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.