DIFFERENCES OFTEN SLIGHT. 283 



is to shew that of the three races enumerated above, 

 the third is as different from the second, as the second 

 is from the first. In this investigation, I must 

 request the reader to bear in mind, that in propor- 

 tion as different races of men approach more nearly 

 to the simple state of the savage, so do the diffe- 

 rences between* them become less in amount and 

 therefore less obvious to the transient observer, 

 while at the same time these slight differences may 

 be as characteristic and important as much larger 

 variations between more civilized races. In the 



obviated. He separates the Australian from the Papuan races, 

 and classes them provisionally with the so-called Alfooras or 

 Harafooras. This last designation however ought at once to be 

 discarded, as I have no doubt Mr. Earl's derivation and explana- 

 tion of the word as given by Dr. Prichard are correct. There is 

 no one race of men answering to the Harafooras, it is a term that 

 has been used to signify any wild tribe of whom the speaker 

 knew little or nothing. 



Dr. Prichard alters the term Melanesian into Kelcenonesian, 

 and no doubt improves its etymology by so doing. It still how- 

 ever appears to me inappropriate, for either under the term Kelce- 

 nonesian or Oceanic Blacks you must include the Papuan and 

 Australian races, or confine it to the one when it is just as appli- 

 cable to the other. Neither do I think the distinction of colour 

 a good one, independently of this consideration, because some of 

 the Polynesian or Malay races, may be and I believe are just as 

 black as the Papuans or Australians. Some of the Madurese we 

 saw were as black as the Torres Strait Islanders for instance. I 

 do not see why, as the term Malay has been extended from the 

 particular nation, and made to include the race, the term Papua 

 should not also be extended from a tribe in the north-west corner 

 of New Guinea to include the whole of that race. 



