Chapter XI: Part I: The Primary Varieties of the Human Species (8)

The inability to combine articulations, which, when taken singly, are sufficiently easy of pronunciation, is another sign of deficiency of power over language, as an instrument, or medium, and, in some form or other, it is a common phænomenon; _e.g._, the sound of _s_, and the sound of[74]_tsh_, are pronounceable enough when taken singly; since we can say _shest_, and we can say _tshest_. The _combination_, however, of _stsh_ is difficult--at least to English organs. There is none such in our language; yet it is a favourite juxtaposition in the Slavonic tongues. Again, to a person unused to comparative philology, it may seem strange to be told that in the Finlandic dialects the combination of any two consonants in the same syllable, is rare: and that such words as _stab_, &c., in order to become pronounceable must be converted into _setab_, or _estab_, &c. Yet this inability to combine consonants with one another is, perhaps, the rule rather than the exception in language.

Again, without admitting the notion of an aristocracy amongst the elements of the alphabet, and calling sounds like _r_ and _s_ the _noble_ letters, just as gold and silver are designated as the _noble_ metals, we may ask whether their absence in some of the more uncivilized languages, is not a fact of some import in the natural history of Man. It seems so to the present writer.[75]

These episodical observations, however, form a long prelude to a very simple fact, viz.: that, as far as we are enabled to make a negative statement, the sound of _s_, wanting in many of the Polynesian dialects, is wanting in all the Australian ones.

_Incomplete numeration of the Australians._--The import of an Australian having no more than the three, four, or five first numerals, and being thereby as unable to count the number of the fingers of his hands, as that of the hair of his head, is less equivocal. It speaks, at once, to a _minimum_ amount of intellectual power. Nevertheless, the same inability occurs elsewhere; especially in certain languages of South America. The only vocabulary of Australia, where the numerals run beyond five, is that of King George's Sound, as given in Mitchell's Australia.

The political constitution (if so it can be called) of the Australians is preeminently simple, exhibiting a society of families rather than of tribes; and one of the facts connected with the evidence in favour of the unity of the Australian division of mankind is the remarkable distribution of families bearing the same name. The principal of these are the Ballaroke, the Tdondarup, the Ngotok, the Nagarnook, the Nogonyuk, the Mongalung, and the Narrangar.[76] Now, persons bearing one or the other of these names, may be found in parts of the country five hundred miles apart. Nor does this appear to be the effect of migration, since each tribe is limited by the jealousy of its neighbours to its own hunting-ground, beyond which it seldom passes.

Polygamy, in Australia, is what we find and expect to find. The practice of circumcision is what we find, perhaps, without expecting it. The habit of the children taking the name of the mother, will occur again in the south of India. The rule that a man cannot marry a woman of his own family-name will also re-appear, and that amongst the Indians of North America.

_The Kobong_[76]--"Each family among the Australians, adopts some animal or plant, as a kind of badge or armorial emblem, or, as they call it, its _kobong_. A certain mysterious connection exists between a family and its kobong, so that a member of the family will not kill an animal, or pluck any plant of the species to which his kobong belongs, except under particular circumstances. This institution again, which in some respect resembles the Polynesian _tabú_, though founded on a different principle, has its counterpart in the customs of the native Americans. Captain Gray observes, citing Mr. Gallatin, that among the Hurons,[77] the first tribe is that of the bear; the two others, those of the wolf and turtle. The Iroquois have the same divisions, and the turtle family is divided into the great and little turtle. The Sioux are named on a similar principle. According to Major Long, one part of the superstition of these savages, consists in each man having some totem, or favourite spirit, which he believes to watch over him. The _totem_ assumes the shape of some beast, and therefore they never kill or eat the animal whose form they suppose their totem to bear."

"_The ceremony of initiation._--When the boys arrive at the age of puberty (or about fourteen), the elders of a tribe prepare to initiate them into the duties and privileges of manhood. Suddenly, at night, a dismal cry is heard in the woods, which the boys are told is the _Bubu_ calling for them. Thereupon all the men of the tribe (or rather of the neighbourhood) set off for some secluded spot previously fixed upon, taking with them the youths who are to undergo the ceremony. The exact nature of this is not known, except that it consists of superstitious rites, of dances representing the various pursuits in which men are engaged, of sham fights, and trials designed to prove the self-possession, courage, and endurance of the neophytes. It is certain, however, that there is some variation in the details of the ceremony, in different places; for among the coast tribes, one of these is the knocking out of an upper front tooth, which is not done at Wellington, and farther in the interior. But the nature and object of the institution appear to be everywhere the same. Its design unquestionably is, to imprint upon the mind of the young man, the rules by which his future life is to be regulated; and some of these are so striking, and, under the circumstances, so admirable, that one is inclined to ascribe them to some higher state of mental cultivation than now prevails among the natives. Thus, the young men, from the time they are initiated, till they are married, are forbidden to approach or speak to a female. They must encamp at a distance from them at night, and if they see one in the way, must make a long detour to avoid her. Mr. Watson told me that he had often been put to great inconvenience in travelling through the woods, with a young man for his guide, as such a one could never be induced to approach an encampment where there were any women. The moral intent of this regulation is evident.

"Another rule requires the young men to pay implicit obedience to their elders. As there is no distinction of rank among them, it is evident that some authority of this kind is required, to preserve the order and harmony of social intercourse.

"A third regulation restricts the youth to certain articles of diet. They are not allowed to eat fish, or eggs, or the _emu_, or any of the finer kinds of opossum and kangaroo. In short, their fare is required to be of the coarsest and most meagre description. As they grow older, the restrictions are removed, one after another; but it is not till they have passed the period of middle age that they are entirely unrestrained in the choice of food. Whether one purpose of this law be to accustom the young men to a hardy and simple style of living may be doubted; but its prime object and its result certainly are to prevent the young men from possessing themselves, by their superior strength and agility, of all the more desirable articles of food, and leaving only the refuse to the elders.

"2. The ceremony of marriage, which, among most nations, is considered so important and interesting, is with this people one of the least regarded. The woman is looked upon as an article of property, and is sold or given away by her relatives without the slightest consideration of her own pleasure. In some cases she is betrothed, or rather promised, to her future husband in the childhood of both; and in this case, as soon as they arrive at a proper age, the young man claims and receives her. Some of them have four or five wives, and in such a case, they will give one to a friend who may happen to be destitute. Notwithstanding this apparent laxity, they are very jealous, and resent any freedom taken with their wives. Most of their quarrels relate to women. In some cases, the husband who suspects another native of seducing his wife, either kills or severely injures one or both of them. Sometimes the affair is taken up by the tribe, who inflict punishment after their own fashion. The manner of this is another of the singularities of their social system.

"3. When a native, for any transgression, incurs the displeasure of his tribe, their custom obliges him to "stand punishment," as it is called; that is, he stands with a shield, at a fair distance, while the whole tribe, either simultaneously or in rapid succession, cast their spears at him. Their expertness generally enables those who are exposed to this trial to escape without serious injury, though instances occasionally happen of a fatal result. There is a certain propriety even in this extraordinary punishment, as it is very evident that the accuracy and force with which the weapons are thrown will depend very much upon the opinion entertained of the enormity of the offence.

"When the quarrel is between two persons only, and the tribe declines to interfere, it is sometimes settled by a singular kind of _duello_. The parties meet in presence of their kindred and friends, who form a circle round them as witnesses and umpires. They stand up opposite one another, armed each with a club about two feet long. The injured person has the right of striking the first blow, to receive which the other is obliged to extend his head forward, with the side turned partially upwards. The blow is inflicted with a force commensurate with the vindictive feeling of the avenger. A white man, with an ordinary cranium, would be killed outright, but, owing to the great thickness of their skulls, this seldom happens with the natives. The challenged party now takes his turn to strike, and the other is obliged to place himself in the same posture of convenience. In this way the combat is continued, with alternate buffets, until one of them is stunned, or the expiation is considered satisfactory.

"4. What are called wars among them may more properly be considered duels (if this word may be so applied) between two parties of men. One or more natives of a certain part of the country, considering themselves aggrieved by the acts of others in another part, assemble their neighbours to consult with them concerning the proper course to be pursued. The general opinion having been declared for war, a messenger or ambassador is sent to announce their intention to the opposite party. These immediately assemble their friends and neighbours, and all prepare for the approaching contest. In some cases, the day is fixed by the messenger, in others not; but, at all events, the time is well understood.

"The two armies (usually from fifty to two hundred each) meet, and after a great deal of mutual vituperation, the combat commences. From their singular dexterity in avoiding or parrying the missiles of their adversaries, the engagement usually continues a long time without any fatal result. When a man is killed (and sometimes before), a cessation takes place; another scene of recrimination, abuse, and explanation ensues, and the affair commonly terminates. All hostility is at an end, and the two parties mix amicably together, bury the dead, and join in a general dance.

"5. One cause of hostility among them, both public and private, is the absurd idea which they entertain, that no person dies a natural death. If a man perishes of disease, at a distance from his friends, his death is supposed to have been caused by some sorcerer of another tribe, whose life must be taken for satisfaction. If, on the other hand, he dies among his kindred, the nearest relative is held responsible. A native of the tribe at Hunter's River, who served me as a guide, had not long before beaten his own mother nearly to death, in revenge for the loss of his brother, who died while under her cure. This was not because he had any suspicions of her conduct, but merely in obedience to the requirements of a senseless custom."[78]

In the notice of the _physical appearance_ of the natives of Waigiú and Rawack (p. 212), the statement that the _molar portion of the alveolar arch is thick_, is printed in Italics. This was for the sake of preparing the reader for an observation of Professor Owen's upon a peculiarity of the structure of the teeth of the tribes in question.

_a._ In the second upper molar, the connate character of the lateral fangs, which is common in Europeans, is extremely exceptional in Australians.

_b._ In the third upper molar three separate and well-developed fangs, exceptional with the European, are normal with the Australian.

THE TASMANIAN BRANCH OF THE KELÆNONESIAN STOCK.

_Area._--Van Dieman's Land.

_Physical appearance._--Negritos, with curly, frizzy, or woolly
hair; _i.e._, with the character of the Papua, but not within
the Papua geographical area.

The native population is nearly extinct; and but few specimens exist of their language.

It fell into, at least, four dialects--mutually unintelligible: probably into more.

Writers who are not, otherwise, over-prone to exaggerate differences, have separated the Tasmanians from the Australians; and this arrangement is followed in the present work. The physical difference is chiefly that of the hair. The language, as far as the imperfect vocabularies have allowed me to examine it, has fewer affinities with the southern dialects of Australia than even the known amount of dissimilarity between fundamentally allied languages prepares us for.

Furthermore--it was my impression, that such philological affinities as existed were with New Caledonia rather than Australia. If so, the philology and the physical appearance go together; and the Tasmanian population came _round_ Australia rather than _across_ it.

The present position, therefore, of the Tasmanians is provisional.

* * * * *

_Necdum finitus Orestes._--There are two other Negrito localities; which, _geographically_ speaking, are scarcely Amphinesian, and not at all Kelænonesian. From the latter area they lie wholly apart. With the Protonesian portion of Amphinesia they are less disconnected; indeed they seem, at first, to form a prolongation of the northern extremity of Sumatra.

I allude to two groups in the portion of the Bay of Bengal, on the Siamese side, almost parallel with the line of the continent, and forming a series of stepping-stones from Cape Negrais, in the Môn country, to the Malay island of Sumatra.

These are--1. The Andaman Islands. 2. The Nicobar Islands.

THE ANDAMAN ISLANDS.

_Native name of the inhabitants._--Mincopie.

_Nearest point of the Continent._--Cape Negrais.

_Language._--Apparently not monosyllabic. Not considered to be
Protonesian.

_Native Fauna._--Rats, hogs, dogs.

_Religion and habits._--Pagan cannibals.--_Lieutenant
Colebrook's Asiatic Researches_, vol. iv.

_Physical appearance._--Colour extremely dark, perhaps black.
Heads woolly, lips thick, noses flat. Stature small, limbs
ill-formed and slender, bellies prominent.

Little as the Andamans, from the ferocious character of the inhabitants, are known, they are noticed by the Arabian travellers of the twelfth century, and also by Marco Polo; the early accounts being quite as unfavourable as the late ones. "Angaman is a very large island, not governed by a king. The inhabitants are idolators, and are a most brutish and savage race, having heads, eyes, and teeth resembling those of the canine species. Their dispositions are cruel, and every person, not being of their own nation, whom they can lay hands on, they kill and eat."--_Marco Polo, Marsden's Translation_.

THE NICOBAR ISLANDS.

_Locality._--Between the Andamans and Sumatra.

_Nicobar._--Inhabitants copper-coloured, with oblique eyes, yellowish sclerotica, small flat noses, large mouth, thick lips, and black teeth; undersized. Hair strong and black; beard scanty. Ears large and perforated. Occipito-frontal profile brakhykephalic, the hinder part of the head being flat and compressed.

The Nicobars are the people who, from the year A.D. 1647, until a recent period, had the credit of having tails, like those of cats, which they moved in a similar manner. This arose from a mistake of Keoping, a Swede, who mistook for a caudal appendance a stripe of cloth hanging down behind. That there is no real prolongation of the _os coccygis_ is expressly stated by Fontana. The people _now_ supposed to present this anatomical peculiarity are a tribe from the interior of Africa.

The evidence of Keoping as to the cannibalism of the Nicobarians is more conclusive than his assertion as to their tails. Having "sent a boat on shore with five men, who did not return at night, as expected, the day following a larger boat was sent, well manned, in quest of their companions, who, it was supposed, had been devoured by the savages, their bones having been found strewed on the shore, the boat taken to pieces, and the iron of it carried away."

Their huts are raised from the ground, and entered by a ladder; inhabited by more families than one, and ornamented with boar-skulls. Marriages are easily formed, and easily dissolved.[79] The dead are buried; and for every person that dies a cocoa-nut tree is cut down; and his name is never afterwards mentioned.

The changes of the moon are productive of their great festivities; and it is by these only that they reckon; seven to each monsoon. At the beginning of the north-east monsoon a brisk trade, carried on by means of large canoes, begins with the other islands. The extent of this, and the amount to which it has introduced European articles of commerce is considerable; indeed, in the Carnicobar Island the Portuguese has partially become a _lingua franca_.

The habit of artificially flattening the back of the head is of more importance. It is a custom "to compress with their hands the occiput of the new-born child, in order to render it flat. By this method the hair remains close to the head; as nature intended it, and the upper fore-teeth very prominent out of the mouth." This is, apparently, so exclusively an American custom that its presence here is remarkable; and it is equally remarkable that the only other approach to it, is to be found in these parts. It is mentioned as being a practice of certain Arakan tribes.

The most characteristic disease is the _Cochin-leg_, a form of elephantiasis; arising, perhaps, from the extent to which their aliment is either fish or pork, to the exclusion of other sorts of animal food. Instances, too, of longevity, are said to be rare.

Malabar and Bengal settlers to a considerable extent make the Nicobarians a _mixed_, rather than a pure population.

_Carnicobar._--Inhabitants well made, but undersized, with Malay features.

_Chowry._[80]--South of Carnicobar. Trade between the Chowrians and Carnicobarians; the former selling canoes, the latter cloth.

Nancowry is described by Marco Polo, as being under the government of no king, the people being "little removed from the condition of brutes, all of them both males and females going naked, without a covering to any part of the body. They are idolators."[81]

One of the most remarkable of their customs is the way in which they celebrate the anniversary of the burial of any near relation, when "their houses are decorated with garlands of flowers, fruits, and branches of trees. The people of each village assemble, dressed in their best attire, at the principal house in the place, where they spend the day in a convivial manner; the men, sitting apart from the women, smoke tobacco and intoxicate themselves, while the latter are nursing their children, and employed in preparations for the mournful business of the night. At a certain hour of the afternoon, announced by striking the coung, the women set up the most dismal howls and lamentations, which they continue without intermission till about sunset; when the whole party gets up, and walks in procession to the burying-ground. Arrived at the place, they form a circle around one of the graves, when the stake, planted exactly over the head of the corpse, is pulled up. The woman who is nearest of kin to the deceased, steps out from the crowd, digs up the skull, and draws it up with her hands. At sight of the bones, her strength seems to fail her; she shrieks, she sobs, and tears of anguish abundantly fall to the mouldering object of her pious care. She clears it from the earth, scrapes off the festering flesh, and laves it plentifully with the milk of fresh coco-nuts, supplied by the bystanders; after which she rubs it over with an infusion of saffron, and wraps it carefully in a piece of new cloth. It is then deposited again in the earth, and covered up; the stake is replanted, and hung with the various trappings and implements belonging to the deceased. They proceed then to the other graves, and the whole night is spent in repetitions of these dismal and disgustful rites."[82]

* * * * *

By referring to p. 209, the reader will find that three questions connected with the distribution of the Polynesians--and, through them, with that of the Oceanic tribes, altogether stand over for consideration; these being--

A. The general question, as to their origin and distribution in respect to their connection with the Continent, and with each other. B. The date of the migrations. C. The inferences to be drawn from the existence of a darker-coloured population in areas more especially belonging to the brown and olive-coloured tribes.

A. Connection with the Continent of (1) The Kelænonesians, (2) The Polynesians.

1. A. _Of the Papua Kelænonesians._-The Papuans of New Guinea are, more probably, a continuation of the population of the Eastern Moluccas than aught else. This is what their geographical position indicates; and (such being the case) it is the _primâ facie_ doctrine. At the same time, they are a continuation of the black or black-like portion of the Moluccan area, rather than of the Mahometan Malays. The chief difference lies in the texture of the hair, a difference which has, most likely, been over-rated.

B. _Of the Australian Kelænonesians._--The _a priori_ view as to the source of the Australian population is complicated, as may be understood by looking at the distance between Cape York and New Guinea on one side, and that between Cape Van Dieman and Timor on the other. The difference in breadth between the interspaces of ocean in these two parts is nearly the same: that, however, of Torres Straits is the smaller;--besides which, there is a numerous series of islands which would serve as stepping-stones to emigrants from New Guinea; assuming that to be the line. Now as it is a general rule to derive the population of islands forming part of a series from the nearest inhabited point between the area under consideration and the Continent, _unless reasons can be shown to the contrary_, the apparent _primâ facie_ view is in favour of the south of New Guinea having peopled the north of Australia. Nevertheless, it not only is highly probable that such is not the case, but it is by no means certain that, _all conditions considered_, it is a correct view even _a priori_. In many instances those reasons for believing that one particular island has supplied a population to another, which are based on the principle of simple contiguity, are modified by the relations of the supposed _immediate_ source of population to the supposed _remote_ one; in which case, although the land and sea conditions between the two last links of the chain may be of the most favourable kind, those between the last link but one and the first, may be the contrary. Thus, in the case before us, the fact of Torres Straits being the narrowest portion of Ocean between Australia and the inhabited land, on the side of the continent next to it, _taken by itself_, constitutes a reason for deriving the Australians from the Papuans. It is complicated, however, by the circumstance of the line between New Guinea and the Continent being by no means of the most direct and straightforward sort. Hence, if there were any other point of inhabited land which should at one and the same time be not much farther from some part of Australia than New Guinea is from Cape York, and much nearer the _remote_ source (assumed to be on the Continent) of the Australian population, such a locality would divide with New Guinea the claims for having been the _immediate_ origin of the occupants of the great island in question; inasmuch as the slight difference between the favourable conditions of one kind, would counterbalance the preponderating conditions of another.

Now such a locality is really found in the case before us in the relations already noticed between the north-east point of Timor and Cape Van Diemen; so that, _upon the whole_, the _a priori_ views are as much in favour of the Timor range of islands, being the connecting link between Australia and the Continent, as they are in favour of New Guinea being so.

The distinction just indicated is of more importance, as illustrative of a general principle, than as a fact affecting the particular point in question. The special facts of the case are, in the mind of the present writer, in favour of Timor and _not New Guinea_, having been the quarter from whence Australia was peopled, the particular part of the Timorian stock being, of course, the darker, wilder, and, apparently, more ancient tribes of the west and of the interior.

2. _Of the Polynesians._--In investigating the relations between Polynesia and the Continent, with an exclusive view to the land-and-sea conditions between the different portions of the connecting series of islands, we should at once derive the population of the Eastern Archipelagoes from the islands which lay nearest to them on the west, and so proceed until we came to the Samoan Archipelago, to the Tonga group, or to the Fijis. These we should connect with the New Hebrides, or Solomon's Isles, and these last with New Guinea, the Moluccas, and the Continent. We should then assume a spread of the population, as far to the North and East as it had been found to occur westwards; and so derive the Micronesians from the northern Polynesians. We should not be afraid of even deriving the people of the Pelew Islands from the same quarter; the similarity of language and habits having already been recognised, and the distance between the Pelews and the nearest portion of Protonesia being greater than (or at least as great as) any interspace of ocean between Polynesia and the Continent. I say that this is what we should do if we looked exclusively to the discovery of that line of connexion where the land-and-sea conditions should be the most favourable; in other words, where the interspaces of sea should be the smallest. Nevertheless, in so doing we should, probably, commit an error in our inference, and certainly violate a principle in our method; a principle which has been suggested in a previous[83] part of the present Volume, and which is founded upon the circumstance of the population of the line of the Papuan Islands, being _not Amphinesian but Negrito_: so that the ethnological continuity, and the geographical continuity, disagree; a fact which throws us upon a line of greater geographical, but of less ethnological complexity; and in favour of which the probabilities arise out of a composition of the conflicting difficulties. This is the line from either the Philippines, or the northern Moluccas to the Pelews (_via_ Lord North's Isle, Sonsoral, or Johannes I.), the cluster of Goulou, the cluster of Yap, the Egoy Isles, the Lamoursek and Satawal groups; the Proper Caroline group, the Chains of Ralik, and Radak, the Tarawan group, the Navigators' Isles or Samoan Archipelago.

Now the Samoan Archipelago is very nearly the point from which we should have derived the _proper_ Polynesian population, had we taken the course of the Papuan islands; so that it constitutes a point wherein the two lines meet. Hence, if upon historical, philological, or any other points of external evidence, we gave a preference to the Samoan Archipelago, over the Tonga group, as the source of the population for other parts of Polynesia Proper, we should reduce the _general_ question as to the original of South Pacific islanders to that of the origin of the Samoans. This, however, is a matter of detail, of less importance than the recognition of the necessity of making the geographical continuity of the chain which connects the Polynesians with the Continent, agree with the ethnological. This can only be done by deriving the Polynesian population from Micronesia. In this case the stream of migration goes _round_ the Kelænonesian area, and not _across_ it.

The rule of taking, as lines of insular migration, those series where the _maximum_ interspaces of ocean are the smallest, has already been twice insisted on, and in both cases it has been qualified by the indication of particular reasons, which might, in certain cases, lead us to depart from it. These reasons have not been exhibited in detail. Two sorts, however, of them have occurred, as it were spontaneously, _i.e._, in the natural course of our investigations. These showed themselves, first in the preference given to Timor over New Guinea, as the origin of the Australian population; and next, in the case of Polynesia, just discussed. A _third_ sort will now present itself, _i.e._, _the effect of winds and currents_; since it is clear that it is easier to pass over a large interspace of sea with wind and current (one or both) in your favour, than over a small one with either one or both against you.

_The prevailing winds in the Pacific are against a line of insular migration, being from west to east, at all; since for three fourths of the year they blow from America towards Amphinesia rather than from Amphinesia to America._

_Valeat quantum._ All that can possibly be got would be a chance of three to one in favour of an American origin for the Polynesians, _provided that all other conditions were equal_. But this is not the case; the _a priori_ probabilities are neutralized by a vast difference in the maximum interspaces of ocean, and by the non-American character of both Micronesia and Polynesia.

It is most likely, then, that Polynesia Proper was peopled from Micronesia, and Micronesia from either the Philippines or the Moluccas.

C. The date of the migrations. This is either relative or absolute: _relative_ when we ascertain whether one division of the Oceanic populations migrated before or after another; _absolute_ when we fix the chronological date of a migration. As a general rule the latter is unattainable--Iceland and a few other areas, peopled within the historical period, forming the exceptions.

Respecting, then, the absolute date of the Polynesian migration, there is no reason why it should not be known _in particular islands_; for instance, in the Dangerous Archipelago, where only a small proportion of the clusters is peopled even at present, any given island may receive a population so late as this, the eleventh hour of the extension of the human species; yet it is evident that the knowledge of such a migration would throw but little light upon the broader question of the date of the Polynesian population _en masse_. Of this it may safely be said, that no important group has received its first occupants within the Polynesian _historical_ period. This, however, is but a short one.

Will the longer range of the _traditionary_ period supply any such information? I think not. Nevertheless it must be added, that in Nukahiva pedigrees run up to the eighty-fifth generation, the founders of them being connected with the first occupancy of the island. Even, however, if we admit so long a genealogy as an historical fact, it only gives the date for one particular island.

Proper _ethnological_ reasoning is, from its very nature, inapplicable to the investigation of a definite epoch in chronology; since it only begins where the evidence of testimony ends. Furthermore, it is only approximate, since it simply calculates, by means of an imperfect induction, the _minimum_ period required to account for differences; and the _maximum_ period that will account for resemblances; _e.g._ for the Polynesians to differ as they do from the Micronesian, a certain time must have elapsed; and for them to differ no more than they do, that time must have a limit.

Applied to the _relative_ date of the Oceanic migrations, ethnological reasoning gives for even the most recent of them, a geological rather than an historical epoch; and this is as much as it is safe to say. Its other probable conclusions are more definite.

1. Occupancy had begun in Australia before migration across Torres Strait had commenced in New Guinea.

2. Occupancy had begun in New Guinea before Polynesian migration had commenced in Protonesia. The first of these facts we infer from the physical differences between the Australian and the Papuan, taken with the fact that it is scarcely likely that the Papuans of Torres Straits would have failed in extending themselves to Australia had that island been unoccupied.

The second is an inference from the diversion of the Protonesian population from New Guinea to the Micronesian line, since the best reason that can be assigned for the Protonesians not having taken possession of the Papuan isles, is to be found in the assumption that they were previously inhabited.

This brings us to the third question, as to the import of the darker coloured populations in areas more especially belonging to the brown and olive-coloured tribes.--I do not see how we can consider these as aught else but the lighter-coloured populations in a ruder stage of society; since unless we take this view we must look upon them as the representatives of a separate section of the human kind; a supposition against which there are the two following objections.

_a._ That the difficulties respecting the population of the Polynesian area are just doubled by such an assumption; since instead of having to account for the undoubted Polynesians alone (a matter quite difficult enough of itself) we should then have to account for an earlier migration of Negritos as well.

_b._ That if such a previous migration had taken place, we should expect to find--considering the vast number of Polynesian islands--_at least one_ island where the blacker race remained unmixed, and (as such) speaking the original non-polynesian language, which is implied in the assumed independence of origin; since it is exceedingly unlikely that a second migration should have so nearly coincided with a former one as to people and leave unpeopled exactly the same areas. Now out of all the isles of the South Sea none presents the phenomenon of a pure black population, as determined by the double test of colour and of language.

On the other hand, it may be urged--_a._ That, although it may be a matter of doubt with competent judges whether improved physical and social conditions have so great an influence upon the colour of the skin and the texture of the hair as is imagined by some extreme thinkers on the point, it is generally admitted that they have _some_ influence.

_b._ That in some groups (and sometimes in particular islands) the identity of the darker and lighter-coloured population is beyond a doubt; coinciding, as it does, with such differences.

_c._ That transitional forms occur where it is wholly gratuitous to assume the influence of intermixture.

With this opinion our view of the relations between the continuous Kelænonesian areas and the areas of the mixed population would be as follows:--

_a._ That at a period anterior to the development of the proper Malay and Polynesian characters of the typical Protonesians, New Guinea and Australia were peopled from the Moluccas and Timor respectively; the immigrants having a type which might lose or gain Kelænonesian characters according to circumstances.

_b._ That the conditions of Protonesia and Polynesia favoured the change from dark to fair; those of New Guinea and Australia from fair to dark.

I will now add a remark of Mr. Blaxland from Mr. Jukes's Voyage of the _Fly_, which will further illustrate this position:--"The geographical boundary of the Papuan islander is precisely coincident with that of the north-west monsoon. This wind, from the months of November to March inclusive, is the prevalent one over all the space extending from the equator to 10° or 15° south latitude, and in longitude from Sumatra to the Fejee Islands. It is sometimes experienced to the west of Sumatra as far as the north of Madagascar, and it sometimes also extends to the east of the Fejee Islands into the Pacific Ocean; but these extensions are irregular, and its usual eastern boundary is precisely that of the Papuan race before described. Mr. Blaxland deduces from this fact, coupled with the little skill of that race in navigation, the inference, that they have travelled from the west into the Pacific Ocean, and extended their migration only as far as the monsoon allowed them."[84]

This gives us the following theory:--

1. That Kelænonesia was peopled when navigation was so much in its infancy as for the Protonesians to be limited in their migrations by the north-west monsoon.

2. That Polynesia was peopled when it was sufficiently advanced for the same people to be independent of it.

3. That the _differentiæ_ between the lighter and darker Protonesians is referable to the influences of Asiatic civilization.

The observations of Mr. Blaxland, taken along with the colour of the people, lead to the inference that the Fijis were peopled from Kelænonesia. The language, however, is against this. The conflict of difficulties is best reconciled by considering them a mixed race; of which the older element belongs to the line of population which supplied Kelænonesia with its inhabitants, the newer to the Polynesian system.

If this view be unsatisfactory we must consider them as members of the darker Polynesian population, with its differential characteristics at their _maximum_--a view probable enough of itself, but rendered suspicious by the fact of its occurring so precisely in the neighbourhood of Kelænonesia.

That they form a true transition between the Kelænonesians and Polynesians, _as a continuation_ of a line of population from the New Hebrides to Polynesia, is of all views the most improbable.

In the opinion of the present writer, the Fiji Islands are the localities where the stream of population which went _round_ New Guinea met, and amalgamated with the extremity of the line that came _across_ that country; the antagonism between the evidence of the language, the evidence of the physical conformation being the effect of the intermixture.

Respecting the ethnological relations of the Andaman and Nicobarian islanders, I am not prepared with an opinion.

* * * * *

The following facts connected with the Polynesian languages, are laid before the reader, less for the sake of enlarging the list of Polynesian peculiarities than as a preparation for certain philological phænomena, which will occur in the ethnology of America, and with the view of showing a process by which language, over and above the changes which are brought about by _natural_ changes, may be modified _artificially_--a point upon which we have few _data_, but plenty of extreme opinions.

_Ceremonial language of parts of Polynesia._--The Samoans, ceremonious to each other, are preeminently so towards their chiefs; one of their methods of showing respect being to eschew certain words in common use, when addressing a superior, and to substitute for them others, which are considered more refined. Hence, a careful speaker will never address a higher personage in the terms appropriate to an inferior one. To a common man, on entering a house, the salutation is _ua mai=you have come_.

To a householder, _ua alala mai_.

To a low chief, _ua malui mai_.

To a high chief, _ua susu mai_.

To the sovereign, _ua afio mai_.

In Tonga there are traces of a second order of ceremonial synonyms; _i.e._ over and above those ordinarily in use, there is a series for the particular _divine_ chief Tiutonga.[85]

CEREMONIAL. TIUTONGA. COMMON. ENGLISH.
Fofonga langi mata _face_.
Ilo taumafa kai _eat_.
Mamata taka tio _see_.
Ofai hala mate _dead_.
Tengitangi buluhi mahaki _sick_.
Toka tofa moe _sleep_.

In Tahitian, an excessively figurative manner of speech is said to supersede the proper system of ceremonial synonyms, the _houses_ of the chief being the _clouds of heaven_; his _canoe_, the _rainbow_; his _voice_, the _thunder_, and so on.

The names too of the chiefs are almost always significant, and almost always compound, and, in some cases, they run to a very considerable length, as _Tai-ma-le-langi=sea and sky_; _Tau-i-te-ao-bu=suspended in the blue heavens_; _Ta-lana-tupu-a-pai-ta-lani-nui=the sky increasing and striking the great heaven_. Now the owners of any such names as these are supposed to be complimented by the Tahitians ceasing to employ, in the language of their daily intercourse, one, or more, of the words which formed parts of them; so that, in the case of _Tai-ma-le-langi_, the syllables _tai_, _mai_, _le_, or _langi_, are lost to the common language, until the death of the chief, so designated. After his decease, however, they return to the language. In this way, between the voyages of Cook and Vancouver, no less than forty or fifty words had been superseded by new ones: indeed, of the first ten numerals, four are now different from what they were in Cook's time.

ORIGINAL FORM. PRESENT FORM.
2. Rua piti.
4. Ha maha.
5. Rima pae.
6. Ono fene.

_Note 1._--Since the notice of the Fiji Islands was written a youth of that group--_i.e._ from the island of Lafu--has been brought over to England by Mr. James Boyd, been presented at the Ethnological Society, and is now in London. The most remarkable point is a reddish tinge, clearly perceptible under a cross light, in his otherwise black and frizzy hair. If I am right in referring this shade to the use of alkaline washes used in youth for the purposes of whitening the hair, it shows the unsafeness of talking about _naturally_ red hair for any of Oceanic islands; since, in the case in question, it was upwards of five years since any alkaline wash had been applied.

* * * * *

_Note 2._--In _p._ 184. I have overstated the extent to which the notion that Polynesia Proper was peopled from Kelænonesia rather than from Micronesia was _general_. Although not found (as far as I know) in any of the systematic works on the subject of human migration, it is by no means singular. It is the opinion of Mr. Norriss, and--subject to an alternative--the recorded opinion of Mr. Jukes, who writes,--

"The Papuan race exclusively possesses the islands on the north-east of Australia, namely, New Guinea with New Britain and New Ireland, the Solomon Islands, the islands called Tierra Austral del Espiritu Santo, and the New Hebrides, and New Caledonia. It extends also to the Feejee Islands, where it is more or less mingled with the Polynesian race, and where the language appears to be of Polynesian origin. It is probable that from New Caledonia proceeded the colony, or whatever it was, that reached Tasmania, and there mingled with the Australian race. To the westward of New Guinea scattered tribes, apparently of Papuan race, are said to occur in the interior of many islands as far west as that called Endé Flores or Mangeray, and as far north as the Philippine Islands. It has even been said that the Andaman Islands, in the Bay of Bengal, are inhabited by a people much resembling the Papuans, and I have been struck with the similarity of many of their customs to those which are said to characterize some of the wild hill tribes in the centre of India. I believe, however, that many of the stories of tribes of people being found in the various parts of the Archipelago, must be received with much caution, and that most of the wild people so described will be found, like the Dyaks of Borneo, or the wild tribes of the Malacca Peninsula, to be really of Polynesian race. A mingling of the Papuan race with the Australian, probably takes place at the present day in the neighbourhood of Torres Strait, but not, perhaps, to so great an extent as might be expected, for I am inclined to think that the Australians give way and retreat before the islanders. * * * * Whatever may have been the origin of the Polynesians, it is certainly most probable that their reason for going round these Papuan islands (whether from the east or west), and not taking possession of them, was the fact of their being previously inhabited by the Papuans."[86]

FOOTNOTES:

[49] Terms applied to geographical distribution rather than to physical conformation; _Malay_ and _Negrito_ being terms expressive of physical conformation rather than of geographical distribution.

[50] History of Sumatra, p. 383.

[51] History of Sumatra, p. 41.

[52] Marsden's, History of Sumatra.

[53] History of Sumatra, p. 53.

[54] Prichard, vol. v.

[55] A division of the Kelænonesians.

[56] The _g-_ pronounced as in _get_.

[57] Rajah Brooke's Journal, vol. i. p. 83.

[58] Brooke, vol. ii. p. 65.

[59] Description des Isles Philippines.

[60] From Prichard, vol. v. p. 220.

[61] Page 302, &c.

[62] United States' Exploring Expedition.

[63] According to the map and nomenclature of Dumont Durville.

[64] In Tahitian, Taaroa.

[65] Beechey.

[66] _Amphi-nesian_, from _amfi_=_around_, and _næsos_=_island_; _Protonesian_, from _protos_=_first_; _Kelino-nesian_, from _kelainos_=_black_. This last term is Prichard's. I am aware that all these forms are, etymologically, incorrect. The first part is Greek, the termination, _-an_, Latin; so that they are impossible words in the language from which they are supposed to be taken. Still the forms _Polynesian_ and _Peloponnesian_, establish a convenient, though exceptionable, precedent.

[67] "This house resembled the smaller houses we afterwards saw in New Guinea, and it may have been erected merely in imitation of those the islanders have seen in that country. We afterwards saw, on Masseed, a solitary house like those of Darnley and Murray Islands."

[68] See page 168.

[69] Prichard. Vol. v., p. 232.

[70] Denoting that by some writers the Vanikoro tribes have been placed in another class. Their language has been considered as Polynesian rather than Papua.

[71] See p. 204.

[72] February 10, 1843.

[73] Vol. vi. p. 110.

[74] As the _ch_ in _chest_.

[75] A work of Purkinje on the distribution of the sounds in different languages, I know only from the reference to it in Müller's Physiology. The beautiful application of this by Professor Graves, of Dublin, will be noticed when speaking of the ethnology of Ireland.

[76] Captain Gray; from Prichard. Vol. v.

[77] _Qu?_--Delawares.

[78] United States' Exploring Expedition, vol. vi.

[79] Parum fecundæ mulieres; apud quas quinta Lucina rarissimum. Viri inculpantur; quorum Venus plerumque præcox et effræna, ebrietas perpetua.

[80] Zoffany; Asiatic Researches, vol. ii.

[81] Marsden's Translation, p. 619.

[82] Asiatic Researches, vol. iv. p. 131.

[83] Page 185.

[84] Vol. ii. p. 251.

[85] See p. 193.

[86] Voyage of the _Fly_, p. 251.

D.

HYPERBOREAN MONGOLIDÆ.

We are now in Siberia rather than in Central Asia; along the courses of large rivers rather than at their head-waters; and in a region of _tundras_, or flat barren morasses, rather than on elevated steppes. We are also in the country of the rein-deer and dog rather than the horse and sheep. Fishing and fur-hunting, too, will form a portion of the occupations of the Hyperborean Mongolidæ. These conditions, different as they are in many respects from the general conditions of the Turk and Mongolian Turanians, have still been met with before, _i.e._ with the Northern Ugrians, the Northern Tungusians, and the Yakuts. One of the nations about to be enumerated, occupies the most northern portion of the inhabited world, _i.e._ the Samöeids of the Northern promontory of Asia.

HYPERBOREAN NATIONS AND TRIBES.

_Physical conformation._--Undersized Mongols.

_Languages._---Agglutinate; neither monosyllabic nor
pauro-syllabic.

_Political relations._--Subject to either Russia or China.

_Religion._--Shamanism or imperfect Christianity.

_Distribution._--The coasts of the Arctic Ocean; the courses of
the Yenisey and Kolyma. Area _discontinuous_.

_Divisions._--1. The Samöeids, 2. The Yeniseians. 3. The
Yukahiri.

The discontinuity of the Hyperborean area is to the following extent:--

_a._ The Samöeid class falls into two divisions, a northern and a southern; and these are separated from one another by Turk, Yeniseian, and Ugrian tribes.

_b._ The Yeniseians are surrounded by Ugrians, Turks, and Tungusians, with which they have less affinity than with the Samöeids, from whom they are separated.

_c._ The most western Yukahiri are separated from the most eastern Samöeids by Yakut Turks and Tungusians.

This discontinuity of area must be taken along with two other facts.

_a._ That the Hyperborean nations are nations of a _receding_ frontier.

_b._ That the Turks, Tungús, and (in relation to the Hyperborean), the Ugrians, are nations of an _encroaching_ frontier. These give, as an inference, the probability of the three separate divisions having once been continuous; so that the original Hyperborean populations must be considered to have been broken up, and partially superseded by the Turks and Tungusians, and to exist, at present, only in the form of fragments.

SAMÖEIDS.

_SOUTHERN DIVISION (SOIOT)._

_Localities._--_a._ The parts around Lake Ubsa, within the
limits of the Chinese Empire; the river Bashkus, which expands
into the Lake Altin, or Teleakoi, and becomes one of the
sources of the Obi.

_b._ Tunkinsk, on the south-west extremity of the Lake Baikal,
within the Russian territory.

_c._ Abakansk on the left branch of the Upper Yenisey. From
Abakansk, they moved eastwards in A.D. 1618.

_d._ The River Uda between the two branches of the Upper
Yenisey.

_Tribes._--_a._ Of the Lake Ubsa, the Uriangchai or Soiot.

_b._ Of the Uriangchai, the Bagari, the Matlar, the Tozhin, the
Ulek.

_c._ Of Abakansk; the Matorzi, or Motori, and Koibal. Probably
now extinct; since in 1722, only ten families of the Modori
remained. The Kamash.

_d._ Of the Uda; the Karakash.

_Conterminous_ with the Mongols, Tungusians, Yeniseians, and
Turks. Separated by the last two from the Northern Samöeids.

_Vocabularies._--Of the Motori, Koibal, and Kamash.

_NORTHERN DIVISION (KHASOVO)._

_Area._--From the Mezene, between the Petchora and Archangel,
and falling into the White Sea, to the Chatunga in 105° east
longitude, along the coast of the Arctic Ocean, and on the
lower courses of the Petchora, Obi, and Yenisey.

Southwards; on the Yenisey to Turokansk, on the Obi, as far as
Tomsk. This is their nearest point to the Southern Samöeids.

_Conterminous_ with the Yakuts and Tungusians(?) on the east,
the Yeniseians and Turks on the south, and the Ostiaks and
Russians on the west.

_Name._--Of the northern Samöeids on the River Tas, between the
Yenisey and the Obi, _Mokase_. Of those of the Lower Obi and
White Sea, _Khasovo_=_men_.

Some of the Samöeid tribes are improperly called Ostiaks.

Called by themselves _Nyenech_=_men_.
" ---- _Khasovo_=_men_.
" the Obi Ostiaks _Jergan-yach_.
" Tungusians _Dyândal_.
" Syranians _Yarang_.
" Woguls _Yorran-kum_.
" Russians _Samöeid_.

_Vocabularies._--1. From Pustoserk, at the mouth of the
Petchora. The north-westernmost locality.

2. From Obdorsk, at the mouth of the Obi.

3. From the River Tym, on the right side of the Obi.

4. From the River Ket, _ibid._

5. From Narym between the two.

6. From Pumpokolsk north of the Tym.

7. From Tomsk, the southernmost locality.

8. From the parts between the Obi and Yenisey, the Yurass, the
Tas, Mangaseia vocabularies.

9. From Turuchansk.

10. From the east of Turuchansk. The Karass vocabulary.

11. From the parts about the Chatunga. The Tawgi vocabulary.
These the most easterly specimens.

12. The Laak vocabulary.

Of all the tribes of Siberia the Samöeids are nearest to the Eskimo, or Greenlanders, in their physical appearance. Varieties, however, have been described; some tribes having been called _tall_, others _fair_. The general character is that of the Laplander, and the Eskimo--the other circumpolar divisions of the human species.[87]

The Koibals are in all probability the most advanced of the Samöeids--being the owners of herds, flocks, horses, and camels(?).

As early as A.D. 1096, the term _Samöeid_ appears in the Russian chronicles, and it is to be found again in the Travels of Plan Carpin, a hundred and fifty years later.

YENISEIANS.

_Locality._--Each side of Yenisey, limited by the Northern
Samöeids between Inbask and Turuchansk, and by the Southern
Samöeids and Turks, in the neighbourhood of Krasnoiarsk. On the
west are the south-eastern tribes of the northern Samöeids. On
the east Tungusians and Turks.

_Native name._--Könniyüng.

_Vocabularies._--1. Inbask. 2. Pumpokolsk. 3. Assan. 4. Kott.
5. Arinzi. 6. Denka.

YUKAHIRI.

_Native name._--Andon-Domni. Called by the Koræki
Atal=_spotted_, from wearing rein-deer skins.

_Locality._--Valley of the Kolyma, originally of the Yana and
Indijirka also.

_Particular tribes._--1. Tsheltiere, on the River Omolon.
2. Omoki, on the Atasey. 3-4. Tshuvantsi and Kudinski on
the Anisey. 5. Konghini, on the Kolyma. 6. Shelagi, on the
promontory of Shelagskoi Noss.

_Conterminous_ with the Yakut Turks, the Lamut Tungusians, and
the Koriaks.

The Yukahiri, although said to have been, even as late as the beginning of the last century, a powerful people, are at present rapidly diminishing. The Omoki and Shelagi are either extinct, or nearly so. So also, most probably, are the Tseltiere, the Kudinski, and the Konghini. Laying out of the account the influence of Russia, the northern Koriaks on the east, the Yakuts on the west, and the Lamut Tungusians on the south, have been the chief encroaching tribes.