changed conditions ;-first, the Australians and the hill tribes of Central India, who once perhaps spread far over the northern hemisphere, but have been displaced by the Mongoloid type which flourishes at this day from the equator to the pole. These, again, have been ousted from some of the fairest regions of the temperate zone by the Indo-Europeans, who seem only to have attained their full development and highest vigour when exposed to the cold winds and variable climate of the temperate regions.

If this view is correct, and the Papuans really form one of the earliest branches of the primitive type of man which still exists on the globe, we shall continue to look upon them with ever-increasing interest, and shall welcome every fact relating to them as important additions to the history of our race. The further exploration of their beautiful and luxuriant island will, it is to be hoped, be vigorously pursued, not only to obtain the mineral, vegetable, and animal treasures that still lie hid in its great mountain ranges, but also to search for the remains of primæval man in caves or alluvial deposits, and thus throw light on the many interesting problems suggested by the physical peculiarities and insular position of the Papuan

race.

CHAPTER XXI

AFFINITIES AND ORIGIN OF THE AUSTRALIAN AND
POLYNESIAN RACES 1

THE aborigines of Australia differ remarkably from those of all the surrounding countries, while they agree so closely among themselves in every part of the continent that they evidently form a single race. To summarize their main characteristics, they may be described as men of medium stature, muscular, but with slender arms and legs, rather large heads, with broad foreheads and overhanging brows, the nose thick and very broad at the nostrils, as in most of the lower races, the mouth large and lips thick, but less so than in many negro tribes. In colour they are a deep copper or chocolate, never sooty black as in the negro; the hair is long, glossy black or very deep auburn, usually wavy or curled, and vcry abundant, and the face is adorned with a luxuriant growth of moustache, beard, and whiskers, usually with an auburn tinge. These characters in their combination give the face, as a whole, a familiar appearance, resembling that of the coarser and more sensual type of Western Europeans, while they are thereby totally removed from any of the beardless Malayan and Polynesian tribes, or the woolly or frizzly-haired Papuans. (The reproduction of the photographs of the man from North Australia, and the woman from

1 The first portion of this article (to p. 473) forms the concluding section of my chapter on "The Aborigines of Australia" in Australasia, vol. i., and is reprinted here by the kind permission of Mr. Edward Stanford.

Queensland, kindly lent me by the Council of the Anthropological Institute, show these characteristics, especially

that of the wavy, glossy hair, equally removed from the frizzly mop of the Papuan as from the straight, coarse hair of the Malay.) They have sometimes a considerable

growth of hair on the body, especially on the chest and back, while the infants are much lighter in colourthan the adults, and are clothed with a soft fur on the neck and back.

If we turn to habits and customs for some light as to the probable derivation of the Australians, we find equally clear proofs that we must go far beyond the limits of all the immediately surrounding peoples. While Malays, Papuans, and Polynesians all cultivate the ground and all build good permanent houses, the Australians never do one or the other. The pottery of the Malays and Papuans, the bows and arrows of the Papuans and other Melanesians, and the well-made and often elaborate canoes of all these races are equally unknown to the Australians, who must thus be classed among those savage peoples which have made the very smallest advance towards material civilization.

Supposed African Affinities.

In Mr. Curr's important work on "The Australian Race," an attempt is made to show that there is a great resemblance in language and in many of their customs, between the native races of Australia and Africa. By comparing words chosen among the numerous languages of Australia with words having the same meaning in some of the still more numerous African languages and dialects, a considerable number of curious resemblances are found. But it is not improbable that an equal number of resemblances could be found if the languages of any other equally extensive portion of the world were taken for comparison, because many words in all languages are either onomatopoeic that is, sound-imitations, or, what may be called functional. Thus, words for the lips, mouth, or head often contain labial sounds; those for the teeth or for things that resemble teeth, contain dentals-that is, sounds which are only produced when the tongue touches the teeth, as d and t; while the nose, and things supposed to resemble it, are named by words containing such nasal sounds as n, ng, or ñy; hence names of these parts of the body and words derived from them will often