ANTHROPOLOGICAL RESULTS. 



403 



light shades were reported exactly from those régions '), where I expected them least of ail, 

 namely in that of the Gulf-Papuans. KOCH calls the Tugeri in the neighbourhood of Merauke 

 coffee-brown, and often lighter [82]. MAC GREGOR writes about the same people : "many of 

 them are of a light brown colour" and he also applies this qualification to the physically 

 much less developed inhabitants of the hinterland [4]. PôCH [145] mentions the colour of 

 the Tugeri as "hellbraun, manche auffallend hell." BEAVER [8] reports about "light skinned 

 Morehead-people (vvho are neighbours of the former). The habitants of the middle-Fly-river 

 are described [143, 19 14] as being of the Morehead- and Bensbach-river-type, but lighter, 

 sometimes even lighter than the "Motu-crew", being the Papuo-Melanesian crew of the 

 Government-steamers. Going more eastward, vve find stated by Smith in the report of the 



Diagram XXVI. 



" *l '— — 



'"" — ; , 



Standing Height. 



Kikori-expedition [143, 191 1] that in the interior there is so much différence in colour that 

 he thought of admixture of Papuo-Melanesian blood. Mac GREGOR [5, 1894] writes in the 

 same spirit about the Purari-hinterland ; there too people are very light-coloured, sometimes 

 lighter than the Motu. BEAVER [8] who states the same on the Kikori-habitants as SMITH, 

 déclares having found so more often among mountaineers. It seems to hâve been this very 

 différence in colour that, in 1880, induced d'Albertis [2] to distinguish two races and to 

 write: "The yellow race possesses the East and the black the West, but both hâve reached 

 the centre". MURRAY [133] agrées partially with this conception, but he thinks the word race 

 too strong and he should like to say brown instead of yellow. The Dutch Military Explo- 

 ration [125] refers several times to the lighter colour that the inlanders hâve in respect of 

 the coast-people. That lighter skins are found among the Papuo-Melanesians on the Eastern 

 coast of the Papuan Gulf, will not surprise, as Polynesian influence may also be deduced 

 from the occurrence of lank hair and the Mongolie eye. But in which way the influence of 

 the sea-faring Oceanians should hâve penetrated into the darkest régions of New-Guinea, such 

 as the Gulf-hinterland and the upper Fly-river, is difficult to understand. Therefore I feel 

 inclined to the idea that the dark skin-colour is no more an obligatory characteristic of the 

 Papuans than their high stature or their dolichocephalic skull. 



Concerning the short-statured inhabitants of the high central-mountains, the following 



1) Apart from the eastern peninsula; among the Papuo-Melanesians the lighter skins are very common but con- 

 sidérée! not to be of autochthonous origin. 



Xova-Guinea VII. 4. Ethnographie. 51 



