INDIGENOUS INHABITANTS. 23 



that fascinating — because so difficult — quest for the origin of the peoples we now find 

 on the islands of the Pacific. All admit they are not autocthonous, but theories of 

 their origin start both from the East and from the West. One claims that the Poly- 

 nesians, to take one of the more evident divisions of the islanders, came from the great 

 Malayan islands and worked eastward ; another contends that they had their origin in 

 South or Central America and were dispersed through the great ocean by the Trades ; 

 while another, admitting their Asiatic birth, claims that they not only crossed the 

 Pacific and peopled it, but continued their planting to the American continent. Let 

 the theories await more complete knowledge: in the meantime all theorists in this 

 domain are helping towards a final solution. 



We may, to save repetition in the list of island names of which this is an ex- 

 tended introduction, adopt the most common and perhaps most correct classification 

 into three main divisions without going beyond our region for relationships. These 

 are Papuan, Micronesian and Polynesian. With the first we place Australians and 

 the people of New Guinea, Pelew Islands, Bismarck Archipelago, Solomon Islands, 

 New Hebrides, New Caledonia, Loyalty Islands and Fiji. The Australians are strongly 

 differentiated from the others in mental if not in physical traits, and the Vitians are 

 strongly tinctured with Polynesian blood, but on the whole the islanders mentioned 

 agree in the following important matters ; flat and abundant hair on both head and 

 body ; skin dark — almost black in Australia, Solomon Islands and New Caledonia, 

 chocolate-colored in New Guinea, yellowish (from Malay admixture) in the Pelew Isl- 

 ands ; scar or paint the body, but do not tatu ; do not circumcise except in Australia, 

 Fiji and some islands of the New Hebrides; heads dolichocephalic, prognathous and 

 phanerozygomatic ; nose broad and hooked ; lips intumescent but not so full as in the 

 negro ; height medium ; chew betel rather than awa ; have artistic feeling in decora- 

 tion (especially in New Guinea and the Bismarck Archipelago); cook in earthen 

 vessels; are cannibals (except Australians and the Pelew Islanders); are noisy and 

 restless, decidedly democratic, have no kings nor hereditary chiefs ; show no sentiment 

 in favor of clothes ; are irreligious and exhibit great diversity of dialects. 



The Micronesian division includes the Marianas, Caroline, Marshall and Gilbert 

 groups. It is a debatable ground between the first and last divisions. The people are 

 a plainly mixed race of Papuan and Polynesian ancestry with considerable Malay ad- 

 mixture at the western end. They are less democratic than the Papuans, more so than 

 the Polynesians; use looms (as do also the New Hebrideans); are good navigators; 

 tatu to some extent (Carolines); considerable diversity of dialects with many Polyne- 

 sian roots. 



In the Polynesian Group are the Hawaiians, Samoans, Tahitians, Marquesans, 

 Tongans, Paumotuans and Maoris. They have long, black, cylindrical hair, little of 



it on body, hence addicted to tatuing in which they excel; brachycephalic, and not 



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