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.