Fig. 282 — “ Natif d’Amnoubang, He Timor.”
To these heads from New Holland and the Island of Timor many others might be added,
from the various works on the Physical History of Mankind. Our series, however, supplies
fair specimens of tnese races, who represent the lowest grade in the human family. Their
anatomical characteristics are certainly very remarkable. While, in countenance, they
present an extreme of the prognathous type hardly above that of the orang-outan, they
possess at the same time the smallest brains of the whole of mankind; being, according to
Morton’s measurements, seventeen cubic inches less than the brain of the Teutonic race.
In my own collection I have a cast of the head figured above in Morton’s catalogue; and,
decidedly, it exhibits more of the animal than of man.
Tasmania, or Van Diemen's Land.
It is certainly an extraordinary fact, that this comparatively-small island, merely sepa-
rated from Australia by a narrow channel, should be occupied by people of entirely different
type. The tribes
Eig. 218.503 Fig. 284.504 of New Holland, it
has been just set
forth, are more or
less black,- but possess
fine, straight and
silky hair; while their
neighbors of Tasmania
are thus described
by Capt. Cook
“ The color of the
people of Yan Diemen’s
land is a dull
black, and not quite
so deep as that of the
African Negroes^ The
hair is- p e r f e c t l y
woolly. Their noses,
though not flat, /are
broad and full. The
lower part of the face
projects a good deal*”
The reader can select
from the following
4 samples (Figs.
283-286) which he
considers the worst
expression of the most
inferior grades of humanity.
A. — Tasmanian.
Fig. 285.505
Fig. A from Martin, and B from Dumoutier, compare well with the heads of Australians;
and not less disagreeably.
B.—Tasmanian,
Fig. 286.506
C. — Tasmanian. D.—Tasmanian.
Papuas, of New G-uinea.
New Guinea is the largest of all these islands after New Holland. Numerous navigators,
the old as well as the living, have described this people at various localities on the coast
The tribes appear everywhere to be substantially the same:
shin more or less black, features Negro, hair woolly and
formed into enormous tufts.
This (Fig. 287) is a fair specimen of the inhabitants
of New Guinea, which not only presents the Negro complexion,
and features like the Australian, but also the
woolly hair. We may consider this skull an average type
of the Papuan race.
Earfours, or Alforians.
In Malaysia, under the names of Harfours, Alfours, Ha-
New Guinea-man.
raforas, &c., have been designated the inhabitants of the
interipr of the large islands, or mountain regions. But great
diversity exists in the type of these families; and much confusion in descriptions. They seem
generally to be a true Negro race, of the lowest order; and from their position in the interior,
no less than from their degraded condition, they are, most probably, the true aborigines
of many of these islands, whe have been
driven back by immigrants from other islands.
3ne skull (Fig. 288) sufficiently represents them.
I shall not overload our pages with detailed descriptions
of the various Oceanic Negro types inhabiting
the smaller islands. Materials lack for
Fio. 288.508
satisfactory anatomical comparison. There is to be
found in print very little to aid the craniologist,
beyond the magnificent plates of Dumoutier, from
which we have extensively borrowed; but his text
has not yet been published; nor do drawings alone
furnish the information required. All travellers
and every anatomist agree, however, in placing
these Oceanic Negroes at the bottom of the scale
of races; and, at the same time, the Alforians are
described as totally different from every group of
Negroes on the African continent.
Sherefore, the supposition of any community of origin between these Australasians and
the true Nigritians — neither of them migratory races, and widely separated by oceans —
would be too gratuitous to merit refutation. So also would be any hypotheses based upon
climatic influences, when the zones of their respective habitats are as opposite in nature,
as the race3 of Malaysia are distinct from those of Africa, and, at the same time, geographically
remote.
Polynesian Race.
An elaborate account of this race may be found in Prichard’s “ Physical History of Mankind;”
but I rely more particularly on the later work of M. Jacquinot; inasmuch as it is,
in every respect, deserving of confidence and admiration: coming, besides, from a naturalist
who has seen these tribes in their various localities:—
“ The Polynesian race is well marked and distinct; it inhabits all Malaysia and the greater
part of Polynesia, comprising the numerous islands separated by d’Urville under the name
of Micronesia.
I The general characters of this race may be thus g i v e n S k in tawny, of a yellow color
washed with bistre, more or less deep; very light in some, almost brown in others. Hair,
black, bushy, smooth and sometimes frizzled. Eyes black, more split than open, not at ah
oblique. Nose long, straight, sometimes aquiline or straight; nostrils large and open,