INDIAN BOAT DESIGNS. 227 



based upon my own work in this region, reinforced by that of Alexander on South 

 Sea types, of Haddon on those of Torres Straits and Australia, and by the references 

 to this subject found in the literature of Pacific and Australasian travel. 

 Outrigger boats are divisible into two classes : 



K.^Douhle outriggers, i.e. those having an outrigger float boomed out on 



each side, and 

 B. — Single outriggers ; those with an outrigger float on one side only. 



Both these main divisions are again subdivided according as they have [a) one or 

 two, or {h) multiple (three or more) transverse poles (booms) connecting the boat or 

 dug-out with the outrigger float. A further distinction is concerned with whether the 

 boom be attached (I) directly thereto, or (II) indirectly by means of an inter- 

 mediate joint which may consist of a variety of devices amongst which the most note- 

 worthy are (i) straight sticks or stanchions, (2) obliquely placed rods, straight or 

 curved, (3) U, Y, and O'shaped pieces, and (4) spliced elbow intermediaries. 



Plotting the distribution of these varieties upon a chart of the world, we find that 

 single outriggers with a small number of booms are characteristic of two distinct and 

 widely severed regions. The first comprises India, Ceylon, the Maldives, the Nicobars 

 and the western coast of Sumatra (Mentawei Islands) ; the second, the whole of 

 Polynesia, Micronesia and Papuasia excepting the extreme west of New Guinea. 



Those with multiple booms are confined to Oceania, the north coast of Australia 

 (east coast of N. Queensland), and the Andaman Islands, localities far apart racially 

 and geographically. 



The range of double outriggers like that of the 2-boomed single outriggers is split 

 up into two far-severed regions, the more extensive comprising the whole of the 

 Philippines, Celebes and Moluccas, together with their dependent islands, the 

 western extremity of New Guinea, and, further south and west, the islands of 

 lyombok, BaH, Madura and Java. (Timor and Timorlaut I have not visited). The 

 lesser area of distribution comprises the isolated region of Madagascar and the Comoro 

 Islands with an extension to East Africa where it is found on the coast between Dar- 

 es-Salaam and Lamu. The finest double outrigger canoes are those of East Java, BaH, 

 the Philippines and the Celebes, where the coast people are more intelligent and enter- 

 prising than those to the eastward ; these have usually two booms on each side in the 

 case of smaller boats with three in the larger. These are attached to the float either 

 directly or b}^ a strong elbow joint. The most primitive appear to be the multiple- 

 boomed outriggers of Western New Guinea, where as many as ten cross poles are 

 employed, attached by upright stanchions to a soft wood float on either side. 

 The Papuasian (Papua + Melanesia) type of single outrigger which includes also that 

 of Tonga, Fiji, and Samoa, is almost always of the stanchion type, whereas the 

 true Polynesian, meaning thereby the northern and eastern sections of Polynesia, 

 has either direct or bracket connection between the booms and the float. Direct 

 connection is also the characteristic of the single outriggers of India and Ceylon. 



If we consider the Negritoes and the Oceanic Negroes (Papuasians) to have been 

 the first inhabitants of Malaysia and Papuasia, and the proto- Polynesians as the next 



