MELANESIA AND ITS PEOPLE. 
Melanesia is the geographical name given to various groups of islands 
in the Southwest Pacific. These are the nearest of the Pacific Islands 
to Australia and they lie in a semicircle off the northeast coast of that 
continent. New Caledonia, the southern end of the arc, is the nearest 
to Australia, and New Britain and New Ireland, lately acquired by 
the Australian Expeditionary Forces, form the northern end of the arc. 
The groups in the arc are five in number, the Bismarck Archipelago 
and the Solomons in the North, Santa Cruz in the center, the New 
Hebrides and New Caledonia in the South. The Admiralty Islands 
are included under the Bismarck Archipelago; the New Hebrides 
include the subgroups of Banks and Torres, and the Loyalties are asso- 
ciated with New Caledonia. The term Melanesia belongs properly 
to all of these groups of islands. Certain other groups lie outside the 
arc, but rank as Melanesian, to wit, Fiji and the islands which lie 
off the southeast coast of New Guinea, the Trobriands, D’Entre- 
casteaux, Woodlark, and the Louisiades. 
Etymologically, Melanesia ought to mean “‘black islands,” just as 
Polynesia means “‘many islands” and Micronesia ‘“‘small islands,” 
but considering the wonderful verdure and greenness of the Melanesian 
islands one can only infer that those who named them originally had 
in their minds the comparatively dark skins of the inhabitants and 
that this distinguishing feature of the people was used as a means of 
designating the islands where they dwelt. Doubtless to the eye of any 
one accustomed to the lighter-skinned peoples of Polynesia these 
Co ioe 
islands of the Southwest Pacific would seem to be “islands of the 
blacks.”’ 
Several external characteristics of the Melanesian peoples serve to 
distinguish them from the Polynesians: (1) Shortness of stature, the 
average height of the males being possibly 5 feet 4 inches and of the 
females 4 feet 1014 inches; (2) a chocolate-colored skin; (3) bushy 
hair, frizzed and tangled and standing erect, owing probably to the 
incessant teasing of it by the native combs. 
The languages spoken in Melanesia vary considerably among them- 
selves, but on examination they are shown to possess common features 
and to have a very large underlying sameness. ‘The external resem- 
blances, however, between the Melanesian languages are much less 
than those between the languages of Polynesia; ¢. g., the external 
resemblances between Maori and Samoan are far greater than those 
between Mota and Florida. The witness of language would enable 
us to decide at once that Fiji belongs to Melanesia, though its prox- 
imity to Polynesia has largely affected the customs and habits and 
probably also the religion of its people. Similarly the peoples of the 
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