FOOTNOTES:
[36] Gibbon, Decline and Fall, chap. 52.
[37] From pauros=few, and syllabæ=syllable.
[38] Dialects of the Georgian.
[39] It is a general accredited fact, that in some cardinals we have the sign of the ordinal. Thus the -m in dece-m, as compared with δέκα, is reasonably supposed to be the -m- in deci-m-us.
[40] Quoted under the name Ossetic.
[41] Asia Polyglotta, vox, Osseti.
[42] Fid=father.
[43] Moi=husband.
[44] Or dachi.
[45] Or fa-ko-t-on, &c.
[46] Non-radical.
[47] Or, am in the habit of riding.
[48] The different dots denote the different classes of languages—the first the English, the second the Dioscurian, the third the Aptotic dialects.
C.
THE OCEANIC MONGOLIDÆ.
The epithet Oceanic is applied to this group because, with the exception of the Peninsula of Malacca, the tribes belonging to it are the inhabitants of islands exclusively.
DIVISIONS.
The ocean is the highway between tribe and tribe, or nation and nation, just in proportion as there is the skill, the experience, the courage and the necessary equipment for using it. As long as the mariner's compass was undiscovered the New World was isolated from the Old. To the Turk on the Hellespont, in the deficiency of even the rudest elements of water-transport, the narrow stream was an obstacle. Hence the unscientific character of all a priori generalizations respecting the influence of land or water as the means of national intercommunication, or as elements of ethnographical dispersions. The desert, the prairie, or the ocean, are boundaries that limit, or paths that extend, the diffusion of tribes and nations, just in proportion as there is the camel, the horse, or the ship to make them available.
How nations may effect an extension over continuous tracts of land, has been seen in the examination of the Great Turk area; how nations may effect an extension where the land is disconnected, and where the ocean alone is the means of communication, will be seen in the examination of the great Oceanic area. These two forms of extension stand in strong contrast to one another.
The best way to appreciate the magnitude of the great Oceanic area, is to state that with the exception of the Mauritius, the Isle of Bourbon, Ceylon, the Seychelles, the Maldives, and the Laccadives in the Indian Ocean, and the Japanese empire with the islands to the north thereof, in the Chinese Sea, every inhabited spot of land in the Indian and Pacific Oceans is inhabited by tribes of one and the same race.
Or taking the localities more in detail, we may say that from Madagascar, on the west, to Easter Island, half way between Asia and America, and from Formosa to the north, to New Zealand southwards, in the great islands of Borneo, Sumatra, and New Guinea, in the almost continental extent of Australia, in groups like the Philippines and the Moluccas, and in scattered clusters like the Mariannes or the other islands of the South Sea, the race is one and the same—and that race Oceanic.
Add to all this, that those tribes which are found so widely spread over the face of the ocean, are so spread almost exclusively. They are not only everywhere in the islands, but they are well-nigh nowhere on the continent. In the Peninsula of Malacca, and on no other part of the main land of Asia, is an Oceanic tribe to be detected.
In an ethnographical distribution such as this, so remarkable for both its negative and positive phænomena, there is ample ground for speculation; and of this there has been abundance. I prefer, however, at present, to suggest a distinction between the Oceanic area of dispersion and the Turk.
In respect to the former, the later the date we assign to it the more explicable are the phænomena; in other words, the more advanced the art of navigation the easier the extension from island to island.
The converse is the case with the latter. The earlier a land migration takes place, the less is the resistance of the nations around it, and, consequently, the greater the facilities of its propagation.
Divisions of the Oceanic Mongolidæ.—I think that if we base our primary divisions of the great Oceanic stock upon difference of physical form, they will not be more than two; although, by raising the value of certain sub-divisions, the number may be raised to three, four, five, or six.
Now as the value of the members of the Oceanic groups is a point upon which there is a variety of opinion, and as the opinion of the present writer as to its unity as a whole, is at variance with the systems of ethnologists, with whom he is diffident of disagreeing, it will be well to take more than usual pains to give prominence to the leading facts upon which the current opinions are based; and for the sake of fuller illustration to carry the reader over the subject by two ways.
A. One class of the Oceanic islanders is yellow, olive, brunette, or brown, rather than black, with long black and straight hair; and when any member of this division is compared with a native of the continental portions of the world, it is generally with the Mongol.
B. Another class of the Oceanic islanders is black rather than yellow, olive, brunette, or brown; and when any member of this division is compared with a native of the continental portions of the world, it is generally with the Negro. As to the hair of this latter group, it is always long, sometimes strong and straight; but, in other cases, crisp, curly, frizzy, or even woolly. Upon these differences, especially that of the hair, we shall see, in the sequel, that sub-divisional groups have been formed.
The social, moral, and intellectual difference between these two classes, in their typical form, is, certainly, not less than the physical—probably more. The continuous geographical area is,—for the black division, New Guinea, Australia, Tasmania, New Ireland, and the islands between it and New Caledonia. For the brown division, all the rest of the Oceanic area,—Sumatra, Borneo, Java, the Moluccas, the Philippines, the South Sea Islands, the Carolines, &c.
Now this is one way of viewing the subject, and it is the way which gives us the contrast in the most marked manner; the typical instances of each group being put forward.
But another point of view limits the breadth of difference.
It may have been noticed by the reader, that in speaking of the area occupied by the black and brown nations respectively, I used the word continuous. This was done for the sake of preparing the way for a new series of facts. In many of the countries proper and peculiar to the brown or straight-haired occupants, there are to be found, side by side with them, darker complexioned fellow-inhabitants; blackish and black tribes; tribes with crisp hair; tribes with woolly hair; and tribes with hair and hue of every intermediate variety. Furthermore, wherever the two varieties come in contact, the black and blackish tribes are the lower in civilization; generally inhabiting the more inaccessible parts of their respective countries, and, in the eyes of even cautious theorists, wearing the appearance of being aboriginal.
1. Names.—For the lighter-complexioned, straighter-haired type—Malay.
2. For the type that partakes of the character of the African Negro inhabiting New Guinea, Australia, and what may be called the continuous localities for the unmixed Black—Negrito.
3. The tribes with any or all of the Negrito characters, dwelling side by side with Malays in Malay localities, or in localities disconnected with the true Negrito area—the Blacks of the Malayan area.
I.
AMPHINESIANS.
Physical Conformation.—Modified Mongolian. Complexion, different shades of brown or olive; rarely black. Hair black, and straight; rarely woolly; oftener (but not often) wavy and curling. Stature from about five feet three, to, perhaps, five feet ten.
Languages.—Generally admitted to contain a certain proportion of Malay words.
Area.—The Malayan Peninsula, the Indian Archipelago, Polynesia, Madagascar. (?)
Chief Divisions.—1. The Protonesians. 2. The Polynesians. 3. The Malegasi.(?)
PROTONESIAN BRANCH.
Physical Conformation.—Colour—-different shades of brown and yellow. Face, flat; nose, short; eyes and hair, black and straight; beard, scanty; stature, short. Frontal profile, retiring; maxillary, prognathic; occipito-frontal, brackykephalic; orbits, angular.
Area.—Malayan Peninsula, Sumatra, Java, Timor, Borneo, Celebes, the Moluccas, the Philippines, &c.
Distribution.—With the exception of the Malayan Peninsula, insular. Islands, large as well as small.
Religion.—Paganism, Hinduism, and Mahometanism.
Social and Physical Development.—Maritime, commercial, and piratical; imperfect agriculture; never nomadic; partially industrial. Foreign Influences—Arabic and Hindu.
MALACCA.
Locality.—The extremity of the Indo-Chinese Peninsula.
Population.—Mahometan Malays; Blacks of the Malay area; tribes of intermediate character, both physically and morally.
Dates (real or supposed).—The foundation of Singhapura (Sincapore) 1160 A.D. The foundation of Malacca, 1252 or 1260 A.D. The introduction of Mahometanism, 1276 A.D.
Alphabet.—Arabic. Limited to the Mahometan Malays.
Respecting the Peninsula of Malacca, the most important point is the fact of its being the only continental occupation of any Malay nation. This so naturally suggests the notion of it also being the original country of the numerous and widely-dispersed Malay tribes, that any refinement upon the current doctrine seems, at the first view, out of place. Nevertheless, there is so much room for the question as to whether Sumatra was peopled from Malacca, or Malacca from Sumatra, the island from the peninsula, or the peninsula from the island, that the claims for Malacca to be considered as the birthplace of the Malays will stand over until the details of Sumatra have been considered.
Whatever, however, may be the case with the antiquity of the people, the language of the peninsula is the standard Malay. According to Leyden, it is spoken in the greatest purity in the states of Kedah, Perak, Salangore, Killung, Johore, Iringano, and Pahang. At Patani it becomes conterminous with the Siamese. The alphabet is Arabic: the literary influences are Arabic also; and the highest degree of antiquity that can be assigned to any proper Malay work is the epoch of the introduction of Mahometanism, i.e. the thirteenth century. In stating this, I by no means imply that any extant is thus old: I only imply that none is likely to be older.
The proper Malays themselves, however, are not only a new people in the peninsula, but they consider themselves as such. All the inhabitants older than themselves they call Orang Benua, or men of the soil.
I will first give the names of the particular tribes, and afterwards introduce the more general terms expressive of the class; premising that, as a general rule, the Orang Benua population live apart from the Malays, are found more in the interior than on the coast, are darker complexioned, and are wilder in their manners.
Halas.—Tattooed, inhabiting the interior of Perak.
Jokong, Belandas, Besisik.—Somewhat shorter than the Malays, although like them. Hair black, often with a rusty tinge; sometimes lank, generally matted and curly, but not woolly. Eye brighter and more active than that of the Malay, with the internal angle but little depressed. Forehead low, not receding. Beard scanty. Legs sturdy. Chest broad. Nostrils diverging.
The Benuas are divided into tribes, each under an elder, called Batin, there being under each Batin two subordinates, a Jennang and a Jurokra. The punishments are bloody, murder being punished by drowning, impaling, and exposure to the sun; adultery also being punishable, under certain circumstances, with death.
In the inheritance of property the custom of primogeniture prevails.
The sun, moon, and stars receive much of their regard; perhaps worship. The two superior spirits of whom they have the most definite conceptions, are named Dewas and Bilun.
A spirit has his abode in the loftiest mountains. The priests, whose power is proportionate to the superstition of the natives, are called Poyangs. The soul of a Poyang after death is believed to enter into the body of a tiger. They are adepts in the magic arts of Besawye, Chinderwye, and Tuju; this last enables them to kill their enemies by the force of spells, however distant. The Besawye consists in burning incense, muttering spells, and invoking, by night, the spirit of the mountains.
Their food is the product of the hunt, not of agriculture.
Udai.—The inhabitants of the forests of the northern part of the peninsula.
Semang.—The same. Complexion dark; hair curly and matted, but not frizzled. This is what Mr. Newbold relates; premising that he had no opportunity of personally judging. Mr. Anderson and Sir S. Raffles describe this darkness of complexion in stronger terms.
The Semang of Quedah has the woolly hair, protuberant belly, thick lips, black skin, flat nose, and receding forehead of the Papuan.
The Semang of Perak is somewhat less rude, and speaks a different dialect.
More than one Malay informed Mr. Newbold that the Semangs were essentially the same as the Jokong; having the same hair, but a somewhat blacker skin.
They live in rude moveable huts, constructed of leaves and branches, scantily clothed, and fed from the produce of the chase, at which they are expert. Their government is that of chiefs or elders. The Malays accuse them of only interring the head, and of eating the rest of the body, in cases of death.
They dip their weapons in blood when ratifying a solemn oath.
White is the favourite; perhaps, the holy colour.
They are fond of music, and have two native instruments—one like a violin, one like a flute.
They use the sumpitan, having three modes of preparing the poison.
Their dead are buried, sometimes in a sitting posture; generally with their arrows, sumpitan, and their most familiar utensils in the same grave.
The remaining aborigines belong to the southern parts of the peninsula.
Rayet Laut, or Orang Akkye.—Differing from the tribes last described, only in so far as they are residents of the sea-coast, not of the interior.
SUMATRA.
The divisions political rather than ethnological—the most important being the kingdom of Atchin, the Batta country, the kingdom of Menangkabaw, Rejang, Lampong, and Palembang.
ATCHIN.
Locality.—The Northern or North-Western parts of Sumatra; conterminal with the Batta country.
Religion.—Mahometan.
Alphabet.—Arabic.
The Atchin stand apart from the other Sumatrans, from the extent to which the Arabs have modified them. The Atchin kingdom, which was powerful when first visited by the Portuguese, was of Arabic foundation, and it was through Atchin that the Mahometanism of the Mahometan Malays was propagated.
THE BATTAS.
Locality.—South of the Atchin country, and nearly covering the northern third of Sumatra. Conterminous with the Atchin and Menangkabaw.
Religion.—Mahometan.
Alphabet.—Of Indian origin.
The Battas are somewhat shorter and fairer, than the other Sumatrans; polygamists; writing, according to Leyden, from the bottom of the page to the top; accredited cannibals.
MENANGKABAW.
Locality.—The centre of Sumatra; the kingdom being at one time extended over almost the whole island.
Religion.—Mahometan.
Alphabet.—Arabic.
Language.—Malay of Malacca, or nearly so.
In its widest extent, the kingdom of Menangkabaw is a political rather than an ethnographical division. To make it ethnographical, it must be limited. In this sense it is conterminous with Atchin and the Battas on the north, extended from east to west, across the whole island in (at least) some portions of it, in others, probably interrupted in certain mountain localities of the centre, and probably interrupted between the river Jambi and Palembang.
Politically speaking, the minor kingdoms of Indrapura, Anak-sungei, Siak, and Passamang, have grown out of the breaking up of the great Menangkabaw kingdom. At present, its pure and almost typical Malayan character—at least as far as resemblance in language to the Malay of Malacca is concerned—is all that will be noticed.
REJANG.—LAMPONG.
Locality.—South Sumatra; conterminal with the Menangkabaw country and Palembang.
Alphabets.—Of Indian origin.
Of all the Sumatrans, writes Marsden, the Lampongs have the strongest resemblance to the Chinese, particularly in the roundness of the face, and the form of the eye. They are the fairest people on the island, and the women are the tallest and best looking; they are also the most licentious. The Mahometanism of the Lampongs is imperfect; much of the old superstition remaining.
The native Sumatran alphabets.—The alphabets of the Batta, Rejang, and Lampong tribes, are generally called native, although really of Indian origin. It can scarcely be said that they embody a literature; still their existence is an important fact. A Sumatran manuscript is made of the inner bark of a tree, prepared and made smooth, and cut into long strips of several feet in length. These are folded up afterwards so as to be square, when each square answers to the page of a book. For commoner purposes the outer rind of the bamboo is scratched with a style; often in a remarkably neat manner. The lines run from left to right, like the lines of the Hindus, and unlike those of the Arabs.
The preparation of the bark is to shave it smooth and thin, and then rub it over with rice-water.
The style is used for scratching bamboos. The pen is used for the more important writings on bark; this is a delicate twig, or the middle of some leaf. The ink is the root of the dammar pine, mixed with the juice of the sugar cane.
PALEMBANG.
Locality.—North of Lampong, on the eastern side of the island.
Religion.—Mahometan.
Political relations.—Subject to Java; and in a great degree, a Javanese settlement.
The central parts of Sumatra are little known; the mountain chain, however, that runs from north to south in (about) 2° south latitude, has been visited by two Englishmen, Mr. C. Campbell and Lieutenant Dane. Their observations, which are to be found in Marsden's Sumatra,[50] apply to three elevated valleys—the Korinchi country, Serampei, and Sungei Tenang. I find in them no traces of any tribe different from those already mentioned in any important circumstance.
Just south of Sungei Tenang, and east of the Rejang country is Labun, a mountain district; whilst north of Palembang, and south of the River Jambi, on the eastern coast, is a flat country covered with wood and but thinly inhabited. Now, for those who look for the wildest varieties of the Sumatran tribes, these are the most likely localities. Accordingly, when Marsden made his inquiries as to the aborigines of the island, he heard of the Orang Gugu, and the Orang[51] Kubu.
Of these the Orang Gugu, from the parts about Labun, are the wildest and scarcest, being described as having their bodies covered with hair, and as being more orang utan than human beings.
The Orang Kubu are said to be pretty numerous, belonging to the other district; i.e. the parts between the Jambi and Palembang. The worst that is said of these is, that they have a peculiar and unintelligible language, and that they feed indifferently on elephants, rhinoceroses, snakes, and monkeys.
A few small islands on the further side of Sumatra require notice.
Enganho Island.—Natives described by Mr. Miller, in 1771, A.D., as taller and fairer than the Malays.
Poggi Islanders, or people of Si Porah and Si Biru.—The manners of these people are those of the Battas, except that they are more rude; and that their custom of disposing of the dead is different. The Poggi Islanders deposit the corpse on a sort of stage in a place appropriated for the purpose, and strewing a few leaves over it, leave it to decay. Tattooing is common.
The Pulo Batu, or Nias Islanders.—These are lighter in complexion and smaller in stature than the Malays. The custom of stretching the ears so as even to flap upon the shoulders, is general here. Every district, and there are upwards of fifty of them, is at war with its neighbour, and the export of slaves is the consequence.
Orang Maruwi.—The small islands of Pulo Nako, close upon the western side of Nias, also Pulo Babi, and Pulo Baniak.—These are merely noticed for the sake of saying that their dialect is said to be unintelligible to the Nias and Poggi people, and that a minute distinction between them has been recognized.
We may now consider some of the moral attributes of the Malay race; and in doing this there is no better a division of the different forms of their civilization than the one indicated and illustrated by Dr. Prichard. The two areas which we have just considered—the peninsula of Malacca, and the Island of Sumatra—have sufficiently shown that there are, at least, two degrees in the civilization of their occupants.
The civilization of the kingdom of Atchin, and of the proper Mahometan Malays in general, is a derived civilization, introduced by the conquerors, the traders, or the missionaries of Mahometan Arabia; in which we have a literature consisting, to a great extent, of annals, an Arabic alphabet, and no very prominent traces of any original paganism.
At any rate we have Mahometan culture as the result of Mahometan influence, the propagators having been Arabs.
The civilization of the Jokong, and of tribes still wilder, like those of Korinchi country, and other mountaineer districts both of the Peninsula and Sumatra, is the primitive civilization—such as it is—of the unmodified Malays. Without saying, that it is nowhere tinctured by Mahometan elements, it is still an indigenous, and an inferior culture. Hence, even without reckoning the Samangs as Malay, we have two types of moral character, and two types of social development—the Jokong type, or the type of the unmodified Malay, and the proper Malay type of the Mahometans of Malacca, Menangkabaw and Atchin.
But these two types are not the only ones. Savage as are the Battas, and nearly as they approach in this respect to the unmodified Malays, they exhibit signs of a second influence. Notwithstanding their imperfect Mahometanism, the influence alluded to is not Arabic. The same influence appears in the Rejang and Lampong Sumatrans as well. I allude to their alphabets. These are Indian in origin.
For Sumatra, then, and Malacca, we have in different degrees of development—
1st. The original Malay civilization, if so it can be called.
2nd. The same as modified by Indian influences.
3rd. The same as modified by Arabic influences, engrafted, in some cases, perhaps, on the original Malay rudeness; but more frequently upon an Indian modification of it.
This order is chronological; i.e. the primitive stage was (of course) earlier than the Indian, and the Indian earlier than the Arabic.
Another principle of arrangement is the relation which the three developments bear to each other. In Malacca and Sumatra the Indian development is the most insignificant, the Mahometan the most important.
To observe how far the ratio between these types varies in different portions of the Malay area, is one of the chief points in our future investigations.
Dr. Prichard would study the three forms of Malay development in Sumatra, in Java, and in the Philippines. In Sumatra for the Mahometan aspect, in Java for the Indian, and in the Philippines for the phenomena of indigenous growth and progress. In the main, this view is a right one. A Philippine language, of all the Malay language, is the richest in inflections, perhaps also in vocables; and the Philippine civilization, as found by the first Spanish missionaries, was on a level with that of any other non-Mahometan or non-Indianized tribe. It was also essentially Malay. Marsden remarks upon the great similarity between the few facts known of the early Philippine Mythology and that of the Battas. So that thus far the Philippines are Malay; and Malay in its most developed form; also in its more indigenous form. Still they are not wholly Malay; at least their development is not wholly independent of extraneous influences. Though there is little about them Mahometan, their alphabet is Indian in origin.
Borneo, perhaps, is the most unmodified Malay island of the Archipelago.
Hence, such remarks as require to be made upon the moral characteristics of the Malays in general, as well as the necessary notices of their manners and customs, must be taken from these two islands, as they are supplied by them respectively.
The primitive mythology of the Battas.—One of the few and fragmentary accounts which we possess of any of the primitive creeds, is the following one of the Batta theology:—
"The inhabitants of this country have many fabulous stories, which shall be briefly mentioned. They acknowledge three deities as rulers of the world, who are respectively named, Batara-guru, Sori-pada, and Mangalla-bulang. The first," say they, "bears rule in heaven, is the Father of all mankind, and partly, under the following circumstances, Creator of the earth; which from the beginning of time had been supported on the head of Naga-padoha; but growing weary at length, he shook his head, which occasioned the earth to sink, and nothing remained in the world excepting water. They do not pretend to a knowledge of the creation of this original earth and water; but say that at the period when the latter covered every thing, the chief deity, Batara-guru, had a daughter named Puti-orla-bulan, who requested permission to descend to these lower regions, and accordingly came down on a white owl, accompanied by a dog; but not being able, by reason of the waters, to continue there, her father let fall from heaven a lofty mountain, named Bakarra, now situated in the Batta country, as a dwelling for his child; and from this mountain all other land gradually proceeded. The Earth was once more supported on the three horns of Naga-padoha; and that he might never again suffer it to fall off, Batara-guru sent his son, named, Layanglayangmandi (literally "the dipping swallow"), to bind him hand and foot. But to his occasionally shaking his head they ascribe the effect of earthquakes. Puti-orla-bulan had afterwards, during her residence on earth, three sons and three daughters, from whom sprang the whole human race.
"The second of their deities has the rule of the air, betwixt earth and heaven; and the third that of the earth; but these two are considered as subordinate to the first. Besides these, they have as many inferior deities as there are sensible objects on earth, or circumstances in human society; of which some preside over the sea, others over rivers, over woods, over war, and the like. They believe, likewise, in four evil spirits, dwelling in four separate mountains; and whatever ill befalls them they attribute to the agency of one of these demons. On such occasions they apply to one of their cunning men, who has recourse to his art; and by cutting a lemon ascertains which of these has been the author of the mischief, and by what means the evil spirit may be propitiated; which always proves to be the sacrificing a buffalo, hog, goat, or whatever animal the wizard happens on that day to be most inclined to eat. When the address is made to any of the superior and beneficent deities for assistance, and the priest directs an offering of a horse, cow, dog, hog, or fowl, care must be taken that the animal to be sacrificed is entirely white.
"They have also a vague and confused idea of the immortality of the human soul, and of a future state of happiness or misery. They say that the soul of a dying person makes its escape through the nostrils, and is borne away by the wind; to heaven, if of a person who has led a good life; but if of an evil-doer, to a great cauldron, where it shall be exposed to fire until such time as Batara-guru shall judge it to have suffered punishment proportioned to its sins; and feeling compassion shall take it to himself in heaven: that finally the time shall come when the chains and bands of Naga-padoha shall be worn away, and he shall once more allow the earth to sink; that the sun will be then no more than a cubit's distance from it, and that the souls of those who, having lived well, shall remain alive at the last day, shall in like manner go to heaven, and those of the wicked be consigned to the before-mentioned cauldron, intensely heated by the near approach of the sun's rays, to be there tormented by a minister of Batara-guru, named Suraya-guru, until, having expiated their offences, they shall be thought worthy of reception into the heavenly regions."[52]
Cannibalism.—Of all the tribes of the old world those of the Oceanic stock have most generally, and, I fear, most justly, been accused of cannibalism. For the sake, however, of giving the full benefit of any modified form of this horrible habit to nations that have been improperly charged with feeding on the flesh and blood of their fellow-creatures, it must be remembered that the simple fact of human flesh being tasted, does not constitute cannibalism—i.e., habitual cannibalism. It has been tasted by savage tribes under three different influences.
1. As a mark of honour—Sir Walter Raleigh writes of the Arawaks, that this was showing posthumous respect.
2. Don Ruy de Guzman, writes of the Charruas, that they were not cannibals; and what Don Ruy de Guzman states has not been definitely contradicted. Nevertheless, it has not been denied that after their discoverer and enemy, Solis, had been killed in war, his body was tasted, if not eaten. This, however, was exceptional; and was done, not for the gratification of appetite, but in the way of revenge. Charles II. disinterred the judges of his father on the same principle; that is, he did a thing against his own nature and against the usage of his compatriots, under a violent stimulus.
3. Human flesh is eaten, as food, in some cases under incipient famine only; in others, from absolute appetite, and with other food to choose from. This last is true cannibalism.
Of cannibalism so gratuitous as to come under the last of these categories, I know of no authentic cases: that is, I know of no case where the victim has been other than a captured enemy; but then I believe that the feast is one of the certaminis gaudia.
The evidence is, in my mind, in favour of the Battas of Sumatra being cannibals in the most gratuitous form in which the custom exists.
Head-hunting.—No trophy is more honourable, either among the Battas of Sumatra, or the Dyaks of Borneo, than a human head; the head of a conquered enemy. These are preserved in the houses as tokens; so that the number of skulls is a measure of the prowess of the possessor. In tribes, where this feeling becomes morbid, no young man can marry before he has presented his future bride with a human head, cut off by himself. Hence, for a marriage to take place, an enemy must be either found or made. To this subject I shall return when treating of Borneo.
Running-a-muck.—A Malay (and with the exception of the old Berserks, of the heroic ages of Scandinavia, I know of no one else with whom the same is said to occur in an equal degree) is capable of so far working himself into fury, of so far yielding to some spontaneous impulse, or of so far exciting himself by stimulants, as to become totally regardless of what danger he exposes himself to. Hence, he rushes forth as an infuriated animal, and attacks all who fall in his way, until having expended his morbid fury he falls down exhausted. This is called running-a-muck. It is evidently, if real, a temporary form of maniacal excitement; but probably, so much under the control of the will, if strongly exerted, as to be capable of being either checked or guarded against; a so-called uncontrollable impulse, to which, if men yield in England, they are either hanged or locked up.
Gambling.—This habit, or rather passion, is shared by the Malays, the Indians, the Chinese, and the Indo-Chinese; quail-fighting and cock-fighting being the forms in which it shows itself. A Malay will lose all his property on a favourite bird; and, having lost that, stake his family; and after the loss of wife and children, his own personal liberty: being prepared to serve as a slave in case of losing.
Slavery.—Although recognised by the Mahometan religion, and part and parcel of a social system like that of even the most advanced Malays, this, in its worst forms, is less general than we are prepared to expect. Where there are savage tribes in the inland parts of large districts, and where there are small islands in the neighbourhood of large ones, where—in other words—the normal condition of society is a state of war, slavery exists, with a slave-trade superadded. In settled islands, however, like Celebes and Java, it is generally from debt, and the consequent forfeiture of personal liberty, that the supply arises. As such it is limited both in degree and severity.
Maritime Habits.—Nothing would be expected, a priori, more than that tribes like the Oceanic should be essentially nautical in their habits. Their insular position,—their wide dispersion equally indicate this. And such is the reality. With the exception of the Negrito portion, all the Oceanic islanders in contact with the ocean, are maritime in their tastes: many, indeed, of the Negritos are so. None, however, are more so than the natives of the Indian Archipelago; and, of these, the proper Malays are the most. The Phœnicians of the East is a term that has been applied to them; and it has been applied justly. The primitive vessel is a prahu; a long canoe, rowed sometimes by fifty rowers. In the pirate localities this takes the form of junk with sails, netting, and brass guns. Of the piracy, however, of the Indian Archipelago, more will be said hereafter.
Narcotic stimulants and masticatories.—Chewing the betel-nut is almost universal in some of the Malay countries; the use of opiates and tobacco being also common.
The nut of the Areca catechu, is wrapped in the leaf of the piper betel, the first being astringent, the second pungent. The addition of lime completes the preparation. This stimulates the salivary glands, tinges the saliva red, and discolours the teeth.
Bodily disfigurations under the idea of ornament.—Of the well-known stories of the little pinched-up feet of Chinese women I said nothing; waiting until I came to a ruder stage of society, before I noticed any of those numerous imaginary improvements upon the human form, which are almost invariably found amongst the lower tribes of our species. The Malay dress is becoming; but the Malay habit of permanently disfiguring parts of the body under the idea of ornament, is of sufficient prominence to take place amongst the characteristics of the branch.
a. Tattooing.—This is sometimes limited, sometimes general: sometimes over the whole body, sometimes confined to the arms only. In Africa the patterns vary with the tribe. In certain Malay districts, an approach to this distinction may be found; for instance, we hear in Borneo of some tribes that always tattoo, of others that partially tattoo, of others that do not tattoo at all. Nay more; the habit of tattooing seems in some cases to go along with certain other habits—by no means naturally connected with it. Thus certain of the Borneo non-tattooed tribes never use the Sumpitan, or blowpipe; whilst others are tattooed, and use it. So at least Sir J. Brooke was informed; although I think the careful peruser of his journal will find that the coincidence is not always complete.
b. Depilation.—Malay, but continental as well.—Depilation is effected either by quick-lime or tweezers. Generally, I believe, the parts of the body which are meant to be kept smooth are rubbed with quick-lime; and the isolated hairs that afterwards appear, are plucked out carefully by tweezers in detail.
c. Filing the teeth, dyeing the teeth.—A Malay habit. There are not less than three varieties of this operation.
1. Sometimes the enamel, and no more, is filed off. This enables the tooth to receive and retain its appropriate dye.
2. Sometimes the teeth are merely pointed.
3. Sometimes they are filed down to the gums. This is the case with many of the Sumatran women of Lampong.[53]
It may be doubted whether this last be wholly due to the process of filing down.
Dyeing may follow filing, or not, as the case may be.
In Sumatra, where a jetty blackness is aimed at, the empyreumatic oil of the cocoa-nut is used. Even, however, if no dyeing follow, the teeth will become black from the simple filing, if the chewing of the betel-nut be habitual.
d. Distension of the ears.—Many of the tribes that file their teeth, also distend their ears. Both are Malay habits. In some parts of Sumatra, when the child is young, the ear is bored, and rings are put in. Here the process stops in England, and the civilized world. In other parts, however, the rings are weighted, so as to pull down the lobe; or ornaments, gradually increased in diameter, are inserted; so that the perforation becomes enlarged.
Simple perforation may extend to a mere multiplication of the holes of the ear. In Borneo, the Sakarran tribes wear more earrings than one, and are distinguished accordingly; "when you meet a man with many rings distrust him" being one of their cautions. Mr. Brooke met a Sakarran with twelve rings in his ear.
e. Growth of the nails.—In Borneo, the right thumb-nail is encouraged to grow to a great length. So it is in parts of the Philippines.
Such are some of the more prominent Malay customs, others will present themselves, as other islands come under notice.
Was Sumatra or Malacca the original country of the Malays?—The primâ facie is in favour of the island having been peopled from the continent.
The traditions, perhaps, indeed, the histories of the Mahometan Malays complicate this view. According to the earliest accounts, Malacca and Singhapura were built by settlers from Menangkabaw. The two commonest accounts of the Mahometan Malaccan settlement, although disagreeing in certain details, agree in this. In one sense then, at least, Sumatra is probably the parent state: it is probably the quarter from which the more civilized Malays of the coast invaded Malacca; and, if so, is also the earlier civilized locality. But this may be the case, without invalidating the primâ facie evidence in favour of the continent being the birthplace of the stock. The Malays of the Jokong type have never been derived from Sumatra; on the contrary, it is very probable that the earliest Sumatrans were offsets from Malacca.
At any rate, the Malaccan origin of the earlier Sumatrans, and the Sumatran origin of the later Malaccans, are perfectly compatible doctrines.
As to the presumed date of the Malaccan settlements, it has already been placed in the thirteenth century. Whether this be an historical fact or not, it is certain that when Marco Polo, anterior to any Portuguese voyager, visited Sumatra, and described it under the name of Java Minor, the kingdom of Atchin, at least, was powerful, flourishing, and Mahometan.
JAVA.
Languages.—1. Sunda, spoken by one tenth of the population, and limited to the western side of the island.
2. Javan proper, falling into
- a. The Archaic dialect.
- b. The Court dialect.
- c. The popular dialect.
Culture of Indian origin; which, after attaining its full development, was replaced by Mahometanism, is the leading fact in the ethnography of Java.
Or—changing the expression—of the three forms of development the proper Malay, the Indian, and the Arabic, it is the second which is paramount in Java.
The details of its displacement by Mahometanism are historical rather than ethnological. Neither are they well ascertained even as historical facts. The date, however, is some part of the fifteenth century.
So exclusively have the Indian elements of the Javanese history and archæology riveted the attention of scholars, that the Mahometan influence on one side, and the remains of the primitive Malay development, have been thrown in the back ground.
The Indian elements still extant, are referable to the three following heads. 1. Language. 2. Literature. 3. Art.
1. Language.—Notice has been taken of the existence in Java of a court dialect, the Bhasa Krama or Bhasa Bhilem. This, perhaps, is a phenomenon more redolent of Hindostan, than of the proper Malay kingdoms. The Bhasa krama, however, is by no means the preeminently Indianized portion of the Javanese language. The Archaic Javanese is the famous Kawi language. The Kawi language was described by Sir Stamford Raffles as Sanskrit, that had taken a Javanese form in respect to its grammar; and it is from the notices of Raffles and Crawford that the details of the Kawi language were first made known. This view has been reversed by Wilhelm von Humboldt. His great work on the Kawi language supplies reasons for considering the Kawi, as ancient Javanese, loaded with Sanskrit vocables.
2. Literature.—The Kawi language, an Indianized archaic, or poetical dialect, is the vehicle for that portion of the older Javanese literature which is most based upon Sanskrit models. The great poem in Kawi is the Bhrata Yuddha, an imitation of the Mahabharata. The Javanese annals, whether in Kawi, or Javan, in all probability deserve the low opinion that Mr. Crawford entertains of them; as there is no department in literature where a Sanskrit model would be more out of place, than for historical composition.
3. Remains of ancient art.—Palaces, tombs, images of Hindu gods, are all numerous in Java, and all evidence of a previous Hinduism. Some of the inscriptions are not only Kawi, but Sanskrit.
To these may be added, the still living witnesses to the original Hindu worship. The Bédui of Bantam, and the people of the Teng'ger mountains still retain it, although in a corrupted form. Of the latter, the following is a description taken from Sir S. Raffles' History of Java.
"To the eastward of Surabáya, and on the range of hills connected with Gúnung Dasar, and lying partly in the district of Pasúruan, and partly in that of Probolingo, known by the name of the Teng'ger mountain, we find the remnant of a people still following the Hindu worship, who merit attention, not only on account of their being (if we except the Bédui of Bantam) the sole depositaries of the rites and doctrines of that religion existing at this day on Java, but as exhibiting an interesting singularity and simplicity of character.
"These people occupy about forty villages, scattered along this range of hills, in the neighbourhood of what is termed the Sandy Sea. The site of their villages, as well as the construction of their houses, is peculiar, and differ entirely from what is elsewhere observed on Java. They are not shaded by trees but built on spacious open terraces, rising one above the other, each house occupying a terrace, and being in length from thirty to seventy, and even eighty feet. The door is invariably in one corner, at the end of the building, opposite to that in which the fire-place is built. The building appears to be constructed with the ordinary roof, having along the front an enclosed veranda or gallery, about eight feet broad. The fire-place is built of brick, and is so highly venerated that it is considered a sacrilege for any stranger to touch it. Across the upper part of the building rafters are run, so as to form a kind of attic story, in which are deposited the most valuable property and implements of husbandry.
"The head of the village takes the title of Peting'gi, as in the low-lands, and is generally assisted by a Kabâyan, both elected by the people from their own village. There are four priests who are here termed Dúkuns (a term elsewhere only applied to doctors and midwives), having charge of the state records and the sacred books.
"These Dúkuns, who are in general intelligent men, can give no account of the era when they were first established on these hills; they can produce no traditional history of their origin, whence they came, or who entrusted them with the sacred books, to the faith contained in which they still adhere. These, they concur in stating, were handed down to them by their fathers, to whose hereditary office of preserving them they have succeeded. The sole duty required of them is again to hand them down in safety to their children, and to perform the púja (praisegiving), according to the directions they contain. These records consist of three compositions, written on the lontar-leaf detailing the origin of the world, disclosing the attributes of the Deity, and prescribing the forms of worship to be observed on different occasions. When a woman is delivered of her first child, the Dúkun takes a leaf of the alang grass, and scraping the skin of the hands of the mother and her infant, as well as the ground, pronounces a short benediction.
"When a marriage is agreed upon, the bride and bridegroom being brought before the Dúkun within the house, in the first place bow with respect towards the south, then to the fire-place, then to the earth, and lastly, on looking up to the upper story of the house where the implements of husbandry are placed. The parties then, submissively bowing to the Dúkun, he repeats a prayer, commencing with the words, 'Hong! kendága Bráma ang'-gas siwang'ga ána ma siwáha sangyang g'ni sira kang,' &c.; while the bride washes the feet of the bridegroom. At the conclusion of this ceremony, the friends and family of the parties make presents to each of krises, buffaloes, implements of husbandry, &c.; in return for which the bride and bridegroom respectfully present them with betel-leaf.
"At the marriage-feast which ensues, the Dúkun repeats two púja. The marriage is not, however, consummated till the fifth day after the above ceremony. This interval between the solemnities and the consummation of marriage is termed by them úndang mántu; and is in some cases still observed by the Javans in other parts of the island, under the name, únduh mántu.
"At the interment of an inhabitant of Teng'ger the corpse is lowered into the grave with the head placed towards the south (contrary to the direction observed by the Mahometans), and is guarded from the immediate contact of the earth by a covering of bambus and planks. When the grave is closed, two posts are planted over the body: one erected perpendicularly on the breast, the other on the lower part of the belly; and between them is placed a hollowed bambu in an inverted position, into which, during seven successive days, they daily pour a vessel of pure water, laying beside the bambu two dishes, also daily replenished with eatables. At the expiration of the seventh day, the feast of the dead is announced, and the relations and friends of the deceased assemble to be present at the ceremony, and to partake of entertainments conducted in the following manner:
"A figure of about half a cubit high, representing the human form, made of leaves and ornamented with variegated flowers, is prepared and placed in a conspicuous situation, supported round the body by the clothes of the deceased. The Dúkun then places in front of the garland an incense-pot with burning ashes, together with a vessel containing water, and repeats the two púja to fire and water; the former commencing with, 'Hong! Kendága Bráma gangsi wang'ga ya nama siwáha," &c.; the latter with, "Hong! hong gang'ga máha tirta ráta mejil saking háti, &c.; burning dúpa, or incense, at stated periods during the former; and occasionally sprinkling the water over the feast during the repetition of the latter.
"The clothes of the deceased are then divided among the relatives and friends; the garland is burned; another púja, commencing with, "Hong! áwigna mastúna ma sidam, hong! aráning," &c., is repeated; while the remains of the sacred water are sprinkled over the feast. The parties now sit down to the enjoyment of it, invoking a blessing from the Almighty on themselves, their houses, and their lands. No more solemnities are observed till the expiration of a thousand days; when, if the memory of the deceased is beloved and cherished, the ceremony and feast are repeated; if otherwise, no further notice is taken of him: and having thus obtained what the Romans call his justa, he is allowed to be forgotten.
"Being questioned regarding the tenets of their religion, they replied that they believed in a Déwa, who was all-powerful; that the name by which the Déwa was designated was Búmi Trúka Sáng'yáng Dewáta Bátur, and that the particulars of their worship were contained in a book called Pángláwu, which they presented to me.
"On being questioned regarding the ádat against adultery, theft, and other crimes, their reply was unanimous and ready—that crimes of this kind were unknown to them, and that consequently no punishment was fixed, either by law or custom; that if a man did wrong, the head of the village chid him for it, the reproach of which was always sufficient punishment for a man of Teng'ger. This account of their moral character is fully confirmed by the Regents of the districts, under whose authority they are placed, and also by the residents. They, in fact, seem to be almost without crime, and are universally peaceable, orderly, honest, industrious, and happy. They are unacquainted with the vice of gambling and the use of opium.
"The aggregate population is about twelve hundred souls; and they occupy, without exception, the most beautifully rich and romantic spots on Java; a region in which the thermometer is frequently as low as forty-two. The summits and slopes of the hills are covered with Alpine firs, and plants common to an European climate flourish in luxuriance.
"Their language does not differ much from the Javan of the present day, though more gutturally pronounced. Upon a comparison of about a hundred words with the Javan vernacular two only were found to differ. They do not marry or intermix with the people of the low-lands, priding themselves on their independence and purity in this respect."
BALI.
As in Java, the people of Bali took a civilization from India. Unlike the Javanese, they have retained it to the present day.
SUMBAWA, ENDÉ, OMBAY.
At Bali and Java, the type is unequivocally Malay. At Timor it is Malay also, but altered. The Timorians are considerably darker than the Javanese; their features are coarser, their lips are sometimes thick, and their hair often frizzy. In the islands between, occur numerous transitional forms; both in feature and language.
In respect to this last, the islands at the head of this section afford three remarkable vocabularies. 1. The Timbora, from a district of Sumbawa; 2. The Mangarei, from a part of Endé, or Floris; 3. The Ombay, from the island so called; the inhabitants of which are described by Arago as black cannibals with flattened noses and thickened lips.
In each of these vocabularies, Malay words form the greater proportion. In each of them, however, are also found Australian vocables.
The following, from the three very short vocabularies of these three languages, are what I published in the Appendix to Mr. Jukes' Voyage of the Fly.
1. Arm=ibarana, Ombay; porene, Pine Gorine dialect of Australia.
2. Hand=ouine, Ombay; hingue, New Caledonia.
3. Nose=imouni, Ombay; maninya, mandeg, mandeinne, New Caledonia; mena, Van Diemen's Land, western dialect: mini, Mangarei: meoun, muidge, mugui, Macquarie Harbour.
4. Head=imocila, Ombay; moos (= hair), Darnley Island; moochi (= hair), Massied; immoos (= beard), Darnley Islands; eeta moochi, (= beard) Massied.
5. Knee=icici-bouka, Ombay; bowka, boulkay (= forefinger), Darnley Islands.
6. Leg=iraka, Ombay; horag-nata, Jhongworong dialect of the Australian.
7. Bosom=ami, Ombay; naem, Darnley Island.
8. Thigh=itena, Ombay; tinna-mook (= foot), Wioutro dialect of Australian. The root, tin, is very general throughout Australia in the sense of foot.
9. Belly=te-kap-ana, Ombay; coopoi (= navel), Darnley Island.
10. Stars=ipi-berre, Mangarei; bering, birrong, Sydney.
11. Hand=tanaraga, Mangarei; taintu, Timbora; tamira, Sydney.
12. Head=jahé, Mangarei; chow, King George's Sound.
13. Stars=kingkong, Timbora; chindy, King George's Sound, Australia.
14. Moon=mang'ong, Timbora; meuc, King George's Sound.
15. Sun=ingkong, Timbora; coing, Sydney.
16. Blood=kero, Timbora; gnoorong, Cowagary dialect of Australia.
17. Head=kokore, Timbora; gogorrah, Cowagary.
18. Fish=appi, Mangarei; wapi, Darnley Island.
It is considered, that this list, short as it, is calculated to contract the broad line of demarcation, implied in the following extract from Marsden:—
"We have rarely met with any Negrito language, in which many corrupt Polynesian words might not be detected. In those of New Holland or Australia, such a mixture is not found. Among them no foreign terms that connect them with the languages, even of other Papua or Negrito countries, can be discovered; with regard to the physical qualities of the natives, it is nearly superfluous to state, that they are Negritos of the most decided class."
TIMOR.
The multiplicity of languages, or dialects, spoken on the island Timor, has been noticed by most voyagers. Some have put the mutually unintelligible forms of speech as high as thirty. Unfortunately the details of this variety are not known. Such Timor vocabularies as we possess, represent the language of Koepang; the locality where the contact with the trading world both of the East and West, is greatest, i.e., with the Dutch and with the Malays. This makes the language Malay—though less Malay than the Malay of Sumatra, Celebes, and Borneo; the points wherein it differs being, frequently, points wherein it agrees with the Bima, Savu, and Endé, and other intermediate islands. Nevertheless, it is highly probable that the Timor of Koepang no more exactly represents the languages of some of the wilder mountaineers of the interior, than the Malay of Kedah exactly represents the languages of the Samang or Jokong.
When the wilder inhabitants are represented at all, they are represented as approaching the character of the Negro.
On the other hand some are fairer than the generality. Both these are phenomena that we have either seen before, or shall see in the sequel—in the Samang of Malacca, and the Dyaks of Borneo, as well as in Durville's Arafuras of Celebes.
In one particular village, near the north-eastern extremity, Mr. Earle found red hair, a specimen of which was in the possession of Dr. Prichard. In noting this, we must also note the habit of colouring the hair, which will be shown in the sequel to be a Papua custom.
Curly hair also was met with by the same observer; and so was coarse bushy hair; those tribes where it was found being the tribes that suffered from the oppression of the others, and which supplied them with slaves.
TIMOR LAUT.
From an English sailor who lived sometime in Timor Laut as a prisoner and a slave, I had the opportunity of collecting a few facts concerning Timor Laut, or Timor of the Sea. The numerals, which was all he knew of the language, were Malay. The people he described as dark, but not so dark as some of the slaves, whom they were in the habit of either purchasing or stealing. He knew of no second race, nor of any second language in the island.
THE SERWATTY AND KI ISLANDS.
For the Serwatty and Ki Islands, the best, indeed, nearly the only information, is to be collected from the voyage of the Durga, and from subsequent observations by Mr. Earle, the translator of the Voyage, and himself an independent investigator. Here, with one exception, the personal appearance was that of the Javanese and Bugis.
The language throughout, which was particularly investigated, is Oceanic, i.e., approaching the Malay or the Polynesian. The Kissa dialect, the one best known in detail, exhibited some letter-changes, which will be found frequent in the Polynesian, viz., h for s, k for t, w for b, along with the ejection of the final ng.
| ENGLISH. | KISSA. | BUGIS. |
|---|---|---|
| Stone | wahku | bahtu. |
| Heavy | werek | beret. |
| Heart | akin | ati. |
| Dead | maki | mati. |
| Slave | ahka | ata. |
| Yam | ubi | uwi. |
| Feather | huhu | bulu. |
| Milk | huhu | susu. |
| Hard | kereh | keres.[54] |
MOA.
Moa is one of the Serwatty group; and it forms the exception just noticed. In Moa, and in Moa alone, did Mr. Earle find the coarse bushy hair, the dark complexion, and the muddy sclerotica that suggested the idea of a Papua[55] intermixture. The Moa people are oppressed and kidnapped by the natives of the neighbouring island of Letti.
Subsequent enquiry showed that they had migrated from the south side of Timor.
THE ARRU ISLES.
Like the last, the Arru Isles are known to us, from the voyage of the Durga, and Mr. Earle's notices. He especially excepts them from the category of the Ki and Serwatty groups. In the Arru Islands, he recognised Papua characters, and refers them to Papua intermixture. In the southern part of the group this is most conspicuous.
Timor, and the Arru Islands bring us to Australia, and New Guinea, parts of Kelænonesia, or true Negrito areas. How far the transition from the Oceanic tribes of the Protonesian to the Oceanic tribes of the Negrito type, both in the way of language and physical conformation, is abrupt or gradual, is to be studied in the islands last enumerated. At present we will return to Java, and follow the Malay population in a different direction, i.e. from south to north, rather than from east to west.
BORNEO.
Of all the portions of the Indian Archipelago, the vast island of Borneo, the greatest in the world after Australia, and lying under the Equator, presents us with the Malay development on the largest scale.
In the exceeding paucity of the elements of Indian culture it stands in remarkable opposition to Java, and even to Celebes and the Philippines, whilst the Mahometan influences are extended but little beyond the large towns and the coast. Hence the central parts are Malay in the most unmodified form; even as the Batta districts of Sumatra are Malay.
Our knowledge, however, has by no means been proportionate to the number and variety of facts capable of being elicited. Indeed, with the exception of New Guinea, Central Africa, and parts of South America, Borneo has been, to the ethnologist, the darkest area in the world. That there were Mahometan Malays in the towns, that there were pirates on the coast, and that there were Dyaks in the interior has, until lately, been the sum of our information. As far as it goes this is true. In addition, however, there has been (and continues to be) a belief in the existence of Blacks in the more inaccessible parts of the mountains, especially the Kenebalow range.
As to the vocabularies, scanty as they were (and are), they have always been sufficient to prove a Malay origin, for such tribes as they represented. Whether, however, the population was homogeneous throughout, or whether there was a second (so-called) race, analogous to the Samangs of Malacca was uncertain.
The publication of the observations of the Rajah of Sarawak, and of his visitors, has dispelled much darkness. Still the light is imperfect; or, rather, it is partial. What we now know we know in detail, and on authoritative evidence; our knowledge being, chiefly, for the north-western coast, from Pontianak, on the Equator, to the parts round the Kenebalow mountain on the northern extremity of the island.
I shall just give so much of Sir J. Brooke's observations as bear upon those points wherein the ethnology of Borneo either explains or differs from that of Sumatra.
The Borneo equivalents to the Battas of Sumatra are the Dyaks; a term applied by the Mahometan Malays to the non-Mahometan portion of the population. The utter absence of an alphabet is the first point of distinction. The comparative absence of a Hindoo mythology is the second. Fragmentary and distorted as is the Hindu Pantheon in Sumatra, it has had still less influence in Borneo. However, it exists in the terms Jowata and Battara (at least), and in certain real elements of the Dyak creed as well. These names are connected with the cosmogony—when Jowata took the earth in both hands, and the right handful became man, the left, woman. Below the earth is Sabyan; where the houses are fitted up with moskito curtains, and where there are other creature-comforts besides. Euhemeristic elements are superadded. The memory of great chieftains is held in superstitious reverence; Beadum being one of them. Numerous details in the way of superstitions, regarding charms and omens, and the ceremonies attendant upon births, deaths, and marriages, fill up the picture of the paganism of Borneo. I am not aware, however, that any of them, curious as they are, are of sufficient importance to indicate either new ethnological affinities in respect to the tribes that adopt them, or to induce us to refine upon old ones. Indeed, the customs, as between tribe and tribe, are far from being uniform; as, for instance, in regard to the burial of the dead. Some burn the corpse, but without any ceremonies. Others place it in a light coffin, suspended on the bough of a tree, and so leave it. In some cases the forms are few or none. In others they are preeminently elaborate.
As a mark of distinction between different tribes, two customs take a prominent place: the habit of tattooing, and the use of the sumpitan.
The first is either general, or limited to certain parts of the body. In some tribes it is not adopted at all.
The second is a pipe, about five feet long; with an arrow made of wood; thin, light, sharp-pointed, and dipped in the poison of the upas-tree. As this is fugacious, the points are generally dipped afresh when wanted. At least five arrows can be discharged in the time required for loading and firing a musket. For about twenty yards the aim is so true, that no two arrows shot at the same mark will be above an inch or two apart. The utmost range is one hundred yards. The poison is virulent, but not deadly.
In many cases the use of the sumpitan (which is by no means universal) and the habit of tattooing go together.
Numerous other differentiæ, equally important (or unimportant), may be collected from any of the recent works on Borneo.
Head-hunting.—This is one of the Malay habits, which is better studied in Borneo than elsewhere. The earliest writers describe the Dyaks as being cannibals, and something more; as being hunters of their kind, not merely for the sake of an unnatural feast, but simply for the sake of collecting heads as articles of virtù. Something of this sort, in the way of gratuitous bloodshed, we have seen in Sumatra, and something of the sort we shall find in the Philippines, and (I fear) elsewhere also.
In Borneo it is one of the essential elements of courtship. Before a youth can marry he must lay at the feet of his bride elect, the head of some one belonging to another tribe, killed by himself. According, then, to theory, every marriage involves a murder. I believe, however, that the practice is less general than the theory demands. Still a morbid passion for the possession of human heads is a trait of the Dyak character. Skulls are the commonest ornaments of a Dyak house, and the possession of them the best primâ facie evidence of manly courage.
There is, then, a continual cause of bloodshed on land, and there is piracy by sea; the northern parts of Borneo, and the Sulu Archipelago, being the chief seats of the latter. Indeed the corsairs that give a dangerous character to the Indian Archipelago are almost all from these parts.
These two forms of warfare, the chronic state of hostility for the parts inland, and the system of robbery on the high seas, supply some of the elements of an explanation of the system just noticed; to which may be added the division of the population into a multiplicity of distinct tribes. Still, it is so good a rule to receive with scepticism all accounts that violate the common feelings of human nature, that I allow myself to believe that causes, as yet imperfectly understood, modify and diminish a practice so horrible as the one in question. That it should be so general as the theory demands is incompatible with the proportions between the male and female population, which are much the same in Borneo as elsewhere. So it is, also, with the express statement of Sir J. Brooke, who says, that the passion for heads has much diminished amongst certain of the Sarawak tribes. In one case, an offer of some was refused; the reason alleged being that it would revive fresh sorrows. The parties who thus declined, gave a favourable account of some of the customs by which the horrors of a Dyak war were abated:—
"If one tribe claimed a debt of another, it was always demanded, and the claim discussed. If payment was refused, the claimants departed, telling the others to listen to their birds, as they might expect an attack. Even after this, it was often the case, that a tribe friendly to each mediated between them, and endeavoured to make a settlement of their contending claims. If they failed, the tribes were then at war. Recently, however, Parimban has attacked without due notice, and often by treachery, and the Sow Dyaks, as well as the Singè, practise the same treachery. The old custom likewise was, that no house should be set on fire, no paddy destroyed, and that a naked woman could not be killed, nor a woman with child. These laudable and praiseworthy customs have fallen into disuse, yet they give a pleasing picture of Dyak character, and relieve, by a touch of humanity, the otherwise barbarous nature of their warfare.
"Babukid, bubukkid, or mode of defiance.—I have before mentioned this practice of defiance, and I since find it is appealed to as a final judgment in disputes about property, and usually occurs in families when the right to land and fruit-trees comes to be discussed. Each party then sallies forth in search of a head; if one only succeed, his claim is acknowledged; if both succeed, the property continues common to both. It is on these occasions that the Dyaks are dangerous; and perhaps an European, whose inheritance depended on the issue, would not be very scrupulous as to the means of success. It must be understood, however, that the individuals do not go alone, but a party accompanies each, or they may send a party without being present. The loss of life is not heavy from this cause, and it is chiefly resorted to by the Singè and Sows, and is about as rational as our trials by combat."
This babukid must be a check of a permanent sort.
Houses.—With certain of the Dyak tribes the houses are not huts, nor yet mere dwelling-houses of ordinary dimensions. They hold from one hundred to two hundred persons each; and are raised above the ground on piles. This form of domestic architecture is important in itself; and it is also important, because it appears again in New Guinea, and has already been found in Java.
The conclusion which we come to from our present data in respect to Borneo is, that the whole population is Malay, in the way that the Sumatran population is Malay; i.e. within comparatively narrow limits.
a. There is no tribe so different from the Mahometan Malays as the Samang are from the Malays of Malacca.
b. Still less is there any representative of a lower form of humanity; such as the fabulous Orang Gugu and Orang Cúbu of Sumatra are said to be; although, as in Sumatra, there are reports of the kind.
The tribes described by Mr. Brooke are chiefly the Lundu, Sakarran, the Sarebas, the Suntah, Sow, Sibnow, Meri, Millanow, and Kayan; also the Bajow, or Sea-Gipsies, who live as wanderers (pilots or pirates, as the case may be) on the ocean, and are found on Borneo, the Sulu islands, Celebes, and elsewhere.
The vocabularies given by Sir J. Brooke are—1. the Suntah; 2. Sow; 3. Sibnow; 4. Sakarran; 5. Meri; 6. Millanow; 7. Malo; 8. Kayan. These last are extended very nearly to the centre of the island.
In the way of intermixture, the nations that are most in contact with the Borneans, especially the Mahometan Malays, are the Arabs and Chinese.
CELEBES.
Languages or dialects.—a. The Bugis.[56] b. The Macassar. c. The Mandhar. d. The Harafura of Durville (Qu. the Turaja of Crawfurd and Raffles).
Alphabet of the Bugis.—Like, but probably formed independently of the Tagala alphabet of the Philippines; Sanskrit in origin.
Although the Mandhar and Macassar languages, or dialects, are less developed as the instruments of literature than the Bugis, and although the area over which they are spoken is less, whilst their commercial importance is inconsiderable, there is no reason to believe that they represent a civilization different in kind from that of the Bugis.
This is not the case with the fourth dialect. I have called it the Harafura of Durville, because the only vocabulary known to me has been collected by that voyager. It is Malay, as truly as the Dyak of Borneo is Malay; whilst those who speak it, although called Harafuras, are Dyaks in frame and complexion. They were seen by Durville; and especially described as being fairer in complexion than the other inhabitants of the island. I have little doubt but that the Harafuras of Durville are the Turajas of Crawfurd and Raffles.
The Bugis, however, represent the learning, and the commercial activity of Celebes.
At present they are Mahometans. In A.D. 1504, when they were visited by the Portuguese, they were beginning to be so; their missionaries being the Mahometans of Sumatra and Malacca, and the religion, which was displaced, being Hinduism.
How far this came direct from India, or how far it came by way of Java, is uncertain. The results were the same for the two islands—in kind, but not in degree. An alphabet, and a literature, indicative of Indian influence, are common to both Java and Celebes. In the first island, however, they are the more developed. Inscriptions have hitherto been found in Java alone. The remains of temples have been attributed to Celebes, but they have not been described, and they have not been seen by Europeans.
The safe inference is, that the Hindu civilization extended itself somewhat later to Celebes than it did to Java; and that it took root less generally.
The Bugis are essentially maritime and commercial; and their name in the latter department is a good one; they being active, enterprising, and men who consider themselves bound by what they say.
Bugis approach to a constitutional government.—I am following, implicitly, both the facts and the deductions of Sir J. Brooke, who writes from personal knowledge of the island of Celebes, which he visited from his Rajahship of Sarawak, in giving prominence to what may be considered the nearest approach to a constitution, that is to be found in any Malay area.
One of the kingdoms into which the southern limb of Celebes is divided is the kingdom of Wajo. Beginning with the lowest ranks, the so-called constitution of Wajo is as follows:—
Servitude.—This is of a mild form, and of the domestic kind. Although so extensive in respect to its numerical dimensions, as for one freeman to have, sometimes, upwards of fifty slaves, an export or import trade is unknown. Debt creates the usual supply; since by incurring an amount which he cannot discharge by means of his property, the debtor forfeits his personal freedom. As this forfeiture extends to his family, bondsmanship becomes hereditary.
Freeman not of noble birth.—The lowest sort of political power exercised by a freeman not of noble birth, seems to be the power of holding meetings, where opinions may be stated, but where resolutions can not be passed. The practical bearing of this seems to be, that the higher magistrates have a means of knowing the feelings of the population at large upon any particular measure. Such meetings are convened by the special representatives of the people, i.e. of the not noble portion of the state—the Pangawas.
The Pangawas.—These are rude analogues of the tribunes of the Roman constitution. They are elected by the people. They, alone, can convene certain councils. They have a veto upon the appointment of the aru matoah, or sovereign magistrate. The details as to the state of the towns and villages, and the number of the population is in their hands. No summons to military service is valid without their consent. The number of pangawas is three.
The Council of Forty.—A council of forty arangs, or nobles of inferior rank, is appealed to in cases of importance and difficulty by the—
Six hereditary Rajahs.—Of these, three are civil, and three military. With these rests the election of the—
Aru Matoah, or chief magistrate.
Reversing the view here taken, and looking at the Wajo constitution from its highest elements downwards, the form becomes as follows:—
- Aru Matoah.
- The six Rajahs, of which the Aru Beting is chief.
- Council of Forty.
- Three Pangawas.
- General Council, or Meeting.
I must confess, that in the details both of the Wajo and Boni Constitutions, as given by Sir J. Brooke, I find several difficulties and inconsistencies. I presume, however, that each is accurate in the main points, and also that it is (so to say) more of a constitution than could easily be found in any Malay parts elsewhere.
The Boni Constitution, just mentioned, is that of another of the Bugis kingdoms. It is the same in principle as that of Wajo, but less attended to in practice.
I agree, too, in the comparison between these constitutions and those forms of European feudalism wherein the right of free citizens first began to be respected. I am also well prepared to believe that, however much the written constitution may have in it the elements of self-developed political freedom, the details of its working may be unsatisfactory; as we are especially informed is the case. When I find that each rajah is said to possess the power of life and death over his retainers, I find a statement that requires much explanation before it can be made compatible with the asserted freedom of the people at large. So also I observe, that the office as pangawa is, practically, hereditary—a great limitation to a true tribunicial authority.
An element of confusion, rather than a restraint upon individual freedom, is to be found in the principle upon which the aru matoah is elected. The six rajahs must be unanimous. Failing this, one of them, the aru beting, with the support of the pangawas, and the council of forty, may nominate. Furthermore, during the vacancy, the aru beting acts as the locum tenens, but only within certain limits. He is no aru matoah in the eyes of the other Bugis kingdoms, so that he is no aru matoah for any matters of what may be called foreign policy.
As unanimity is rare, and as the aru beting has an interest in keeping the tenure of supreme power in abeyance, disputed elections continually interfere with the peace of the Bugis states; from whence it follows, as a necessary consequence, that the powers of the six hereditary rajahs increase at the expense of the powers of the aru matoah; a process by which the government becomes a close oligarchy, rather than an elective monarchy.
As a foundation for a constitution like the preceding, tenacity of the purity of blood must, necessarily, be a leading element. It exists in Celebes to the fullest extent. Though men may marry in a caste below the one they belong to, women are limited to their own. The practice here is more equalizing than the rule.
In Bugis polygamy, separate wives have separate establishments, and years may elapse without husband or wife having any communication with one another. Still, unless a divorce—procurable on light grounds—be effected, the marriage continues.
To the highest offices of the state, even to that of aru matoah, women are eligible; so much so that, at the present moment, four out of six of the hereditary rajahs are females.
"The strangest custom I have observed (i.e. among the Bugis) is, that some men dress like women, and some women like men; not occasionally, but all their lives, devoting themselves to the occupations and pursuits of their adopted sex. In the case of males, it seems that the parents of a boy, upon perceiving in him certain peculiarities of habit and appearance, are induced thereby to present him to one of the rajahs, by whom he is received. These youths acquire much influence over their masters. It would appear, however, from all I could learn, that the practice leads among the Bugis to none of those vices that constitute the opprobrium of Western Europe."[57]
By allowing ourselves to argue from the sanctity attributed by many ancient nations (e.g. the Greeks and Germans) to the female character, and by comparing the form which this strange custom takes in Borneo, where it is connected with the sacerdotal office, we arrive at a plausible explanation. Among the Sea Dyaks "their doctor, or magician, or both combined, is a man set apart for that office, who is thereafter considered as a woman. She, or he marries a husband, adopts children, dresses as a female, and lives amongst the women, performing the domestic duties peculiar to the sex. The principal occupation is curing people by divers charms, driving away the devil and evil spirits. It must be allowed that the whole constitution of this office is an example of gross superstition; but the ceremonies attendant on it are in themselves inoffensive. A branch of a tree is fixed on the house; around it white cloth is wrapped; and near this spot the spathe of the betel or areca tree is placed (the spathe being indispensable); then the people assemble, and with unseemly noises rattling shells and beating gongs proclaim their joy and satisfaction.
"The office itself is called 'Manang;' and no particular age is specified, the 'Manang' being young or old, as chance may determine. The present occupier of this important post became so when quite a child, and he is now well stricken in years, and much respected by his tribe."[58]
THE MOLUCCAS.
First Group.—Ternati, Tidor, Mortay (or Morintay), Gilolo.
Second Group.—Banda, and other small islands.
Third Group.—Amboyna, Ceram, Buru, Saparua, &c.
The inhabitants of these groups, or clusters, fall under the three heads which we are now prepared to expect.
1. Mahometan Malays.—The influence of the Mahometan Malays had organized rajahships in the Moluccas anterior to their discovery, A.D. 1521. Of these, the most important was that of Ternati; the territory of which extends over Tidor, Gilolo, Mortay, and part of Celebes.
2. A population of the character of the Bugis, i.e. the population of the Archipelago, as developed by the influence of the sea-coast and the commerce that it evolved.
3. A population of the interior of the Dyak(?) type.—Respecting these last I have not the definite information I could wish for. Small as are some of the islands—Amboyna and Tidor—tribes inferior and subordinate to the natives of the coasts and town, have been ascribed to the interior. Forrest states that these are Papua. This they are likely enough to be. Still it would not be surprising if they were light-coloured, and of the Dyak type.
Since the publication of Sir Stamford Raffles' tabulated vocabularies for these parts, I have looked in vain for any vocabulary representing a language other than the Malay. The Guebé vocabulary of Durville is Malay, and the Amboyna and Ceram vocabularies of Roorda van Eysingen are Malay.
The European influences have been Portuguese in the first instance. Afterwards and, at present, Dutch. Chinese settlements also are numerous.
Eastward of the Molucca Islands we come to New Guinea and the islands in its immediate neighbourhood. These belong to another department of the subject. The division at present to be noticed is the Philippine portion of the Malay area. This lies northward to the parts already described, and may have received its population by any one (or more than one) of the following lines of connexion.
1. The Long island of Palawan.—Luçon, Mindoro, Busvagaon, Calamian, Palawan, Balabac, North-western Borneo.
2. The Sulu Archipelago.—Mindanao, Basilian, the Sulus, North-eastern Borneo.
3. Sangir and the islands to the north and south of it—Mindanao, Serangani, Sangir, Siao, the Guning Tellu country in the North-east of Celebes.
4. Mindanao, Serangani Salibabo, Gilolo: Gilolo being equidistant between Celebes and Papua.
The first of these lines is the most probable.
PALAWAN.
Palawan, or Paragoa, is mentioned more from its prominence as a continuity of Borneo than for the sake of description. It is little known: partially under the Spaniards, partially independent.
THE SÚLÚS.
These are also stepping-stones from Borneo. They are Malay; and the headquarters of a Malay power; the most piratical of these seas. The Sultan of Sulu is the terror of the Dyaks of Borneo. He is also the sovereign of part of that island, of part of Palawan, and of the Cayagan group. I only know the short Sulu vocabulary of Rienzi.
THE PHILIPPINES.
Divisions.—1. The southern island of Magindano, or Mindanao. 2. The northern island of Luçon, or Luçonia. 3. The Bissayan Archipelago between the two. Of this last, the most important islands are Mindoro, Samar, Leyte, Panay, and the Isola de Negros.
Population.—Malay and Negrito.
Although at the present moment the aboriginal population of the Philippines may be studied in detail, such detail will be avoided; and no more than four leading points will be noticed.
1. The Blacks of the Philippine group.—The existence of tribes darker coloured than the generality, is one of the earliest of the observations on these parts; and its confirmation one of the latest facts in modern ethnology.
Beginning at the island of Mindanao, we find, in Mallat,[59] the names of the following tribes—Dumagas, Malanaos, Manabos, and Tagabaloys. These are not described in detail, but are said to belong to the same type with the Negroes of the Bissayan Archipelago and Luçonia. They constitute the still savage tribes of the forests and mountains.
In the Archipelago our knowledge becomes more distinct, though still imperfect. The Blacks of Lasso were visited by Lafond Lurcy. They were nearly naked, with hair like cotton, very slim, and very undersized. Dr. Prichard makes these Negritos members of a group which he calls the puny Negroes of the Archipelago.
What Lafond Lurcy writes coincides with the statements of Mallat; who speaks of the Blacks of the type in question as being very Negro in feature, with the nose peu épaté, and with the hair crépu.
The Isola de Negros takes its name from the greater proportion of the population being of this character, i.e. black, after the manner of the African.
In Luçonia, however, a second type appears.
IGOROTS.
Taller than the southern Blacks; more copper-coloured than black; eyes oblique; frontal sinuses much developed; hair harsh, hard, lank, and bright-black. Painted; tattooed on their hands with a figure like the sun.
BUSIKS.
More agricultural than the Igorots. Tattooed.
BUSAOS.
Milder in temper than the Igorots; tattooed on the arms only; pierced and enlarged ears.
ITETEPANES.
Small, and short; black; flat-nosed; eyes less oblique than those of the Igorots; hair straight.
All this verifies the statement of the Abbate Bernardo del Fuente,[60] according to which there are two varieties of Philippine Blacks, one with long, fine, and glossy, and one with crisped hair.
2. The Philippine languages.—Of these the most important are the Tagala, the Bissayan, the Pampango, the Iloco, and the Abac. Of the Bissayan there are several dialects: the Mindanao, the Samar, the Iolo, the Bohol. The structure of the Tagala has been particularly studied by Humboldt. It represents the Malay in its most complex form; and is essentially agglutinate in respect to its inflection.
All the numerous Philippine dialects and languages are fundamentally Malay. Those of the Blacks are but little known. Still, as far as our knowledge extends, the philological phenomenon is the same as with the Samang of the Malayan Peninsula. The difference in language is less than the difference of form and colour.
3. The Extent of Hindu influences.—These are less in the Philippines than in Celebes, and much less than in Java and Bali. Still the Philippines have a native alphabet, and this native alphabet has the same origin with the alphabets of Sumatra, Java, and Celebes; viz. the Hindu Devanagari.
4. The remains of the original mythology.—I give what I know of this in the following note from Marsden's Sumatra,[61] where it is inserted from Thevenot, for the sake of illustrating that of Sumatra.
"The chief deity of the Tagalas is called Bathala mei Capal, and also Dinata; and their principal idolatry consists in adoring those of their ancestors who signalised themselves for courage or abilities; calling them Humalagar, i.e. manes. They make slaves of the people who do not keep silence at the tombs of their ancestors. They have great veneration for the crocodile, which they call nono, signifying grandfather, and make offerings to it. Every old tree they look upon as a superior being, and think it a crime to cut it down. They worship also stones, rocks, and points of land, shooting arrows at these last as they pass them. They have priests, who, at their sacrifices, make many contortions and grimaces, as if possessed with a devil. The first man and woman, they say, were produced from a bamboo, which burst in the island of Sumatra; and they quarrelled about their marriage. The people mark their bodies in various figures, and render them of the colour of ashes; have large holes in their ears; blacken and file their teeth, and make an opening, which they fill up with gold. They used to write from top to bottom, till the Spaniards taught them to write from left to right. Bamboos and palm-leaves serve them for paper. They cover their houses with straw, leaves of trees, or bamboos split in two, which serve for tiles. They hire people to sing and weep at their funerals; burn benzoin; bury their dead on the third day in strong coffins, and sometimes kill slaves to accompany their deceased masters. They held the caiman, or alligator, in great reverence, and when they saw him they called him nono, or grandfather, praying with great tenderness that he would do them no harm; and, to this end, offered him of whatever they had in their boats, throwing it into the water. There was not an old tree to which they did not offer divine worship, especially that called balete; and even at this time they have some respect for them. Beside these they had certain idols inherited from their ancestors, which the Tagalas called anito, and the Bissayans, divata. Some of these were for the mountains and plains, and they asked their leave when they would pass them. Others for the corn-fields; and to these they recommend them, that they might be fertile, placing meat and drink in the fields for the use of the anitos. There was one of the sea, who had care of their fishing and navigation; another of the house, whose favour they implored at the birth of a child, and under whose protection they placed it. They made anitos also of their deceased ancestors, and to these were their first invocations in all difficulties and dangers. They reckoned amongst these beings all those who were killed by lightning or alligators, or had any disastrous death, and believed that they were carried up to the happy state, by the rainbow, which they call balan-gao. In general, they endeavoured to attribute this kind of divinity to their fathers, when they died in years; and the old men, vain with this barbarous notion, affected in their sickness a gravity and composure of mind, as they conceived, more than human, because they thought themselves commencing anitos. They were to be interred at places marked out by themselves, that they might be discovered at a distance and worshipped. The missionaries have had great trouble in demolishing their tombs and idols; but the Indians, inland, still continue the custom of pasing tubi sa nono, or asking permission of their dead ancestors, when they enter any wood, mountain, or corn-field, for hunting or sowing; and if they omit this ceremony, imagine their nonos will punish them with bad fortune.
"Their notions of the creation of the world, and formation of mankind, had something ridiculously extravagant. They believed that the world at first consisted only of sky and water, and between these two, a glede; which, weary with flying about, and finding no place to rest, set the water at variance with the sky, which, in order to keep it in bounds, and that it should not get uppermost, loaded the water with a number of islands, in which the glede might settle and leave them at peace. Mankind, they said, sprang out of a large cane with two joints, that, floating about in the water, was at length thrown by the waves against the feet of the glede, as it stood on shore, which opened it with its bill, and the man came out of one joint, and the woman out of the other. These were soon after married by consent of their god, Bathala Meycapal, which caused the first trembling of the earth; and from thence are descended the different nations of the world."
THE BABYANIS.
Locality.—Due north of Luçon.
THE BASHIS.
Locality.—Due north of the Babyanis.
I have no details respecting the Babyanis and the Bashis. They have been noticed, however, as forming the tract from Luçon to—
FORMOSA.
Name.—Chinese Taï-ouan, originally Toung-fan.
Political Relations.—Western side, subject to China. Eastern side independent.
Languages.—Numerous dialects. The only known vocabulary, Malay.
Authority.—Klaproth. Description de Formose, Melanges Asiatiques, p. 195.
The knowledge of the island of Formosa on the part of the Chinese begins no earlier than the year 1430 A.D.; and its oldest name in Chinese, Toung-fan, means barbarians of the East. The later name means the Bay of Heights.
This term is explained by the geological structure of the island. It is bisected from north to south by a line of mountains, upon which snow lies during November and December. This range is a line of demarcation in ethnology as well as politics. West of it we have the district that pays tribute to the Chinese, and in which there is a standing Chinese army, and a number of Chinese immigrants—chiefly employed in the rice cultivation. In the mountains themselves, and to the east of them, are the Aborigines. These are said to approach the Negro type, and to differ from one another in language—a fact that we are now prepared to expect rather than to discredit. Their arms are the dart and bow; and their swiftness of foot is described by the Chinese as being equal to that of the swiftest dogs.
They are Malayan in stock, and apparently but little mixed. The Japanese, and the Lúchú on the northern part of the island, and the Dutch on the present Chinese locality seem to have been their chief visitors. Neither held their ground permanently.
That an island so near as Formosa should have been so long unknown to the Chinese, surprises Klaproth; who reasonably thinks that it was known at an earlier period, but known under a different name. The more so, as the Pescadores islands, half-way between, are within sight of the mainland.
It is safe to consider that the population of Formosa is a continuance of the population of Luçon, and the Bashi islands. Of the island Lang-khiao, at the southernmost end of Formosa, I find, in Klaproth, an express statement that it is inhabited, and that its inhabitants are great breeders of sheep.
Of the Pescadores the original population is unknown. From what I collect from Klaproth, the natives were removed in 1387, A.D., by the Chinese, and transplanted elsewhere. How far this was, partial or complete, is uncertain. At present they are inhabited—probably by the Chinese, who replaced the exiles of 1387.
There can be but little doubt that Formosa was peopled from the northern part of Luçonia; in which case its inhabitants represent the stock of the Igorots, Busiks, &c., as modified by a more northern position, and by Chinese rather than Malay elements.
With Formosa we reach the northernmost limits of the Malays in this direction. The Lúchú islands, north of Formosa, have their affinities with Japan, and Japan has its affinities with the North and West, rather than with the South and East.
THE POLYNESIANS.
Area.—From the small islands to the west of the Pelews to Easter Island, west and east. From the Mariannes and the Sandwich Islands north, to New Zealand south.
Physical Conformation.—Modified Protonesian. Stature, perhaps, taller; tendency to corpulence more common; colour oftener approaching that of the European; hair often waved or curling; nose frequently aquiline.
Nutrition.—But little azotized; saccharine and amylaceous.
Aliment.—Preeminently vegetable, the coco-nut, the taro, the banana. Fish.
Negative Characters.—Little, or no, use of the bow and arrow; considered to be a differential point between Polynesia and Kelænonesia.
Conditions of Social and Physical Development.—Absence of large animals, either as beasts of burden or as food. Nearly general absence of rice and pulse. Intercourse entirely by means of canoes. Between Polynesia and Protonesia little or none. Between the different portions of Polynesia limited or partial. Malay and Hindu influences obscure. Present influences European; of recent date.
Religion.—Paganism, apparently indigenous. Uniform in its general character over a great extent.
Languages.—Allied to each other, and mutually intelligible over large areas. Grammatical structure akin to the Tagala. Malay words numerous and evident.
Divisions.—1. Micronesian Branch. 2. Proper Polynesian Branch.
Reasons will now be given for drawing a distinction between the Micronesians and the Proper Polynesians, and also for taking the Micronesians first in order. In the former I follow Prichard. In the latter I believe my arrangement is singular.
1. MM. Dumont Durville and Lesson, to whose observations on this, as in many other portions of oceanic ethnology, much of our information is due, have agreed in disconnecting the natives of the Western Oceanic Islands from those of the Eastern; insisting upon a difference of language, and a difference in physical conformation. Nay more, they would connect them with the Mongols of the Continent. To give prominence to this difference of opinion on the part of judges so well qualified as the two investigators in question, was Pilchard's reason for thus separating the Archipelago of the Pacific into two sections.
For my own part I consider that the grounds of difference set forth by MM. Lesson and Dumont Durville, although insufficient to establish the double position of an affinity with the Mongolians, and of a no-affinity with the Polynesians, are sufficient to justify the sub-division of the kind in question. The absence, in Micronesia, of certain Polynesian customs, and the modified form of others are additional reasons.
2. The reason for taking the Micronesian branch before the Proper Polynesian, involves the following question—What was the line of population by which the innumerable islands of the Pacific, from the Pelews to Easter Island, and from the Sandwich Islands to New Zealand became inhabited by tribes, different from, but still allied to, the Protonesian Malays?—That line, whichever it be, where the continuity of successive islands is the greatest, and, whereon the fewest considerable interspaces of ocean are to be found.
This is the general answer, à priori; subject to modification from the counterbalancing phenomena of winds, or currents unfavourable to the supposed migration.
Now this answer, when applied to the geographical details regarding the distribution of land and sea in the great Oceanic area, indicates the following line—New Guinea, New Ireland, the New Hebrides, the Figis, and the Tonga group, &c. From hence the Navigators' Isles, the Isles of the Dangerous Archipelago, the Kingsmill, and other groups, carry the frequently-diverging streams of population over the Caroline Islands, the Ladrones, the Pelews, Easter Island, &c.
This view, however, so natural an inference from a mere land-and-sea survey, is complicated by the ethnological position of the New Guinea, New Ireland, and New Hebrides population. These are not Protonesian, and they are not Polynesian. Lastly, they are not intermediate to the two. They break rather than propagate the continuity of the human stream; a continuity which exists geographically but fails ethnologically.
The recognition of this conflict between the two probabilities, has determined me to consider the Micronesian Archipelago, as that part of Polynesia which is the part most likely to have been first peopled; and hence comes a reason for taking it first in order.
THE MICRONESIAN BRANCH OF THE POLYNESIAN STOCK.
Area.—The Pelew, Caroline, Marianne Islands. The Tarawan group. As far south as about 7° S. L.
Physical Conformation.—More Mongolian, in the limited sense of the term, than the proper Polynesian. Varieties both of hair and complexion.
Language.—Dialects, probably, mutually intelligible. Probably unintelligible to the Proper Polynesians.
Political relations.—Partly independent; partly subject to Spain.
Religion.—Paganism and Romanism.
European intermixture.—Chiefly Spanish.
Negative characters.—Absence of the tabu under the form in which it appears in Polynesia. Use of the drink called kava either restricted, or modified. Considered to be differential points between Micronesia and Polynesia.
In these negative characters (of which, however, it is doubtful whether the exact extent has been ascertained), superadded to the fact, of the Micronesian dialects forming a separate language unintelligible to the Polynesian, and to the difference—real or supposed—in their physical appearance, lie good and sufficient reasons for considering the Micronesians to form a separate division. To which may be added, considerable differences in the way of creed and mythology.
LORD NORTH'S ISLAND.
Locality.—Latitude 3° 2´ N. Longitude 131° 4´ E.
Population.—About three or four hundred.
Physical conformation.—Complexion, light copper, lighter than that of the Malays or Pelew islanders. Face broad, cheek-bones high, nose flattened.
Pantheon.—Chief deity Yaris. Progenitor Pita-kat.
The account of Horace Holden,[62] an American sailor, who, with eleven others, reached the island of Tobi, in a boat, and who was detained there two years, is our only source of information for this important locality—the nearest point of contact between Polynesia and Protonesia.
No tribes have a harder struggle for existence. During the whole of Holden's residence, only five turtle were taken; fish being also scanty. Hence coco-nuts and the taro formed the chief food. It is reasonable, as well as charitable, to refer the churlishness of their tempers to this state of indigence. Perhaps, also, it is the reason why the men, as compared with the women, take a fair share of the labour of cultivation—a custom rare in other parts of Polynesia.
The effects of hunger in reducing the population are seconded by those of war. And here, the only weapons are the spear and club—no bows and no arrows.
The houses "are built of small trees and rods, and thatched with leaves. They have two stories, a ground-floor, and a loft, which is entered by a hole or scuttle through the horizontal partition or upper floor.
"For ornament they sometimes wear in their ears, which are always bored, a folded leaf; and round their necks a necklace made of the shell of the coco-nut, and a small white sea-shell."
All this merely connects them with the Micronesians. The tradition respecting Pita-kat is more important. He "came many years ago from the island of Ternati, and gave them their religion, and such simple arts as they possessed."
SONSORAL.—JOHANNES ISLAND.
Locality.—West of the Pelews. Nearest point to the Philippines.
THE PELEW GROUP.
Synonym.—Palaos.
Chief Islands.—Corror, Babelthouap, Pelelion.
Native quadrupeds.—Rats.
Vegetable products.—Coco-nut, bread-fruit, yam, batata, taro, ebony, sugarcane, orange, banana, bamboo, paper-mulberry. Rice and pulse wanting.
The paucity of quadrupeds, and the abundance of tropical vegetables is common to the Pelew Islands, and the whole of Polynesia. Hence, it is mentioned once for all. The chief exception, however, is an important one. The hog will be found to be partially distributed; and the partial character of its distribution has been one of the instruments of ethnological criticism (especially in the hands of the French naturalists), by means of which the order of succession in which the different islands have been peopled has been investigated.
CLUSTER OF GOULOU.[63]
Direction.—North-east from the Pelews.
Locality.—Between the Pelews and the—
CLUSTER OF YAP. OULUTHY OR EGOY ISLANDS. THE MARIANNES.
Synonym.—Ladrones.
Name of Natives.—Chamorros.
Chief islands.—Guam, Rota, Tinian.
Physical appearance of Natives.—Stature higher than that of the other islanders, tendency to corpulence greater.
Intermixture.—Considerable, i.e. with Polynesians, Philippine islanders, Spaniards.
Rota and Tinian are remarkable for containing the remains of massive stone buildings; the original use of which is wholly unknown to the present natives. The same phenomenon will be repeated in Tonga-tabú and Easter Island.
The Mariannes form the most northern portion of Micronesia. The direction will now be due east from the cluster of Goulou; about mid-way between the Pelews and Yap.
OULUTHY GROUP.
Synonym.—Egoy Islands.
LAMOURSEK AND SATAWAL GROUPS.
Direction.—West to east.
Extent.—From 140° to 15° E. L. from Paris. Under 5° N. L.
Particular islands.—Lamoursek, Satawal, Faroilep (the most northern), Aurupig (the most southern).
PROPER CAROLINE GROUP.
Direction.—From the Lamoursek and Satawal group fifteen degrees westward.
Particular islands.—Hogoleu, Lougounor, Pounipet, Ualan.
A distinction which will often be applied in Polynesian ethnology may now be made. It is the difference between the geological structure of the different islands. Whether they are what is called high or low is important. In the high islands, where the structure is primitive, metamorphic, or volcanic, the conditions for social development are more favourable than in the low islands, of a coralline structure. In these last the food is less abundant, the sun more scorching, and, generally, the complexion of the inhabitants darker.
Again, the inhabitants of the low islands are generally at peace amongst themselves: those of the high islands at war.
In the ethnology of the Paumoto Archipelago, this distinction will be repeated. So it will elsewhere.
LOUGOUNOR.
Synonym.—Lougoullos. Mortlock island.
Physical conformation.—Stature, above the average; colour, chestnut, lips thick, beard long but thin, hair black, long, thick, slightly curling (un peu crépu), sometimes frizzy—Lütke, from Prichard.
Language.—Allied to, but different from, the Ualan.
POUNIPET.
Structure.—Volcanic.
Population.—About two thousand.
Physical Appearance.—Face broad and flat, nose flat, lips thick, hair crisp. Colour, between chesnut and olive. Height, average.—Lütke from Prichard.
UALAN.
The chief island of the Central Caroline group, or of the Caroline Islands in the more general sense of the term.
Structure.—Volcanic.
Physical conformation of the natives.—Stature average, hair black, beard scanty, only in some cases thick, forehead narrow, eyes oblique, nose somewhat flattened, face broad, complexion clear yellow (citron), lightest in the case of the chiefs.—Lesson.
As the succession of islands now becomes less regular, and as the interval of sea between Ualan and the Archipelagoes east of it is considerable, it is necessary to consider the lines of passage between the proper Carolines and the Ralik and Radak chains to the north-west. These are two.
1. From Pounipet to the Isles of Brown; with Providence Isles half-way between.
2. From Ualan to the Radak chain, or Mulgrave's Islands.
ISLES OF BROWN.—RALIK CHAIN.
Synonym.—Marshall's Islands.
RADACK CHAIN.
Synonym.—Mulgrave's Islands.
The Radack and Ralik people are dark.
The direction is now south, and south-west, to an Archipelago lying under the Equator.
KINGSMILL'S GROUP.
GILBERT ISLANDS.
SCARBOROUGH ISLANDS.
General name.—The Tarawan group.
Latitude.—North and south of the Equator.
Longitude.—Nearly that of the Fiji islands.
Population.—Perhaps sixty thousand. In Drummond's Island six thousand.
Physical appearance.—Complexion dark copper. More Protonesian than Polynesian. Cheek-bones projecting, nose slightly aquiline. Average height five feet eight inches.
In Pitt Island, the most northern of the group, the natives are lighter in colour than the other islanders, taller, stronger, and better-limbed; with smooth bodies, oval faces, and regular and delicate features.
THE PROPER POLYNESIAN BRANCH OF THE POLYNESIAN STOCK.
Area.—The Navigators, Society, Friendly, and other groups of the Pacific. The Marquesas; the Dangerous Archipelago; Easter Island; the Sandwich Isles; New Zealand, &c. With the exception of the Sandwich Isles and New Zealand, south and east of Micronesia. Nearer to Kelænonesia than to any part of Protonesia.
Physical conformation.—Maximum and, perhaps, average stature higher than in Micronesia. Aquiline nose commoner. Varieties both of hair and complexion. The former wavy and curled as well as straight; sometimes chestnut-coloured. Skin, often fairest in the parts nearest the Equator; becoming darker as the distance increases. Oftener, also, darker in the coralline than in the volcanic islands.
Face oval. Ears generally large.
Zygomatic development moderate. Occipito-frontal profiles truncated behind, elevated at the vertex.
Nostrils generally spreading.
Language.—Dialects mutually intelligible; probably unintelligible to the Micronesians.
Political relations.—Wholly independent, colonized, or protected.
Religion.—Paganism, Romanism, Protestantism, Imperfect Christianity.
European intermixture.—Chiefly English, American, and French.
Habits.—The superstition of the tabu; the use of kava as a drink. See the notice of Micronesia. Cannibalism, tattooing, circumcision, more or less, common.
With the view of saving repetition, a notice of the Polynesian mythology will precede the enumeration of the islands; for each and all of these the creed being, in its general principles, as truly one and the same as is the language, the same divinities appearing with the same functions and under similar, or but slightly-changed, denominations. Hence, sometimes the difference between two Pantheons is merely verbal. Generally, however, it is real. Even then, however, we find no new element; but one of two things. Either the same story appears in a varied form; or else some portion of the mythology which is but slightly prominent in one group of islands, takes unusual importance in another; the fundamental identity of character being manifest throughout.
Of the common elements of the general Polynesian creed the following are the most important; those which are most special, and least general or abstract, being taken first in order.
The supernatural spirits that interfere directly with human concerns.—Mischievous beings, imps or goblins, that play so prominent a part in the superstitions of all countries, play a prominent part in those of Polynesia. These may appear under any out of a multiplicity of forms. There may be the spirit protective to a certain family; the spirit protective to a certain pursuit; the god of the sailor, the fisherman, or the tiller of the soil. Good they may do and mischief they may do—either in a material or an immaterial form, in their own shape or in the shape of sharks, lizards, storks, snipes, or any other dumb animal. From a belief of this kind to the superstition of omens is but a single step, so that rats that squeak, and comets that show their beards, and noses that sneeze, and birds that fly the wrong way, all become the expositors from Powers beyond those of mortality. Then the rock, and glen, and above all the volcano and earthquake, become palpable objects to be connected with a presiding divinity.
To these and to the like of these all the islanders look. Some look beyond them.
Múoi (Mawi) is more man than God; the supporter, or rather the support, of the earth. This lies on the gigantic extension of his body; and earthquakes result from its movements. Where he is either more or less than the comparatively passive substructure of all things material, he is a wise wizard who foretells events; or else the maker rather than foundation-stone of the world. Just as Tangaloa did in the other parts of Polynesia, Mawi did in New Zealand. What this was will be soon seen.
The Cosmogony.—The Polynesian world—how much beyond it is uncertain—was fished up from sea by Tangaloa; Tahiti was the first part that appeared. Just as its rocks showed above water, the line broke. However, the rock in which the hook stuck can still be seen in the island of Hoonga; and the family of Tuitonga, until very lately, were in possession of the hook. There was enough land, however, to be worth filling with human beings and human food. And this was done by Tangaloa.[64]
Such is the Tonga account. In New Zealand, as already stated, the artificer is changed; and Mawi does the work of Tangaloa. In Tahiti, and Samoa, the workman is the same, but the work different. The Tahitian Tangaloa formed the ocean from the sweat of his brow—so hard did he work in making the land. The Samoan sent down his daughter Tali, in the shape of a snipe, to survey the world below. As she saw nothing but sea, her father rolled down a stone which became one island, and another which became a second, and so on. The first growth of such islands were wild vines. These were pulled out of the ground, and heaped up to rot, so that worms were produced. Out of these worms grew men and women.
The Happy Island.—In an island like their own, only more beautiful, live the higher gods, and the souls of chiefs, kings, and councillors. In Tonga this island is Bolotoo. It was once visited; but those who visited it died, having breathed its air.
The residents and visitors of the Happy Island.—First amongst these are the gods themselves and their servants; not, however, Mawi—
The souls of the chiefs after death—
The souls of the councillors after death—
Caste-system.—The list of the inhabitants of Bolotoo stops at a certain line of nobility. The people are the servants of the chiefs, and the servants of the chiefs have no share of enjoyment after death.
At this point, the mythology and the social constitution of the Polynesians act and react upon each other. Those who have no political rights in life, have no existence after death (or vice versâ); and the result is a system half caste, and half feudalism.
Whether the king or priest be paramount, depends upon their respective individual characters. There is room for the subtle brain as well as for the strong hand. So it is, as between king and chief. The vassalage is perfect or imperfect according to the strength of the parties. Whatever, however, may be the relative position of the king, the priest, or the chiefs, the people are sure of their thraldom; a thraldom to their immediate superior, the chief.
Add to these elements of social subordination and insubordination, the existence of tribes and the influence of descent. A family may be descended from some god that took an earthly island for his residence. This will give it a precedence even over the kings.
From the feeling of pedigree, and from the belief that the nobler families become spirits after death, we have the belief in ghosts, and the reverence for the dead. Whoever studies the details of the Polynesian creeds and traditions will find abundant instances of this; and in such detail they should be studied. To exhibit them (as has just been attempted) in a general point of view, can only be done by applying terms adapted to a different system, and, as such, only partially appropriate. It can only be done at the sacrifice of those special elements which give life and individuality to a description. Such, however, as it is, the previous sketch is the only one that could be admitted into a work like the present.
Beginning with the fourteenth degree S. L., the distribution of the Polynesian islands runs off in three different directions.
1. From west to east; i.e. from the Navigators' Islands to Easter Island.
2. North-east; to the Sandwich Islands in 20° N. L.
3. South-west; to New Zealand in 35° S. L.
NAVIGATORS' ISLANDS.
Synonym.—Archipelago of Samoa.
Islands.—Opoun, Leone, Sanfoue, Maouna, Oiolava, Pola.
Complexion.—Dark bronze.
Numbers.—According to Captain Wilkes, 56,000: of which 14,850 are Christians. Majority of the remainder attending the missionary schools.
Pantheon.—Tangaloa-lagi, Tamafaiga, Sinleo, Onafanna, Mafuie, Salefu, Merua Fuana, Tinitini, Lamanau, Tuli, &c.
Real or supposed peculiarities.—Use of the bow; which is used also in De Peyster's island. Rare elsewhere.
THE TONGA GROUP.
Synonym.—The Hapai Islands; the Friendly Islands.
| ISLANDS. | POPULATION. |
|---|---|
| Eooa | 200 |
| Hapai | 4,000 |
| Vavao | 4,000 |
| Keppell's Islan | 1,000 |
| Boscawen's Islan | 1,300 |
| Tonga-tabú | 8,000 |
| Total | 18,500 |
Said to be on the increase. Number of Christians, about 4,500.
Pantheon.—Múoi.—The Hotooas, Táli-y-tobú, Higooléo, Tooboo-toti, Alaivaloo, Ali-ali, Tangaloa—Tangaloa's sons, Toobó, and Váca-ácow-ooli, &c. Bolotoo=the Happy Island.
| Term for | the Tonga | chiefs—Egi. |
| " | " | councillors—Mataboulai. |
| " | " | king—How. |
| " | " | lower classes—Mooa. |
| " | " | lowest—Tooa. |
Real or supposed peculiarities.—Infant sacrifices; the cutting off of a finger on the death of relatives; domestic architecture on a scale approaching that of Borneo. Remains of stone architecture; probably the tombs of the chiefs.
HERVEY ISLES.
Names.—Rarotonga, Atiu; Mangaia, Aitutaki, Mauke, Mitiaro, Manuai.
Population.—About fourteen thousand; of which one-half belongs to Rarotonga.
AUSTRAL ISLANDS.
Names.—Rimatara, Rurutu, Tupuai, Raivavai.
Population.—About one thousand. Decreasing.
RAPA.
Locality.—South of any island yet named, and isolated.
THE TAHITIAN GROUP.
Synonym.—The Society Islands.
Islands.—Ulietea, Otahá, Bolabola, Huaheine, Tabai, Maurua.
Pantheon.—The Tii Maaraauta=the spirit reaching toward the land. The Tii Maaraatai=the spirit reaching toward the sea. Eatooa=gods in general. Tii Hina, Taaroa (= Tangaloa). Maui Raiatea (the analogue of Bolotoo).
| Terms for | the Tahiti | chiefs—Eree, or Tiara. |
| " | " | councillors—Manahounis. |
| " | " | lower classes—Toutous. |
PAUMOTU.
Meaning.—Cloud of islands.
Synonym.—The Low Islands. Dangerous Archipelago.
Structure.—Generally coralline.
Particular islands and groups—
AURA.
Locality.—S. L. 15° 40´ W. L. 146° 30´ The most savage of all the islands of the Archipelago, and the one that has most rarely been visited with impunity.
CHAIN ISLAND.
Locality.—S. L. 17° 30´ W. L. 45° 30´ Described as being like Aura, to Captain Fitzroy, by Mr. Middleton, who had passed some time on the island. Cannibals. Conquerors of the rest of the Archipelago, except Aura. The first ship they had manned by a black crew.
GAMBIER ISLANDS.
Names.—Mangareva, Akena, Akamaru, Tarawari, &c.
Structure.—Volcanic.
Population.—About two thousand.
PITCAIRN ISLAND.
Locality.—South of the Gambier group.
DUCIE'S ISLAND.
Locality.—West of the Gambier group.
There is a great difference in physical conformation between the inhabitants of different members of the Paumotu group. Some are well-made, nearly on a level with the measurements of European, and with a "fine Asiatic countenance, with beards and mustaches, but no whiskers—men who might pass for Moors."[65] Others approach the character of the Negroes.
We know now the doctrine that this difference will engender; and we know the exception that it will call for. More than one writer have seen in Paumotu islanders specimens of a second race. More than one have seen only the same race under different conditions.
Now, Captain Beechey has found that this difference in the inhabitants coincides with the difference of the islands. The well-grown tribes of the Polynesian type are the tribes of the volcanic Islands, Pitcairn's and the Gambier group. The blacker variety is found on the low islands.
EASTER ISLAND.
Synonym.—Teape.
Locality.—The most eastern island of Polynesia. Solitary.
In Easter Island there stood in the year 1722, and there stand now, statues of colossal proportions, sometimes on the level ground, sometimes on platforms of hewn stone, representing (or misrepresenting) the upper half of the human figure, with enormous ears, shapen out of lavas, some soft, and some too hard for any tool known to the present natives, objects of wonder to them, but not objects of worship.
That they are not objects of worship is inferred from the extent to which they are neglected. When fallen, or broken they are not repaired; neither are they connected with the burial-places.
These seem to have an existence in another form, in that of cylindrical heaps of stone; the meaning of which a native explained to M. de Langle by laying himself down on the ground, and then lifting his hands towards the sky.
The mystery of these statues is increased by a remark of Captain Beechey's. He had seen the like of them elsewhere; but he had seen them on uninhabited islands.
The eastern extremity of the Paumotu Archipelago points towards Easter Island; the northern line is the nearest point to—
THE MARQUESAS.
Names.—Hivaoa, Tahuata, Fatuhiva, Easter=the south-eastern group. Nukahiva, Uahuka, Uapou=the north-western.
Population.—Perhaps two thousand.
The natives of the Marquesas are considered as the handsomest men of Polynesia.
The natives of the Marquesas are most at war with one another of all the Polynesians. Their chief island is intersected by a mountain-ridge; and the mountain-ridge (like most mountain-ridges) supplies a fierce body of quarrellers.
The natives of the Marquesas speak a greater variety of dialects (or sub-dialects) than the natives of any other group. This has engendered the doctrine that they were colonized from more quarters than one.
Distant though it be the Nukahiva group is the nearest point to—
THE SANDWICH ISLANDS.
Names of islands according to the dialect or orthography followed by Prichard.—Hawaii, Maui, Tahaurawe, Morokini, Ranai, Morokai, Oahu, Tauai, Niihau, Taura.
Names of the islands according to the dialect or orthography followed by Simpson.—Hawaii, Mowee, Kakoolawe, Lanai, Molokoi, Woahoo, Kanai, Niihau.
Structure.—Volcanic.
Physical appearance of the natives.—Height above the average. Mouth square and heavy.
Extract from M. Chloris: "Les enfans, en venant au monde, sont complêtement noirs; la jeune fille la plus jolie, et la plus delicate, qui s'expose le moins à l'action de l'air et du soleil, est noire; celles qui sont obligées de travailler constamment à l'ardeur du soleil, sont presque de couleur orangée." This orange tint is noticed by Mr. Simpson, who describes the Hawaiians as intermediate to the black Negro and the Red American—more, however, red than black.
The majority of the Polynesian islands present the phenomenon of an imperfect and recent civilization engrafted upon a state of comparative barbarism; and none more than the Hawaiian group. No area is, at once, so European and so Polynesian. Neither in any area are the influences more mixed. The population is mixed also. White and half-breeds constitute a large and increasing proportion of the population; the white being from England, from America, and from France.
This is the way in which the admixture of foreign blood takes place within the island itself. But it is not the only way. The Sandwich Islanders are themselves emigrants, and they are found upon the opposite coast of America; thus giving admixture to the Californian and Oregon Indians. They do the same in South America on the coast of Peru and Ecuador.
It is this determination of the Sandwich Islands to America, that gives us the phænomenon of the American and Oceanic admixture—a new and imperfectly studied form of union.
This dispersion of the Sandwich Islanders tells a story on more matters than one. It speaks to their enterprize, maritime capacity, and value as industrial assistants. This is what they are at home, and this is what they are abroad.
Since the discovery of the Sandwich Islands by Cook, the three great influences that have been at work, are—
- The wars, and policy of Kamehamehu.
- Missionary influences.
- Commercial and political influences.
1. At the accession of Kamehamehu, as now, the system of caste that determines the social state of New Zealand, Tahiti, and other parts of Polynesia, regulated that of the Sandwich group. The chiefs, however, held but nominally under the sovereign. Each in his own island, was practically an independent ruler. The wars of Kamehamehu coerced the chiefs of the smaller islands, and left him the sovereign of a consolidated empire. This he administered in the spirit of a Pagan, and a conqueror. Of the god of the volcano and earthquake that had helped him to his early victories, he lived and died the constant worshipper and support.
By the further favour of the same, he hoped to reduce the Tahitian group; an idea that raises his assemblage of canoes to the dignity of a fleet. At any rate, the force for land, and the force for sea underwent an incipient organization in the reign of Kamehamehu.
Then again, he was not only a great merchant, but the only great merchant in his dominions. The chief export was the sandal-wood, which, bearing a high price in the China market, and growing chiefly on the more inaccessible mountains, could only be collected at the expense of grinding labour, and fatal suffering as the portion of the helot population. This decimated the islands as much, or even more, than his wars.
At the death of Kamehamehu a weak tyranny succeeded a strong one. The monopoly of the sandal-wood was divided between the chiefs; and the multitude of masters increased the amount of suffering. I am writing from what I find in Sir G. Simpson, and add that the extremes of bloodshed and oppression brought with them their own remedy. The coercion was too successful to leave an enemy to fight against; and the sandal-wood became too nearly exhausted to command its previous price of life and labour.
In 1819, the great father of his dynasty died; and his idols died with him. Pagan as he was himself, his nation had outgrown Paganism; and there was a tabula rasa for any better creed.
2. With the reign of Liho-Liho began the influence of the missionaries—American, English, and French; the American and English with their respective forms of Protestantism, the French with Romanism. I have no inclination to meddle with the distasteful details of these mischievous contests. The ethnological result is the triple character of the influence now in operation. In politics, Hawaii is independent; independent and semi-constitutional; with its independence guaranteed by England, America, and France. In religion it is Protestant—with Romanism tolerated and something more; tolerated and making way amongst the people.
3. The improvement of the agriculture of the Sandwich Islands is going on steadily. Silk and sugar are beginning to be grown; and a healthier trade is replacing the sandal-wood monopolies.
I have admitted the previous notice of the character of Hawaiian civilization for the sake of comparing it with the present state and actual prospects of the islands. Cook, when he visited them, put the population at four hundred thousand—an exaggeration. Perhaps it came to half as much. In 1832 and 1836, there were censuses; of which the result was as follows:—
POPULATION.
| NAME. | AREA. | 1832. | 1836. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hawaii | 4,600 | 45,792 | 39,364 |
| Mowee | 620 | 35,062 | 24,199 |
| Lanai | 100 | 1,600 | 1,200 |
| Molokoi | 190 | 6,600 | 6,000 |
| Kakoolawe | 60 | 80 | 80 |
| Woahoo | 530 | 29,755 | 27,809 |
| Kanai | 500 | 10,977 | 8,934 |
| Niihau | 90 | 1,047 | 995 |
| Whole group | 6,090 | 130,313 | 108,579 |
This gives us a reduction; a reduction which has increased by 1840. This, I suppose, is the one from which Prichard takes his numbers, for two of the islands—
| For Maui | 18,000 |
| —— Woahoo | 20,000 |
Emigration will not account for this decrease. This we may see at once, from the proportion in 1840—the figures and reasoning are Sir G. Simpson's—in the single island of Kanai, between that part of the population which was under, and that part which was above, eighteen years of age.
| 1ST DISTRICT. | 2ND. DO. | 3RD DO. | 4TH DO. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under eighteen | 706 | 309 | 372 | 685 |
| Above eighteen | 2,229 | 1,043 | 1,178 | 2,134 |
| Total | 2,935 | 1,352 | 1,550 | 2,819 |
"Here," Sir G. Simpson continues, "is an average of one person under eighteen, to rather more than three persons above it—a state of things which would carry depopulation written on its very face, unless every creature, without exception, were to attain the good old age of seventy-five." To this we add a remark upon the bearing of the early period of marriages throughout Polynesia. Not one—but two—generations are included in the population under eighteen years; since before that time boys and girls have begun to have boys and girls of their own.
This disproportion accounts for the decrease. But what accounts for the disproportion?
In 1824, Mr. Stuart wrote that—"in those parts of the islands where the influence of the mission had not extended, two-thirds of the infants born perish by the hands of their own parents before attaining the first or second year of their age."
In 1840, there were found in Kanai out of 5,541 adults, only sixty-eight, and sixty-five women who had more than two children each, and that with a bounty, in the shape of an exemption from certain taxes, upon a number to that amount; whilst in Woahoo the births were sixty-one, the deaths one hundred and thirty-two.
Distant though it be, the Tahitian group is the nearest point to—
NEW ZEALAND.
Native name of northern island.—Ikana, Mawi.
Native name of southern island.—Tavai, Punamu.
Native name of the language.—Maori.
CHATHAM ISLAND.
Locality.—Twelve degrees east of New Zealand.
Appearance of the natives.—Colour dark; so much so as to be called by the New Zealanders, Blafello=Black-fellow, a term adopted from the English.
Such are the larger islands and archipelagoes of Polynesia. To these must be added the following smaller groups.
UNION GROUP.
Locality.—Five degrees due north of the Navigators' Islands.
Names.—1. Bowditch Isle, or Fakaafo. 2. Duke of York's Island, or Oatafu. 3. Duke of Clarence's Island, or Nukunono.
Population.—About one thousand.
Structure.—Coralline.
Language.—Intelligible to the Samoans.
Food.—Coco-nuts, pandanus-nuts, fish.
Although so near the Equator, the Fakaafo people are the fairest of the Polynesians.
VAITUPU GROUP.
- Name.—1. De Peyster I., or Nukufetau.
- 2. Tracy's I., or Vaitupu.
- 3. Ellice's I., or Funafati.
Language.—Intelligible to the Samoans.
Real or supposed peculiarity.—The bow used in De Peyster's Island. Except in the Navigators' Isles; rare elsewhere.
These islands have importance as connecting Northern Polynesia with Southern Micronesia. The people are dark-coloured and bearded.
PENRHYNN ISLAND.
Locality.—Midway between the Marquesas and Union Isles. Inhabitants numerous as compared with the size of the island.
ROTUMA.
Synonym.—Granville Island.
Locality.—Lat. 12° 30´ N. Long. 177° 15´ E. Three hundred miles from any other land.
COCO ISLAND.
TRAITOR'S ISLAND.
Locality.—North of the Friendly Islands. Lat. 15° 50´ S. Long. 174° W. i.e., between the Tonga and Samoan groups.
HORN ISLAND.
WALLIS ISLAND.
Locality.—Between Rotuma and the Samoan Archipelago.
SAVAGE ISLAND.
Locality.—Four degrees east of the Friendly group; i.e., between the Tonga Isles and the Hervey and Austral groups.
TIKOPIA.
Locality.—-Lat. 12° 30´ S. Long. 169° E.
Population.—About five hundred.
In Tikopia the locality is nearly Kelænonesian; whilst the physiognomy and language are Amphinesian; and of the two Amphinesian branches, most probably Polynesian.
On the other hand, they use the bow and arrow, and raise cicatrices by burning—both of which habits are Kelænonesian.
FOTUNA.
Synonym.—Erronan. A few miles east from Tanna, a Kelænonesian Island.
IMMER.
Synonym.—Muia. Ditto.
The locality creates the interest for these two islets. They are not only isolated from the other parts of Polynesia, but are portions of another geographical area.
FREE-WILL ISLAND.
Locality.—Fifty minutes north of line, to the west (or north-west) of New Guinea.
Natives.—Copper-coloured, with long black hair.—Carteret from Prichard.
The natives of Free-will Island require further description. It is nearly certain that they are Amphinesian—but whether Protonesian or Micronesian is uncertain. Laying aside, for the present, Madagascar, and the Fiji Islands, we shall find that the more important questions connected with the ethnology of Polynesia are as follows—
1. The affinities with Protonesia.
2. The differences between Polynesia Proper and Micronesia.
3. The extent to which one of these last-named divisions is more Protonesian than the other.
4. The details of the dispersion within the limits of a single division; Micronesia or Polynesia, as the case may be.
5. The general dispersion and distribution.
6. The inferences arising from the existence of the darker coloured, and more Negrito-like population.
7. The date of the Polynesian dispersion.
1. The affinities with Protonesia.—Much has to be done in this department; especially in regard to the indication of similar habits and customs; and in respect to the explanation of undoubted and important points of difference. Indeed, at the present moment, the proof of the Protonesian affinities with Polynesia is almost wholly philological. Still, of its kind, it is satisfactory and scientific. That isolated Malay words were to be found far beyond the proper Malay area was known as early as the time of Reland. By Marsden, Crawfurd, and others, the list was enlarged. The evidence, however, that the grammatical structure of the South-Sea languages was equally Protonesian with the vocabularies, forms the most valuable part of a late publication—the posthumous dissertation of W. Von Humboldt on the Kawi language of Java. In this the Tagala of the Philippines is taken as the sample of a Protonesian grammar in its most elaborate and complex form; a starting-point which explains the structure of the Polynesian and Malagasi tongues in a manner far beyond any amount of elucidation that could have been drawn from the comparatively simple structure of the proper Malayan.
For all questions of this sort the great work just named is the thesaurus and repository. It is also the thesaurus and repository for all facts connected with the history of the Hindu influences on Protonesia.
The other ethnological phænomena, not philological, that naturally belong to this part of the subject, will be noticed under the third head.
2. The differences between Polynesia and Micronesia.—Some of these have been noticed. None, however, have been of equal importance with the difference of language. The exact appreciation of their import is difficult.
The fact of the bow and arrow being either not used at all, or used but little (according to the American explorers in their games, but not in their wars), must be taken as relative, rather than as a simple negative, fact.
a. It is used in Kelænonesia.
b. The parts of Polynesia where it is used (Samoa, De Peyster's Islands, and Tikopia) are the parts nearest to Kelænonesia.
The absence of the tabu in Micronesia is, probably, less of an unqualified fact than it seems to be. In the Proper Polynesian form, and with the Polynesian name, it has probably no existence. In more than one Micronesian island, however, certain objects are held sacred, certain objects are generally prohibited, and certain objects are prohibited under certain conditions.
The Polynesian custom of drinking kava not Micronesian.—What applies to the tabu applies here. Kava, under the name of kava, and prepared, as in Polynesia, from the fermentation of the root of the piper methusticon, is not drunk in Micronesia. Shiaka, however, is a beverage at Ualan (and probably elsewhere); and shiaka is a fermentation of the leaves of the piper methusticon.
The differentiæ, then, between Polynesia Proper and Micronesia are subject to criticism; so much so that instead of saying that a Polynesian custom is wanting in Micronesia (or vice versâ), we should rather say that the Polynesian habit takes a modified form. Above all, the criticism applicable to all negative statements is preeminently applicable here.
Facts of the same sort with the kava, and tabu observations, are to be found in other matters, e.g. the Micronesian sails by the stars, the Polynesian by the flight of birds. The Micronesian canoe is an amphisbæna, i.e. it can be paddled either way, and it is generally simple. The Polynesian, on the other hand, is often double, and almost always an outrigger: so much so that the appearance of Cook's vessels, on the discovery of Tahiti, was hailed by the natives as a fulfilment of one of the prophecies of Mawi; which was to this effect:—That a canoe such as never had been seen by any native before—a canoe without out-riggers, should at some future time visit the island. Now so impossible a thing was a canoe without out-riggers in the eyes of the Tahitians, that the prophecy was laughed to scorn. So in order to gain credence, Mawi launched his wooden dish upon the waters, which swam as he said the strange canoe should swim. Afterwards, when Cook sailed towards the islands, his ship was held to be the prophesied canoe; and at the present moment English vessels have been called Mawi's canoes.
The sum, perhaps, of all the distinctions of the sort already indicated, will give between Polynesia and Micronesia, the difference between a Dutchman and an Englishman; certainly not less—probably more. Probably more, because the very considerable difference in the details of the two mythologies has yet to be added. A brief notice of these may be found in Prichard's chapter on the Marianne Islanders; and this reference is all that our space allows. That the difference, however, of the superstitions is not less (probably greater) than the difference between the languages is a safe conclusion.
The differences in the general moral character of the two divisions lie within a small compass. Coldness of manner in general, less tendency to bloody warfare, less laxity amongst the female part of the population, and less cannibalism, are points wherein the Micronesian character has the advantage. The Micronesian domestic arts also, such as dyeing and weaving, are in advance of the Polynesians.
3. Distribution of Protonesian characteristics.—Which of the two divisions has the most of these? This is partially answered by some of the observations which have just preceded: two other facts answer it more fully.
a. The opinions of MM. Durville and Lesson, as to the connexion of the Micronesians with the Mongolians—without being evidence in favour of the Micronesian branch being the more Protonesian, of the two, this is, certainly, a fact in favour of its being the more continental.
b. The opinion of Le Gobien, one of the early Missionaries, "that the Caroline Islanders came from the Philippines."
4. Details of the distribution within the limits of a single division.—The question as to the particular part of Micronesia, or the particular part of Polynesia, from which the rest of the respective areas was peopled, is so much a part and parcel of the broader question as to the origin of the population en masse, that it belongs, in its entirety, to a latter stage of our inquiries. Still there are a few facts which may be noticed at once; and these apply to Polynesia Proper.
Assuming as a postulate, that the direction of the line of population is from east to west (or vice versâ), from north to south (or vice versâ), &c., it is reasonable to suppose that each isle has been peopled from the one nearest to it, and that exclusively. Hence no second source of population is to be assumed gratuitously. Upon reasonable grounds, however, it may be assumed; e.g. in the Marquesas, it is said, that the difference of dialects for the different islands is scarcely consistent with a population from the Paumoto group exclusively. So also, in the Sandwich Islands, although Nukahiva is the primâ facie source of the population, Tonga elements occur in a degree beyond that in which they are found in Nukahiva itself. Here, also, the inference of a second element is legitimate.
Missionaries and ethnologists, who have applied a sagacious criticism to the problem of the immediate population of Polynesia, have found good reasons for believing that the first archipelago of Polynesia Proper that received a population from some other quarter, and which transmitted it, in different streams elsewhere, was the Samoan or Navigators' Islands. This opinion, the grounds of which may be found in full in the ethnological portion of the United States Exploring Expedition, is, probably, the right one; at any rate it is the proper inference, from the facts known to the investigators.
The last three questions will be better considered after the notice of the Oceanic Negritos of the Kelænonesian area.
THE MALEGASI BRANCH(?).
The consideration of the Malegasi Amphinesians is deferred until we treat upon the ethnology of Africa.
II.
THE KELÆNONESIAN STOCK.[66]
Physical conformation.—Modified Amphinesian Negrito. Skin rough and harsh, black rather than brown or olive. Hair crisp, curly, frizzy, and woolly(?) rather than straight; black. Stature from five feet, or under, to six(?).
Languages.—Not generally admitted to contain a certain proportion of Malay words—but really containing it.
Distribution.—Wholly insular; islands often large.
Area.—New Guinea, New Ireland, Solomon's Isles, Louisiade, New Hebrides, New Caledonia, Australia, Tasmania.
Aliment.—Mammalian fauna considerable. In parts, deficient in ruminants and pachydermata.
Religion.—Paganism.
Social and physical development.—Maritime habits rare and partial. Industrial arts limited. Foreign influences of all sorts inconsiderable.
Divisions.—1. The Papua Branch. 2. The Australian Branch. 3. The Tasmanian Branch(?).
The first question which may present itself to the reader is one as to the difference between the tribes that are now about to be described as Kelænonesian, and those which have already been described as Blacks of the Malay area. Both are really Negrito; and it has already been stated that both may be called so. The answer is—that Negrito is an ethnological, Kelænonesian, a geographical term. The first denotes black, or Black-like oceanic tribes wherever found; the latter black or Black-like tribes when found in definite areas, wherein they form the bulk of the population. Thus, in Amphinesia the Negrito is exceptional, in Kelænonesia normal, and vice versâ.
THE PAPUA BRANCH OF THE KELÆNONESIAN STOCK.
Latitude.—Southern tropic.
Area.—The islands off the north-west corner of New Guinea(?), New Guinea, New Britannia, New Ireland, Admiralty Isles, Louisiade, Solomon's Isles, Vanikoro(?), New Hebrides, New Caledonia, The Fiji Archipelago(?).
Direction.—South-east from New Guinea.
Physical conformation.—Kelænonesians with crisp, curly, frizzy, and woolly(?) rather than straight hair.
Probable origin.—North-eastern Protonesia.
Whether we take the Protonesian islands in the line from Timor to Moa, Sermatty, Timorlaut, the Keys, and the Arrus, or begin with the Northern Moluccas, Gilolo, and Morty, we equally reach the great island of New Guinea; and in each case the ethnological change coincides with the geographical one.
THE ARRU ISLES.
Extract from Mr. Earle.—"I do not here" (i.e., in the Timor group), "include the Arru isles, for there I have no doubt a considerable mixture of Papuan will be found."
The probable source, however, of the Papuan population must be sought for in the parts about Gilolo. Here the distinction between those islands which constitute the more eastern and northern portions of the Moluccas, and those which are considered to belong to New Guinea, is difficult to be drawn. In Guebé, for instance, the natives are described by M. Freycinet as having flat noses and projecting lips. To this it may be added, that their colour is dark. On the other hand, however, the facial angle is from ten to twelve degrees higher than that of the Negrito of New Guinea. Mr. Crawford, who rarely either overlooks or undervalues physical distinctions, adopts Freycinet's notice as descriptive of a second variety of the true Malay type, and suggests the likelihood of there being an intermediate race between the lank and the woolly-haired families.
More immediately, however, in the neighbourhood of New Guinea, we have the islands of Waigiú and Rawak. These are so thoroughly considered by the French geographers as belonging to the Negrito area, that they are called the Isles des Papous. With these, then, the proper Kelænonesian or Negrito area begins.
WAIGIÚ AND RAWAK.
Physical appearance.—According to M. Pellion, in Freycinet—Forehead flat, facial angle 75°, mouth large, nose flattened, beard scanty, lower extremities slender. Hair frizzed and spread out.
According to MM. Quoi and Gaimard—Face broad, frontal and occipital profile flat, vertex elevated, cheek-bones prominent, temporal bones convex, the coronal suture farming a ridge. Nasal bones broad and flat, and alæ nasi spreading. Frontal and maxillary sinuses largely developed. Molar portion of the alveolar arch thick. Transverse diameter of the palate large; anterior palatine foramen large.—Voyage sur L'Uranie et La Physicienne: Zoologie, par Quoy et Gaimard.
Such are the details. An opinion, however, often gives a better notion than a description; and it is the opinion of the French naturalists that the islanders in question are a hybrid breed between the Papua and Protonesian. This speaks to the intermediate character of the physical appearance.
On the other hand, Mr. Earle, admitting both the difference and the likeness, denies that intermixture is the cause of it; the real and undoubted hybrids (which he has seen and describes) being different from the Papuas of the islands.
Under either case, however, we have the phænomenon of a transition in form.
NEW GUINEA.
Physical appearance of the natives of the north-west extremity, i.e., from Waigiú to Dorey.—1st Variety—Undersized, slender, with oval features, and skin more brown than black, hair elaborately frizzed.
Fig. 6.
Fig. 7.
2nd Variety.—Form squat, faces square and angular, cheek-bones prominent, lips thick, skin rough and black, hair simply tied up.
South-western coast.—Portions of the south-western coast of New Guinea were visited by H.M.S. Fly, in 1842-1846, under Captain Blackwood. The notices of Mr. Jukes upon the natives thus seen are short, and chiefly limited to the points wherein they differed or agreed with the islanders of Torres Straits—a portion of the human species that has been described fully for the first time by that writer. Tall and muscular, with the hair tied back behind, sometimes with the head shaved, the skin dark brown or copper-coloured, with ornaments like the people of Erroob, and without out-riggers to their canoes, or with out-riggers on one side only, they spoke a language different from that of the Torres Straits islanders.
In appearance, however, they agreed. Their huts were raised on piles, of moderate dimension, and with small plots of imperfectly-cleared ground around them. The coast was low, and intersected by numerous freshwater channels; and the name given to the country by the Erroobians was Dowdee.
In Darnley Island, a female from the Dowdee coast was seen and described by Mr. Jukes, she was lighter coloured than the Erroobians, being of a yellowish-brown; had the septum narium pierced, and was tattooed, which the females of the island are not.
Masseed.—The natives were "a well-made, fine-looking people, of a different type from the Australians, with muscular limbs and frizzled hair. They had the oval epaulet-like mark on the shoulders, but no other scars. Their hair was dressed into long, narrow, pipe-like curls, smeared with red ochre and grease, and they wore a band round the forehead."—Vol. 1. p. 159.
Murray Island.—Native name maær—Volcanic. Covered with cocoa-nuts, and having a language almost identical with the Erroob.
Darnley Island.—Native name, Erroob—Volcanic. The natives here "were fine, active, well-made fellows, rather above the middle height, of a dark brown or chocolate colour. They had frequently almost handsome faces, aquiline noses, rather broad about the nostril, well-shaped heads, and many had a singularly Jewish cast of features. The hair was frizzled, and dressed into long, pipe-like ringlets, smeared sometimes with red ochre, sometimes left of its natural black colour; others had wigs not to be distinguished from the natural hair, till closely examined. The septum narium was bored, but there was seldom anything worn in it. Most of their ears were pierced all round with small holes, in which pieces of grass were stuck, and in many the lobe was torn and hanging down to the shoulder. Their only scars were the faint oval marks on the shoulder. The hair of their bodies and limbs grew in small tufts, giving the skin a slightly woolly appearance. They were entirely naked, but frequently wore ornaments made of mother-of-pearl shells, either circular or crescent-shaped, hanging round their necks. Occasionally, also, we saw a part of a large shell, apparently a cassis, cut into a projecting shield-shape, worn in front of the groin. The women wore a petticoat round the waist, reaching nearly to the knees, formed of strips of leaves sown on to a girdle. These formed a very efficient covering, as one or two were worn over each other. The grown-up woman's petticoat, or nessoor, was formed, we afterwards found, of the inside part of the large leaves of a bulbous-rooted plant, called by them teggaer, of which, each strip was an inch broad. The girl's nessoor was made of much narrower strips from the inside of the leaf of the plantain, which they call cabbow.
"The younger women were often gracefully formed, with pleasing expressions of countenance, though not what we should consider handsome features. The girls had their hair rather long, but the women had almost all their hair cut short, with a bushy ridge over the top, to which they, singularly enough, give the same name as to pieces of tortoise-shell, namely, kaisu. Many of the elder women had their heads shaved quite smoothly, and we never saw a woman wearing a wig, or with the long ringlets of the men. At our first landing, all the younger women and girls kept in the back-ground, or hid themselves in the bush. On strolling to the back of the huts, we found a small native path, along which we went a short distance till we came to a rude fence in front of a plantain-ground, where the men objected to our going further, and we heard the voices of the women among the trees beyond.
"There were four huts at this spot, all bee-hive shaped, sixteen feet in diameter, and as much in height. They stood in small court-yards, partially surrounded by fences formed of poles of bamboo, stuck upright in the ground, close together, and connected by horizontal rails, to which they were tied by withies. Inside the huts were small platforms covered with mats, apparently bed-places; and over head were hung up bows and arrows, clubs, calabashes, rolls of matting, and bundles apparently containing bones, which they did not like our examining. Outside the huts were one or two small open sheds, consisting merely of a raised flat roof, to sit under in the shade, and a grove of very fine cocoa-nut trees surrounded the houses."
The arms of the natives were the bow and arrow, and in holding the former, especial care was taken that the part of the wood which was uppermost as the tree grew, should be uppermost when used as a weapon. Rough imitations of the human figure were common; but whether they served as idols or not was uncertain. The use of tobacco was general. The language was different from that of the Australians, and the willingness of the people to communicate, greater, also. On the part of the females, the reserve and decorum of manner formed a striking contrast with the very different habits of the Polynesians.
Turtle-backed Island.—Primitive—Cocoa-nut trees; no gum trees—"We came one day on the first symptoms of cultivation of the ground we had ever seen among the aborigines of this part of the world. This was a little circular plot of ground, not more than four or five yards in diameter; but it had evidently been dug, though in a rude manner, and in it were set several young plantain-trees, one or two other plants, and two trailing plants, somewhat like French beans in appearance, which we afterwards found were a kind of yam. The huts on this island had the appearance of a first attempt at a house, having side walls about two feet high, and a gable-shaped roof rising four feet from the ground. They were about ten feet long and six feet wide, made principally of bamboo and thatched with grass and leaves."
Mount Ernest.—Primitive—Cocoa-nuts—Captain Blackwood "landed upon Mount Ernest (807 feet high), and found a group of huts much superior to any we ever saw in Australia, a small grove of cocoa-nuts and another of large bamboos. The natives did not show themselves till after he left the island; and though he spent a night on it he did not suspect their presence at the time. In the huts were found parcels of human bones, ornamented with red ochre, a mask or hideous face made of wood and ornamented with the feathers of some struthious bird, and one or two bundles of small wooden tubes, eight inches long and half an inch in diameter, the use of which we never could discover. The feathers so abundantly used as ornaments on their canoes and other articles by all these islanders, were at first taken by us for emu feathers, as a matter of course, and supposed to be procured from the mainland of Australia. I was afterwards, however, induced to doubt the correctness of that supposition; and on comparing them (in company with my friend Mr. George Bennett, of Sydney,) with the feathers of the emu, in the Sydney Museum of Natural History, we found them to be totally distinct from any emu feathers. They are probably, therefore, feathers of the cassowary or some similar bird, and are derived from New Guinea instead of Australia."
Of all the islands of Torres Straits, this is the one nearest to Australia, whereof the population is apparently derived from New Guinea.
Dalrymple Island.—Native name, Damood—"The huts were by far the neatest and best erections of the kind we had yet seen. Each one occupied a quadrangular space, six to eight feet wide, and from ten to fifteen feet long. They had gable-shaped roofs, eight feet high in the centre, and sloping on each side nearly to the ground. The frame of the house was made of bamboo, and thickly covered or thatched with grass and palm-leaves; the front and back walls were also made of small bamboo sticks, upright and fastened close together, the front wall having a small triangular opening for a door, over which hung loose strips of palm leaf. The door looked into a little court-yard, of about ten feet square, in front of the house, strongly fenced with stout posts and stakes, interlaced with palm leaves and young bamboos, and accessible only by a very narrow opening between two of the strongest posts. In this court-yard was the cooking fire. The different huts and fences were rather irregularly disposed, but placed closely together, so as to leave only narrow winding passages between them. They occupied a space fifty or sixty yards long by ten or fifteen broad. Behind them was the open place of meeting, on the other side of which, against an old tree was a semicircular pile or wall of dugongs' skulls about three feet high, many of which were quite fresh, but others rotting with age; in the middle of this was a conical heap of turtles' skulls in a similar state. There must, altogether have been some hundreds of skulls of each kind of animal.
"When they had conducted us into this open space, several of them seated themselves on small well-made mats, like those used by the Malay nations; and two or three went and brought a large roll of matting, at least twelve feet by six, which they spread for us to sit down on. These really well-made fabrics greatly surprised us after being accustomed to the non-manufacturing Australians. They then brought us young cocoa-nuts, tortoise-shell, and ornaments, and a great barter commenced. They gave us cocoa-nut water without waiting to receive anything for it, but for the other things they would only accept tobacco and iron implements, paying no regard to our beads and gaudy handkerchiefs. They brought us two small bananas or plaintains, but we could not see the trees on which they grew. They suffered Captain Blackwood and myself to stroll about the huts unattended, while they bartered with the boat's crew. We found in the court-yard of one hut, a ship's cabin-door, painted green, and not very old; in another a quaker gun, set upright in the ground, and the men said they saw pieces of 'Queen's line' among them. They had used pieces of iron hoops, and a long iron spike, to open the cocoa-nuts, but these they might have procured from passing vessels. The door and the wooden gun, however, must have come from a wreck.
"At the south end of the huts we came to a building much superior to, and differing from, any of the rest. It was like a Malay house unfinished, or one of their own smaller huts raised on posts to a height of six or seven feet. The point of the gable was at least fifteen feet from the ground, the roof being supported at each end by two stout posts about a yard apart, having their tops ornamented by carved grotesque faces, painted red, white, and black, with much carving and painting below. The lower part, or ground-floor, of this building was open all round except at one end, where a broad, rudely-constructed staircase led to a platform, from which went the entrance to the upper story; this was floored with stout sticks, and at this end covered with mats; this part was also partitioned off from the other by a bamboo screen. Under the roof hung old cocoa-nuts, green boughs, and other similar things, but nothing to give a decided clue to the object of the building. Whether this was their temple, their place for depositing the dead, or a chief's house, we could not make out. We, however, saw no appearance of any chief, or of one man exercising authority among them, neither could we discover any traces of religious belief or observance.[67]
"We now struck off for a walk across the island, one of the natives coming with us as a guide. Many narrow paths crossed in all directions, among shrubs and bushes, some of which resembled laurels and myrtles, in their leaves and modes of growth. Groves of lofty forest trees occurred here and there, with matted creepers and thick jungle. Several trailing briars, with thorns like the European bramble, were observed; and in short, the whole vegetation had a totally different aspect from that of Australia, and a much greater resemblance to that of Europe or Asia."
These minutiæ, in the way of description of particular localities, have a value for two reasons. In the first place they are the only (or nearly the only) notices of the parts in question. In the next, the parts themselves are important as belonging to the quarters where Australia and New Guinea are nearest each other.
In the north of New Guinea, the fact that has most struck inquirers has been the apparently peculiar style of the buildings. These are of vast size, capable of containing whole families, and often raised on piles. Hence, as long as the existence of similar erections in Borneo[68] was unknown, this form of domestic architecture passed for one of the characteristics of the Negritos in opposition to the Malays. At present, its diagnostic value is considerably lowered.
Another industrial art exercised by the Kelænonesians, and (according to most writers), not exercised by the unmixed Amphinesians, is the art of pottery. How far, however, it is general on the one side, or non-existent on the other, remains for further investigations to prove. The qualification denoted by the word unmixed, will be explained when we come to the ethnology of the Fiji Islands.
NEW BRITAIN.
NEW IRELAND.
NEW HANOVER.
SANDWICH ISLE.
ADMIRALTY ISLANDS.
HERMIT ISLANDS.
These islands have been mentioned in detail for the sake of indicating the probable line of population—first towards the east, and next (backwards) to the north-west. Where any of the natives of these islands differ from one another, or from the New Guinea people, it is in having stronger limbs, lighter-coloured skins, hair more or less woolly, and faces more or less angular. All the differences, however, lie within a small compass. All the tribes, too, seem to agree in chewing the betel-nut, going naked (or nearly naked), and painting their bodies.
BOUKA.
BOUGAINVILLE ISLAND.
Natives.—Heads large, faces flat, chin prominent, mouth large, lips thin. Muscles well-marked.—Labillardière.[69]
SOLOMON'S ISLANDS.
Vocabulary.—From Port Praslin.—Voyage de l'Astrolabe.
NITENDI, INDENDI, INDENNI.
Name.—Native.
Synonyms.—Santa Cruz, Egmont's Island.
Direction.—Nearly due east (not south) of Christoval, the most southern of the Solomon Isles.
VANIKORO.(?)[70]
Description from Durville.—"We have already said that the inhabitants of Vanikoro belong to the black race of the Great Ocean. They may be considered as a variety of that race of blacker colour than others, and of a conformation approaching more nearly to that of proper Negroes. They are generally small and rather meagre. What is most remarkable in their shape is an appearance of lateral compression of the temples, produced by a very arched forward protuberance of the middle part of the forehead. The hair does not advance low on the forehead, and the care taken to throw it back renders all these parts very visible. The cheek-bones being salient give the face a greater developement than that of the cranium. Another character not less remarkable is the small projection of the nasal bones, which gives the nose an appearance of being flattened at its root, and to the countenance a singular resemblance to that of the orang utang. Owing to this the orbital arch, itself prominent, appears still more projecting. The nostrils are wide, and are rendered still more so by the custom of wearing a stick fixed transversely through the septum narium. The lower jaw is not remarkable. The form of the forehead causes the facial angle to be not particularly acute. The lobes of the ears are perforated by a hole large enough to pass the hand through it. The eyes are large, oval, and deeply set; the balls salient, round, and resembling in form and colour those of the Negro. The lips are large, the chin small. The lower extremities are in some instances very lean, but tolerably fleshy in others. The calf is rather high, and the heel is in many individuals remarkably projecting, a character not existing in the Polynesian race to the same extent. This is another approximation to the Negro. The hair is crisp, but although not cut, it never becomes bushed and matted. They are nearly naked. The use of the betel-nut destroys their teeth, and gives them a red tinge round the mouth. The women are horribly ugly; the old men are bald."
The position of Nitendi and Vanikoro gives them interest.
a. Although not lying due south-east of the Solomon Isles, and due north-east of the next Archipelago, they form the insular continuity between the two groups.
b. Vanikoro is the Kelænonesian Island, which, by its vicinity, gives to[71] Tikopia, which is Polynesian, its peculiarity of distribution.
Lastly, although the fact be not ethnological, the Vanikoro cluster is the locality where La Perouse perished.
THE NEW HEBRIDES.
Particular islands—
ISLE OF LEPERS.
Synonym.—Australia del Espiritu Santo.
MALLICOLLO.
For each of these islands we have special evidence—that of Bougainville and Cook—to the general Negrito character of the natives. In the voyages of the latter the ill-favoured monkey-like appearance of the Mallicollese is prominently mentioned.
API.
Direction.—Continuation from Mallicollo to—
SANDWICH ISLE.
Direction.—Continuation from Api to—
ERROMANGO.
Erromango Native as described by Hales.—"He was about five feet high, slender and long limbed. He had close woolly hair, and retreating arched forehead, short and scanty eyebrows, and small snub-nose, thick lips (especially the upper), a retreating chin, and that projection of the jaws and lower part of the face, which is one of the distinctive characteristics of the Negro race. His limbs and body were covered with fine short hairs, made conspicuous by their light colour. On his left side were many small round cicatrices burnt into the skin, which he said was a mode of marking common amongst his people. Placed in a crowd of African blacks, there was nothing about him by which he could have been distinguished from the rest."—Vol. 6. p. 44.
TANNA.
A grammar of the Tanna language, the only one of the Papua division that has ever been sufficiently known to Europeans, was seen by Dr. Prichard—
"I have seen a grammar of the language of Tanna in manuscript, written by the Rev. T. Heath, a missionary, who resided in that island. It is much to be regretted that this work has not been published. From this grammar it appears that the language of Tanna is entirely distinct in character from the Polynesian. It abounds with inflections and has four numbers, viz. singular, dual, trinal, there being a particular form in the verb when three persons are spoken of, which is distinct from the plural."
ANNATOM.
The direction of the Kelænonesian Islands now changes from south-east to south-west.
THE LOYALTY ISLES.
NEW CALEDONIA.
With a general character like that of the islanders already mentioned, Cook states that they are better-looking than the Tanna people, and that they bury their dead like the Australians. La Billardière adds, that they are like the Van Diemen's Land natives.
The whole of the Papua area will not have been exhausted until we return to the parts described by Mr. Jukes, on the south-eastern side of New Guinea. These lead, in the way of geographical continuity, to—
LOUISIADE.
Of this Island I have seen no definite account. Such notices, however, as I have met with, make the population what we should expect it to be—Papua-Kelænonesian.
THE FIJI (FEEJEE) ISLANDS.(?)
Situation.—Eastward of the New Hebrides, the most eastern part of Kelænonesia. Westward of the Tonga Isles, the most western part of Polynesia.
The physical conformation of the Fiji natives is Negrito as well as Polynesian.
The language of the Fiji natives is more Polynesian than Negrito.
The social institutions, manners, and customs of the Fiji natives are partly Polynesian, partly Negrito, and partly neither one nor the other.
These statements, combined with their geographical position, give importance and prominence to the Fiji group of islands. Fortunately our information concerning them is not altogether disproportionate to the difficulties that they introduce. The language has been investigated by Mr. Norriss, whose trust-worthy opinion, adopted in the present work, may be found, in extenso, in the 5th volume of Prichard.
The moral and physical features are exhibited in the following extract from the American Exploring Expedition:—
"The Feejeeans are a people of the medium stature, with nearly as great variety of figure as is found in nations of the Caucasian race. The chiefs are usually tall and well formed, owing probably to the care taken of their nurture, and to the influence of blood. The common people are somewhat inferior, yet there are fewer small and ungainly figures among them than among the lower orders of Europeans. On the other hand, the Feejeeans contrast very unfavourably with their neighbours of the Polynesian stock. They lack the full rounded limbs and swelling muscles which give such elegance to the forms of the Friendly and Navigators Islanders. They are generally large-jointed, and the calf is small in proportion to the thigh. The neck is also too short for due proportion, and the whole figure wants elegance and softness of outline. Their movements and attitudes are, consequently, less easy and graceful than those of the Polynesians. They are, nevertheless, a strong race; their war-clubs are ponderous, and are wielded with great power, and they can carry very heavy burdens.
"The Feejeean physiognomy differs from that of the Polynesians, not so much in any particular feature, as in a general debasement of the whole, and a decided approximation towards the forms characteristic of the Negro race. The head is usually broad in the occipital region (which they consider a great beauty), and narrows towards the top and in front,—the forehead, though often of good height, appearing compressed at the sides. The eyes are black and set rather deep, but never obliquely. The nose is not large, and is generally a good deal flattened; the nostrils are often larger laterally than forwards, and the nose is then much depressed at the upper part between the eyes. The mouth is wide, and the lips, particularly the upper one, thick. The chin varies, but is most commonly short and broad. The jaws are larger, and the lower part of the face far more prominent than in the Malay race. The cheek-bones, also, project forwards as in the Negro, and not laterally, as in the Mongol variety; notwithstanding which, the narrowness of the forehead at the temples gives a greater width to the face at the malar portion than elsewhere. The whole face is longer and thinner than among the Polynesians. The hair is neither straight nor woolly, but may be properly designated as frizzled. When allowed to grow without interference, it appears in numerous spiral locks, eight or ten inches in length, spreading out on all sides of the head. Sometimes these curls are seen much longer, falling down to the middle of the back. It is, however, very seldom allowed to grow naturally. The young boys have it cut very close, and sometimes shaved to the skin, like the Tahitians. In girls, before marriage, it is allowed to grow long, and is coloured white by washing it with a solution of lime, except a portion around the crown, which is plastered with a black pigment. After marriage, it is either cut to the length of one or two inches, or frizzled out like that of the men: in both cases it is frequently soaked in colouring liquids, either red or black. The men in general have their hair dressed so as to form an immense semiglobular mass, covering the top, back, and sides of the head. The arrangement of this chevelure is performed for the chiefs by professional barbers, and is a work of great labour. Six hours are sometimes occupied in dressing a head; and the process is repeated at intervals of two or three weeks. It is probably to guard against disarranging this work that the piece of bamboo which is placed under the neck in sleeping is employed, instead of the ordinary pillow. For the same purpose the natives usually wear, during the day, a sala or kerchief, of very thin gauze-like paper cloth, which is thrown over the hair and tied closely around the head, so as to have very much the appearance of a turban.
"The colour of the Feejeeans is a chocolate-brown, or a hue mid-way between the jet-black of the Negro, and the brownish yellow of the Polynesian. There are, however, two shades very distinctly marked, like the blonde and brunette complexions in the white race; besides all the intermediate gradations. In one of these shades the brown predominates, and in the other the copper. They do not belong to distinct castes or classes, but are found indiscriminately among all ranks and in all tribes. The natives are aware of the distinction, and call the lighter coloured people, Viti ndamundamu, "red Feejeeans;" but they do not seem to regard it as anything which requires or admits of explanation. These red-skinned natives must not be confounded with the Tonga-Viti, or individuals of mixed Tongan and Feejeean blood, of whom there are many on some parts of the group."
Their ferocious and suspicious character is described in very unfavourable terms; to which it may be added, that their cannibalism is undoubted, and that they are skilful in the art of pottery—a fact of which the import has already been noticed.
The problem that is suggested by the intermediate character of the Fijis is manifest: it is the question as to whether we have intermixture or transition. Further notice, however, of this point, will stand over until the next divisions have been disposed of.
THE AUSTRALIAN BRANCH OF THE KELÆNONESIAN STOCK.
Area.—Australia.
Physical appearance.—Kelænonesians with hair generally straight, or waved, sometimes frizzy.
Fauna.—Absence of ruminants and pachydermata.
Divisions.—1. Australians. 2. Tasmanians(?).
The differences between the different Australian languages have long been known and definitely insisted upon.
Less marked differences in frame and physiognomy between the different Australian tribes, have also been long known and definitely insisted upon.
Differences of customs and manners have been similarly noticed and considered. Notwithstanding all this, however, there is no opinion more generally admitted than the fundamental unity of the Australian population from Swan River to Botany Bay, from the Gulf of Carpentaria to Bass's Straits. Captain Grey, Schurman, Teichelman, and all who have devoted average attention to the language, have given their evidence to this; and they have supplied facts of various kinds, of their own collection, towards the proof of it. No man is less inclined to disturb this view than the present writer. In the Fourth Number of the Philological Transactions,[72] he enumerated the whole of the vocabularies then known to him, and added some short lists of the words wherein the more distant ones agreed with each other. Thus a scanty vocabulary from the Gulf of Carpentaria, which had seventeen words in common with one from Endeavour River, had three (perhaps four) identical.
| ENGLISH. | CARPENTARIAN. | ENDEAVOUR RIVER. |
|---|---|---|
| Eye | meal | meul. |
| Hair | marra | morye. |
| Fingers | mingel | mungal bah. |
As the Endeavour River was the nearest point to the Gulf of Carpentaria from which we possessed a vocabulary, the circumstance that no more than three words out of seventeen coincided, was a good measure of the extent to which the Australian dialects exhibited the phænomenon of difference. Still the likeness, as far as it went, was a fact to be admitted on the other side. Now, if we go round the whole coast of Australia, and compare the vocabulary from one point with the vocabulary of the next known locality to it, we shall find that, allowing for difference of distance, the similarity or dissimilarity is, there or thereabouts, the similarity or dissimilarity between the two vocabularies just mentioned, i.e., that the former is shown by the identity between a few fundamental terms, the latter by a discrepancy between the majority.
The comparison, however, of contiguous dialects—gives but one series of facts. It merely shows that we can go all round the island, and find that, of three dialects compared, the last shall have a partial agreement with the second; by no means showing that such (or, indeed, that any) similarity shall exist between the third and first. Nevertheless, for philological reasoning, such a similarity as the last is required. This we get at by two methods,—firstly, by comparing the vocabularies of distant points; secondly, by taking one, or more, particular vocabularies, and comparing them with some, or all, of the others en masse. By each of these processes, applied to Australian languages, we arrive at the same conclusion. The second will be considered in the sequel. A simple instance of the first is, that out of sixty words from Jervis's Bay, compared with sixty from Gulf St. Vincent, the following coincide:
| ENGLISH. | JERVIS'S BAY. | GULF ST. VINCENT. |
|---|---|---|
| Forehead | holo | ioullo. |
| Man | mika | meio. |
| Milk | awanham | ammenhalo. |
| Tongue | talen | talein. |
| Hand | maramale | malla. |
| Nipple | amgnann | amma. |
| Nails | berenou | pere. |
Premising now, that (as all the published grammars exhibit an agglutinate structure) the evidence taken from the grammatical character of the Australian languages is confirmatory rather than derogatory to the evidence taken from the comparison of vocabularies, we come to a fourth class of facts, viz., the extent to which two or more Australian dialects agree or disagree with some third language or class of languages; and as this involves the still more general question of the external relations of the Australian languages as a class, its consideration will be deferred for the present. At present it is sufficient to say that it is affirmative to a fundamental unity of tongue.
The kind of evidence from which we predicate this unity, is evidently of a cumulative kind; and it is merely the statement of its being of this sort that has been laid before the reader: the details would require either a larger volume than the present, or a special monograph. It may also be added, that as the Australian tribes differ more from one another in language than in any other respect, it is the philological portion of their ethnography that presents the most difficulties.
In respect to their manners, morals, and social customs, the similarity, lying less below the surface than it does with respect to their languages, has drawn less attention on the part of investigators. Still the way in which it shows itself is the same. Two neighbouring tribes shall differ more than two distant ones: so that similar customs shall re-appear in distant localities.
As to the physical conformation of the Australians, I believe that it is so uniform throughout the island, that it has never been made the basis of a division;—indeed I am inclined to believe that (like the dissimilarity of language) the similarity of external appearance has been over-rated; nevertheless, it is certain that there are deviations from the general slim and underfed condition of the body; and (what is of more importance), from the usual straight character of the hair. Such is the case, according to Mr. Earle, with the trepang fishers of Arnhem Bay who are bulky men, with broad chests, the lower extremities being but indifferently formed, and the crooked shin being common. Then as to the hair—with the Jaako, or Croker Island tribe, it is coarse and bushy (the whiskers being thick, and curly) and so short, crisp, and abundant about the breast and shoulders as to conceal the skin; whereas on the other hand, the Oitbo, or Bidjenelumbo, have straight silky hair, arched eyebrows, fair complexion, and occasionally the oblique eye.
The lowest form of humanity has been sought for in Australia, whilst the physical condition of the country and the absence of those animals and herbs that supply human food, have made it a likely quarter to exhibit it. Whether, however, so low a rank in scale of human development be, upon the whole, a fact or exaggeration, it is certain that, upon several points, there has been considerable overstatement. One sample of this sort is the accredited opinion as to the absolute incapacity of the Australian of forming even the rudest elements of a mythology—an opinion which engenders the notion that their intellects are too sluggish for even the evolution of a superstition.
That this was not the case was indicated some years back by Captain Gray, and that there is some exponent of the religious feeling in the shape of a rude form of shamanism, has been shown in the account of the American Exploring Expedition; where the first[73] published details of the Australian mythology, if so it may be called, are to be found—"It is not true, however, as has been frequently asserted, that the natives have no idea of a Supreme Being, although they do not allow this idea to influence their actions. The Wellington Tribes, at least, believe in the existence of a Deity called Baiamai, who lives on an island beyond the great sea to the East. His food is fish, which come up to him from the water when he calls to them. Some of the natives consider him the maker of all things, while others attribute the creation of the world to his son Burambin. They say of him, that Baiamai spoke, and Burambin came into existence. When the missionaries first came to Wellington, the natives used to assemble once a year, in the month of February, to dance and sing a song in honour of Baiamai. This song was brought there from a distance by strange natives, who went about teaching it. Those who refused to join in the ceremony were supposed to incur the displeasure of the god. For the last three years the custom has been discontinued. In the tribe on Hunter's River, there was a native famous for the composition of these songs or hymns; which, according to Mr. Threlkeld, were passed from tribe to tribe, to a great distance, till many of the words became at last unintelligible to those who sang them.
"Dararwirgal, a brother of Baiamai, lives in the far west. It was he who lately sent the small-pox among the natives, for no better reason than that he was vexed for want of a tomahawk. But now he is supposed to have obtained one, and the disease will come no more. The Bálumbal are a sort of angels, who are said to be of a white colour, and to live on a mountain at a great distance to the south-east: their food is honey, and their employment is to do good 'like the Missionaries.'
"It is possible that some of these stories owe their origin to intercourse with the whites, though the great unwillingness which the natives always evince to adopt any customs or opinions from them, militates against such a supposition. But a being who is, beyond question, entirely the creation of Australian imagination, is one who is called in the Wellington dialect, Wandong; though the natives have learned from the whites to apply to him the name of devil. He is an object not of worship, but merely of superstitious dread. They describe him as going about under the form of a black man of superhuman stature and strength. He prowls at night through the woods around the encampments of the natives, seeking to entrap some unwary wanderer, whom he will seize upon; and, having dragged him to his fire, will there roast and devour him. They attribute all their afflictions to his malevolence. If they are ill, they say Wandong has bitten them. No one can see this being but the núrjargir, or conjurors, who assert that they can kill him, but that he always returns to life. He may, however, be frightened away by throwing fire at him (though this statement seems inconsistent with that respecting his invisibility), and no native will go out at night without a firebrand to protect him from the demon.
"There is some difference in the accounts given of this character. By the tribe of Hunter's River he is called Koin or Koen. Sometimes, when the Blacks are asleep, he makes his appearance, seizes upon one of them and carries him off. The person seized endeavours in vain to cry out, being almost strangled. At daylight, however, Koin disappears, and the man finds himself conveyed safely to his own fireside. From this it would appear that the demon is here a sort of personification of the nightmare,—a visitation to which the natives, from their habits of gorging themselves to the utmost when they obtain a supply of food, must be very subject.
"At the Muruya River the devil is called Túlugal. He was described to us, by a native, as a black man of great stature, grizzled with age, who has very long legs, so that he soon overtakes a man; but very short arms, which brings the contest nearer an equality. This goblin has a wife who is much like himself; but still more feared, being of a cruel disposition, with a cannibal appetite, especially for young children. It would hardly be worth while to dwell upon these superstitions, but that they seem to characterise so distinctly the people, at once timid, ferocious, and stupid, who have invented them.
"Their opinions with regard to the soul vary: some assert that the whole man dies at once, and nothing is left of him; others are of opinion that his spirit still survives, but upon this earth, either as a wandering ghost, or in a state of metempsychosis, animating a bird or other inferior creature. But the most singular belief is one which is found at both Port Stephens and Swan River, places separated by the whole breadth of the Australian continent. This is, that white people are merely blacks who have died, passed to a distant country, and having there undergone a transformation, have returned to their original homes. When the natives see a white man who strongly resembles one of their deceased friends, they give him the name of the dead person, and consider him to be actually the same being."
It is difficult to take an exact measure of the extent to which one superstition is grosser than another;—hence, all that can be said respecting the Pantheon, of which Baiamai and Wandong are portions, is that it is as low in the scale of mythologies as any that has fallen under the notice of the writer. Still, those of the Blacks of the Malaccan Peninsula, of Madagascar, and of parts of Africa, are much on the same level.
No sound of s in the Australian languages.—The distribution of the different elementary articulations over the different languages of the earth, has not been sufficiently studied to enable us to predicate anything concerning the absence or presence of particular sounds, as a measure of the perfection or imperfection of human speech; nevertheless, it is clear that the power of pronouncing a number of elementary sounds sufficient to allow of that difference between word and word, which is necessary for clear and precise language, is one of the great conditions of articulate and distinct speech; and hence, a language of which the elementary sounds are too few, or one wherein the power of combining them to their full extent, is wanting, is the exponent of a low degree of humanity. Still more so would one be wherein a large proportion of the sounds is inarticulate—like the sound of the letter h in English, which is a mere breathing rather than a true articulation. In respect to this latter class of facts, the admission of inarticulate elements of speech, there are two only in the whole range of language; one of which is so common as to occur in almost all the dialects of the world, the other is so rare as to be found in one class of tongues only. These are, the power of h as already stated, and the peculiar click which will be noticed in the languages of Southern Africa.
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.
Fig. 8.
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]