destruction. It is therefore 

 with difl^culty that they can be examined by Europeans, who visit only 

 the coasts. The Papoos represent their enemies of the mountains as 

 ferocious, cruel, and vindictive, without the knowledge of any art, while 

 their entire lives are occupied in obtaining a scanty subsistence in the 

 forests. M. Lesson considers this description as exaggerated by the 

 hatred of the Papoos. Those seen by him had a repulsive expression of 

 countenance, their nose flattened, their cheek-bones prominent, their eyes 

 large, their teeth inclining outwards, their limbs long and meagre, their 

 hair black, thick, coarse, and straight, but of no great length, and their 

 beards very coarse and thick. An expression of extreme stupidity was 

 impressed upon their features, perhaps owing to the individuals examined 

 being in slavery. These Oceanic Negroes, whose complexions were of a 

 dirty brown nearly approaching to black, went entirely naked. They 

 had incisions upon the arms and chest, and carried a small stick about 

 six inches long in the partition of the nose. Their countenances were fe- 

 rocious, and their movements capricious. The Southern Coast of New 

 Guinea is probably inhabited by the Endamenes of the interior. 



' Less, et Garn. Zool. de la Coq. tome I. p. 46. 

 ' Fisch. Sj-n. Mam. p. 4. 



^ See the Voyages of Phillips, Collins, White, D'Entrecasteaux, Peron, Flinders, Grant, King, &c. &c. 

 Journal of two Expeditions into the Interior of New South Wales, undertaken hv order of the British Government, in the years 1817-18. By John O.xlev. Lon- 

 don, 1820. ' J 1 J 



^^^^* ^"^ Garn — ZooL. he la Coq Voyage autour du monde, execute par ordre du Roi. Sur la corvette de sa JIajeste la Coquille, pendant les annees lo2;i k 



IMS, par M. L. 1. Duperrey. Zoologie, par MAl' Lesson et Garnet. Paris, 1826, et suiv. 

 6 LabUlardiere, Voyage a la recherche de La Perouse. Paris, an. VIII. 



