552 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



Photograph from Dr. J. P. Thomson 



NEW GUINEA CHIEFS 



Rigid plaited frames, or curved bands with a groundwork of 

 split cane, which support the cassowary or paradise feather 

 head ornaments, are made by the men and worn at their dances. 

 Necklaces consist chiefly of various sorts of disk-like shells, 

 either cut or whole. Dancing aprons are made of bark cloth by 

 men and women, but colored by men only. The nose rings 

 are pencil-shaped pieces of shell about six inches long, which are 

 passed through a hole in the nose. 



of man than this great and enchanting 

 oceanic region, this seductive "Insu- 

 landia," midst reef and palm, perpetual 

 sunshine, and evergreen verdure, the 

 dream of romantic youth, the home of 

 early buccaneering enterprise, and the 

 scene of great human struggles in tribal 

 warfare, when the cannibal feast was 

 deemed a fitting celebration of victory on 

 the field of battle. 



Some attention must now be given to 

 the aboriginal inhabitants of Oceanica. 



Ethm logically consid- 

 ered, they naturally be- 

 long to two distinct 

 classes or divisions of 

 the human family, be- 

 ginning first of all with 

 the Polynesians, com- 

 prising the Maoris, Sa- 

 moans, Fijians, and 

 Tongans, whose racial 

 affinities are still in dis- 

 pute. In physical charac- 

 teristics they are round- 

 headed, narrow - nosed, 

 of a light-brown cafe- 

 au-lait color, with round 

 orbits and lank, black 

 hair. They are tall and 

 well set up. 



On the other hand, the 

 second division, known 

 to ethnologists as Mela- 

 nesians, are long-headed, 

 broad-nosed, of a sooty 

 black color, with low or- 

 bits, black, frizzly hair, 

 and are comparatively 

 short of stature. Intel- 

 lectually they are of a 

 lower order than the 

 former class, some being 

 cannibals and head- 

 hunters. 



In the primitive state 

 the Melanesians are sav- 

 age and not infrequently 

 treacherous, in contrast 

 to the Polynesians, who, 

 on the other hand, are al- 

 together a superior race 

 of people, intelligent and 

 capable of reaching a 

 high standard of culture, 

 as shown by the positions 

 they have gained in the 

 in New Zealand and in 



public service 

 Hawaii. 



But even the Melanesians of the pres- 

 ent, with the exception of those compara- 

 tively few natives living in remote and 

 isolated inland villages, are not the same 

 class of people as those met with in the 

 early days of missionary enterprise, when 

 pioneering intercourse was not always 

 attended with freedom from danger to 

 the white trader, recruiter of labor, or 

 planter. Now it is an easy matter to land 



