Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 15.djvu/73

with Jewish noses, and woolly hair, using bows and arrows, and living in houses a hundred feet long elevated on posts, in all respects exactly agreeing with the prevalent type in the western portion of the island. But farther east, about Redscar Bay and Port Moresby, and thence to East Cape, the people are lighter in color, less warlike, and more intelligent, with more regular European features, neither making bows nor (except rarely) pottery, and practicing true tattooing by punctures—all distinctly Polynesian characteristics. When to this we add that their language contains a large Polynesian element, it is not surprising that these people have been described as a totally distinct race, and have been termed Malays or Malayo-Polynesians. We fortunately possess several independent accounts of these tribes, and are thus able to form a tolerably good idea of their true characters.

Captain Moresby, speaking of the inhabitants of that large portion of the eastern peninsula of New Guinea discovered and surveyed by him, says:

This race is distinctly Malayan; but differs from the pure Malay, being smaller in stature, coarser in feature, thicker-lipped, with less hair on the face, being in fact almost beardless. The hair on the head is also more frizzled, though this may result from a different dressing. These men have high cheekbones like the pure Malay; their noses are inclined to be aquiline and sometimes very well formed. Among them are met many men with light hair, and what struck us as a peculiarly Jewish cast of features. They rise to a height of from five feet four inches to five feet eight inches, are sinewy though not muscular, slight, graceful, and cat-like in the pliability of their bodies.^[1]

 

This description clearly shows that by "Malay" Captain Moresby means "Polynesian," the characters mentioned being in almost every respect directly the opposite of those of the true Malays, as indicated by the words and phrases here placed in italics. And, even as compared with the typical brown Polynesians, the frizzled hair, aquiline noses, and Jewish cast of features, are all Papuan characteristics.

Mr. Octavius C. Stone describes the Motu tribe who inhabit the coast districts about Redscar Bay and Port Moresby as somewhat shorter than the Papuans to the westward, and of a color varying from light brown to chocolate. The hair varies from nearly straight to woolly, often being frizzled out like that of the typical Papuan. The hair on the face is artificially eradicated, and they are thus made to appear beardless. The nose is aquiline and thick, and in a small percentage of the men the Jewish type of features appears. The adjacent tribes differ somewhat. The Koiari, Ilema, and Maiva are generally darker in color; while the Kirapuno are lighter. These last live near Hood Point, and are the handsomest people in New Guinea. Their hair is of a rich auburn, often golden in the children, growing in curls or ringlets. It is this tribe that keep their villages in such excellent order, with

1. "Journal of the Royal Geographical Society," vol. xlv., p. 163.