CHAI-. xxxvj.] MJUr^ ASD PAPUANS. 



529 



Uomy, while thu iiilhix of jieople from those plaeea, and 

 of slaves, lias led to the foniiatiou of a tribe cxhibitkig 

 almost fill thij tmiisitious i'rom a ne4irly ])uru Malayan to 

 an entirely Pajman type. The language ^poktn l>y tliem is 

 entirely rapuuii, being that which is ased on all the coasts 

 of ilyiiol, Salwatty, the nuilh-we.^t of New Guinea, and the 

 islands in the gi'eat tSeelvink Iky,— a I'aet which indicates 

 the way in which the coast settlements have l)C(;u IVirmed, 

 The fact that so many of the islands between New Gninea 

 and the Moluccas — such jis Waigiou, Gnebe, Poppa, Obt, 

 Batchian, as well iis tlie south and east peuinsuias of 

 GUolo— possess no aboiiginal trioea, but are inhabited by 

 ])eople who are evidently niongi*ek and wanderers, Is a 

 remarkable coiToboiiitive i>roof of the distinctness of the 

 Malayan and l*apmm rac^es, and the separation of the 

 geographical ai-eas they inhabit. • If these two great races 

 were direct tuoditi cations, the one of the other, we should 

 expect to lind in tlie intervening rt;gion some homogeneous 

 indigenous race ]U'esenting intermediate characters. Por 

 exiunple, between the whitest inhabitants of Europe and 

 the black Xliugs of South India, there are in the inter- 

 vening districts homogeneous races which form a gradual 

 transition from one to the other ; whUe in America, 

 although there is a ixji-fect transition frura the Anglo 

 Saxon to the negro, and from the Spaniard to the Indian, 

 tiierc is no homogeneous race forming a natural transition 

 from one to the other. Pn the Malay Archipelago we have 

 an excellent example of two absolutely distinct races, 

 'which appear to have appr(»ached each other, and inter- 

 mingled in an unoccnpied territory at a very recent 

 epoch in the histoiy of man ; and 1 feci satisfied that no 

 unprejudiced person could study them on the spot without 

 being convinced that this is the true solution of the 

 problem, rather than the almost universidly accepted view 

 that they are but moditications of one and the same race. 



The people of JIuka live in that abject state of poverty 

 that is almost always found where the sago-tree is abun- 

 dant. Very few of them Uxka, the trouble to plant any 

 vegetables or Iruit, Imt live almost entirely on sago and 

 fish, sehing a little tripang or tortoiseshcll to buy the 

 ecaiity clothing they requne. Almost all of tliem, how- 

 la M 



