THE FRIENDLY AND OTHER ISLANDS 
495 
able area that they would meet with, and here they w^ould 
remain till an overflowing population drove them to seek 
fresh lands farther east. The slight mixture with the 
higher class of Melanesians which has occasionally taken 
place has tended to produce the tall and bulky bodies, 
the pronounced features, and the slightly curly or wavy 
hair which distinguishes them from all Mongolian tribes; 
while it has never been sufficient materially to affect the 
general lightness of their colour, which has, moreover, 
been favoured by the preference for the fairest women 
which they invariably show. 
Although the use of the word “ Polynesia ” as a col¬ 
lective name to include all the islands w T e have already 
mentioned has been sanctioned by general custom, it must 
be borne in mind that the title expresses a purely arbi¬ 
trary division, founded upon no geographical, national, 
racial, or linguistic basis. For if it were desired to take the 
connection of land as our guide, we should have no reason 
to exclude the Carolines and other islands of Mikronesia. 
Nationally, Polynesia has never formed a unit, for from 
the remotest times the people have been split up into 
innumerable tribes—the inevitable result of the small 
area and scattered distribution of the islands they inhabit. 
So, too, with regard to race or language. The Maoris of 
New Zealand are of the same stock as the Samoans, and 
the Motu, Kerapuno, and other tribes of Southern New 
Guinea speak dialects of the same widespread linguistic 
family. The name, therefore, of Polynesia must be taken 
only as a convenience to enable us to express certain 
islands and groups of islands in the Pacific which are in¬ 
habited by people of the same stock and linguistic family, 
but which do not by any means comprise the entirety of 
this people within their limits. 
The peculiarities of the languages of this Mahori 
