Australia. We shall not adopt the ordinary names of Melanesians, Alfurs, Harafurs, Negritos or Australian negroes, for all these appellations have been so loosely used that their application has become ambiguous. 10 For instance, certain Alfurs on the island. of Celebes are described as having physical characters which clearly show that they are Malays; and it has become customary in the Dutch settlements to describe as Alfurs any so-called savages, even when they are undoubtedly of Malay origin, as in the case of the Batta of Sumatra, and of the Dyaks of Borneo." We therefore prefer to call the remnants of the aboriginal population of these islands Asiatic Papuans. To these belong the Aëta of the Philippines, who have preserved their racial characters in full purity; but this applies only to the few bands on the northeastern shore of Luzon. In Petermann's Mittheilungen for 1876, Dr. Meyer proves that the so-called Negritos of the Philippines are pure Papuans. Karl Semper found their average stature to 4 feet 7 inches in the case of men, and 4 feet 4 inches in that of women. In common with the Australian Papuans, they have woolly crimped crowns of lustreless hair and flat noses widening below. Their skin is not black, as the Malay name of Aëta would lead us to expect, but of a dark copper-colour. The lips are a little intumescent, and the jaws slightly prognathous. These hunting tribes, unlike Malays, use bows and arrows. 12 be If we may judge from a photograph copied by Jagor,1 the Negritos of Mariveles, and the Negritos of the north of Luzon might be classed as Aëta. At present we should be justified in classing this aboriginal people, which has now been supplanted and nearly extirpated by the Malays, with the Australian Papuans. We assign to them the value of a subdivision, but it is as a precaution, for we require more accurate researches than have yet been made to enable us finally to decide as to the position of their race. Several skulls which reached Berlin through Schetelig 46 On the natural limits of Asia and Australia, see Peschel's Neue Probleme der vergleich. Erdkunde,” p. 26. Leipsic, 1869. 10 Waitz, Anthropologie, vol. v. 11 Riedel in Zeitschrift für Ethnologie. 12 Karl Semper, Die Philippinen. 1866. 1871. 18 Reisen in der Philippinen. Negritos and Mincopies. 341 as those of Negritos of the island of Luzon, had, according to Virchow's measurements, a relative breadth of 808 to 906, with a relative height of 776 to 82.3. They were therefore brachycephalic, of small height, prognathism, chiefly due to the position of the alveoli, was strongly marked in them, and the zygomatic arches were very prominent. The skulls were too greatly brachycephalic not to render us doubtful as to their relationship with the Papuans of Australia. It is quite possible that the form of these heads was of artificial origin, as Virchow strongly suspects. Moreover, Karl Semper states that the skulls in question all came from the mountains of Mariveles in the neighbourhood of Manila, the population of which has long ago lost its purity by intermixture.14 Scattered remnants of a former aboriginal population of Papuan race were also seen by Wallace at Sohoe (Sohu) and Galela on Halmahera. They have the Papuan crown of hair, are bearded, and are hairy on the body, but are at the same time as fair as the Malays. 15 17 Lastly, far to the westward are the Mincopies 16 of the Andaman Islands, a small race of men resembling the Papuans in the growth of their hair. As they shave their heads quite smooth with shells or the fragments of broken glass which are occasionally washed upon the shore, this statement may appear somewhat strange, yet the tufted matting of the hair was observed on Mincopie prisoners at Moulmein, by A. Fytche, who describes their skin as "sooty, not black," and notes the total absence of beard. 18 Those who depend exclusively on the character of the hair may regard the Mincopie as the western advanced post of the Papuan race, and must suppose that the latter, at some remote period, spread from the mainland of Southern Asia eastwards to the Australian Ocean. 19 This would be as good as proved, if, on account of their abundant beards and frizzly hair, accompanied, according to Logan's description, by a brown or black complexion, we may class the Semangs of the peninsula of 14 Die Palau-Inseln. 15 Malay Archipelago. 16 See above for a description of their manners, p. 147. 17 Helfer, in a description of a Mincopie in his journal, says: shorn on both sides, formed a curly comb of wool." 18 Petermann's Mittheilungen. 1862. "His hair, 19 Waitz, Anthropologie, vol. v. Malacca, who are a diminutive race of men, physically and intellectually feeble, and now in process of extinction, with the Asiatic Papuans. Latham, who has investigated their language, classes them with the Negritos, which according to him implies relation.ship with the Aëtas, and he scarcely admits that they bear any resemblance to the Andamanese, but places them unhesitatingly in the Malay group. 20 21 The languages of the Australian Papuans make use of roots of one or more syllables, and effect the definition of meaning by prefixes and suffixes, of which the primary signification has generally disappeared. Herr von d. Gabelentz, who examined and compared the languages of ten Papuan islands, discovered, amid all other differences in the vocabularies, an agreement in the mode of word structure. Besides this, a relationship with the Polynesian languages was everywhere shown; at any rate, the personal pronouns were analogous, and also several adverbs of place and a large number of prefixes. Among the latter is faka, which appears in all Papuan and Polynesian languages only as a prefix, but in Fiji may still be used as an independent word or as a suffix. The investigation led to the general conclusion that the Papuan languages have more in common with the Polynesian than could arise from merely borrowing from one another. These unquestionable facts involve a great problem, for from the agreement of the languages a common origin was inferred in the case of two races which are very distinctly separated by their physical characters. But the results obtained by Herr von d. Gabelentz admit of another interpretation. The vocabularies which he examined were collected in the Fiji group, on the New Hebridean islands of Annatom, Tanna, Erromango, and Mallikolo, on Marré and Lifu in the Loyalty group, on the adjacent island of New Caledonia, and lastly in Bauro (San Christoval) and Guadacanar of the Salomon group. Intermixture with Polynesians in all these islands has been proved, in consequence of which the Papuans have adopted Polynesian customs and manners. A fuller examin 20 Opuscula. London, 1860. 21 Von d. Gabelentz über die melanesischen Sprachen in the transactions of the philolol. histor. Classe der Kgl. Sächsgesellsch. der Wissenschaften. 1861. ation of the Papuan languages of New Guinea than any which, as we believe, has yet been made, can alone explain the linguistic relationship. The Papuan of New Guinea is clearly distinguished from the reserved and cautious Malay by his noisy, talkative, petulant, and inquisitive nature, and by his constant restlessness. The Papuans of New Guinea, the Fiji group, and New Caledonia, cook in earthen vessels, which are never found among Polynesians. The inventive powers of the Fijians are shown by their habit of dyeing and stamping their clothing material made of bark (Tapa), with gaudy patterns, like those of chintz, by means of carved wooden stamps or stencil-plates of banana leaves. The people of Humboldt's Bay in New Guinea, when the Dutch sailors gave them paper and pencil, which they could certainly never have seen before, drew fishes and birds with a firm hand.22 Wallace gives great weight to the fact that the Papuan decorates his house, his boat, and his utensils with carvings, and thus exhibits an artistic impulse of which the Malay race is almost entirely deficient. 23 But this latter is certainly only true of the Asiatic Malays, and in this case it may be ascribed to the circumstance that the trades and arts of semi-civilization were neglected and extinguished after a lengthened commercial intercourse with nations of superior refinement. The Polynesian Malays, on the contrary, greatly excel all Papuans in artistic carvings and tatooings. These latter, as their wide distribution over the sea shows, ventured upon the ocean early and perhaps earlier than the Malays, but have since then been far outstripped by the latter in nautical skill. The Papuans use unpierced stone implements, 24 though in the west of New Guinea the knowledge of iron ore and the art of smelting has become general. From the fact that bellows with tubes and pumps of Malay type 25 are used in the latter process, we may infer that this advance came from the West. After the age of maturity the women always wear the liku, or 22 Nieuw Guinea ethnographisch onderzoocht. 1862. 23 Malay Archipelago, vol. ii. p. 447. 24 J. G. Wood, Natural History of Man. fringed girdle; among the men a cloth above the loins is customary, but on secluded shores and islands, a piece of bamboo, a rolled up leaf, a gourd, or a shell is considered sufficient for purposes of decency.26 Complete nudity in men is rare, but is said to occur in New Ireland.27 Bows and arrows as hunting weapons are found only in New Guinea and its immediate vicinity. Captain Cook observed from a distance on the south coast of this island a tube in the hands of the natives, who placed it as if for taking aim, after which a cloud seemed to issue from its mouth. If a report had been heard at the same time we should have had to suppose that the Papuans used fire-arms. But, according to Salomon Müller, a fine dust is blown from the tube, and signals are made by the direction of the cloud. 28 The Papuans live on the produce of such agriculture as the cultivation of trees. They possess only seedless varieties of the bread-fruit tree, so that they must have borrowed it from other nations. 29 Their fields and gardens are fenced. The New Caledonians build water conduits of great length to irrigate these. 30 They have no pigs, which with dogs are otherwise universal among the Papuans, and are their only domestic animals. This race has deeply degraded itself by cannibalism, which prevails in New Guinea, New Caledonia, the Fiji Islands, and probably in other parts inhabited by this race. Otherwise the Papuans of New Guinea and the smaller islands are praised for their chastity and morality, their respect for parents, and their brotherly affection.31 In the New Hebrides old people are buried alive, but it is probably, as in the Fiji Islands, at their own desire. The belief in a future life is strong; and as the state in which man abandons this world is believed to be his condition in the next, premature death is preferred to total debilitation. The horrible scenes which Williams describes at 26 Peschel, Zeitalter der Entdeckungen, pp. 321, 454. Prince of Wied, Reise nach Brasilien, vol. i. p. 377. 27 Père Lesson, Voyage autour du Monde. Paris, 1839. 28 Natuurlijke Geschiedenis der nederlandsche overzeesche bezittingen. Land en Volkenkunde. 1839. 29 Waitz (Gerland), Anthropologie, vol. vi. 30 Knoblauch. Ausland. 1866. 31 O. Finch, Neu-Guinea. |